Colorado Earthquake. The largest earthquake to strike Colorado in almost 50 years has shaken hundreds of people near the New Mexico border.The magnitude 5.3 earthquake was recorded at about 11:46 p.m. MDT Monday about nine miles southwest of Trinidad, Colo., and about 180 miles south of Denver, according to the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. The quake followed two smaller ones that hit the area earlier in the day.

The quake is the largest in Colorado since a magnitude 5.3 was recorded in 1967, U.S. Geological Service geophysicist Paul Earl said. That one was centered in the area of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal just northeast of downtown Denver.

According to the USGS website: "The magnitude 5.3 tremor caused the most serious damage at Northglenn, where concrete pillar supports to a church roof were weakened, and 20 windows were broken. An acoustical ceiling and light fixtures fell at one school. Many homeowners reported wall, ceiling, floor, patio, sidewalk, and foundation cracks. Several reported basement floors separated from walls. Extremely loud, explosivelike earth noises were heard. Damage on a lesser scale occurred throughout the area."

A few homes have been damaged and deputies were investigating reports of rockslides along a highway, a Las Animas County Sheriff's Office dispatcher said.

"I thought maybe a car had hit my house," 70-year-old Trinidad resident Nadine Baca said. "Then I called to my son and he said it was the third (quake) today."

Another USGS geophysicist, Shengzao Chen, said the information center had received calls from more than 70 people in Trinidad and several dozen people in New Mexico who felt the shaking. More than 30 people in Colorado Springs, about 130 miles north of Trinidad, also reported feeling the quake, he said.

Source: 9news