How common are quakes like Saturday’s near Glenwood Springs?

A small earthquake broke out near Glenwood Springs this weekend; we wanted to dig deeper into the possible impacts and the greater context of understanding the occurrence of earthquakes in Colorado.

The 2.7 magnitude quake happened just after 1 a.m. Saturday at Flat Tops, which is 18 miles north of Glenwood Springs.

It’s unlikely that an earthquake of this size caused any damages. Of course, damages depend heavily upon the strength of a building’s infrastructure. It normally takes an earthquake of a five or six-point magnitude to cause damages here in the U.S., according to the USGS.

It’s very common to see earthquakes of this magnitude in Colorado. In fact, it’s a very typical occurrence in nearly every state.

However, because Colorado is far from the large plate tectonic boundaries that are near areas like Japan, Alaska and California, these earthquakes in Colorado are not as significant. Usually, minor earthquakes in Colorado are typically caused by normal stress from those distant tectonic plates.