2 small earthquakes recorded in 2 Shelby County villages northwest of Dayton

SHELBY COUNTY — Two small earthquakes were recorded in two Shelby County villages on Tuesday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center.

At 6:23 p.m., a magnitude 1.8 earthquake hit just northwest of Jackson Center.

At 6:41 p.m., a magnitude 2.4 earthquake struck northeast of Anna.

There was no reported damage from either event.

On March 9, 1937, an earthquake hit Anna, 45 miles north of Dayton. The village lies directly on the Greenville Fault, which extends from Toledo and south through Anna, Greenville, Cincinnati, through Kentucky to the Tennessee border, according to the May 1985 issue of Ohio Magazine.

In the 1930s, 23 earthquakes were recorded in Anna. Eight occurred in March 1937 in a series that started March 2 at 9:45 a.m., according to the Department of Geological Survey.

Anna villagers were not the only ones affected by this earthquake. Office workers in Dayton and even the animals in the Cincinnati Zoo all felt the earth move. In all, the quake centered in Anna was felt across six states. The village of Anna became the spotlight of media attention, even making front page headlines in The New York Sun that afternoon, Ohio Magazine reported.

On March 9, 1937, a magnitude 6.0 hit Anna and reportedly was felt across 15,000 square miles, in places as far away as Milwaukee.

The current building that houses the Anna Middle School and Anna High School is the structure built as a result of the 197 earthquakes, according to a 1997 report produced for Anna Local Schools, which said the March 9 temblor gave the village the permanent nickname “The Earthquake Capital of Ohio.”

Cox Media Group