(WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com) — For Pennsylvania the United States Geological Survey has tracked 370 earthquakes, the earliest in 1938.

The nearest earthquake to Erie was in Middleboro (now McKean) in 1990. It was a magnitude of 2.5. For comparison, on Monday, Feb. 6, an earthquake in Buffalo was a magnitude 3.8 and was felt by residents but caused little damage, while another earthquake that same day impacting Turkey and Syria was a magnitude 7.8 and had killed an estimated more than 1,500 people.

Adamsville in Crawford County had a 4.5 magnitude earthquake in 1998. And Conneaut, Ohio had a pair of earthquakes in 2007 (magnitude 2.7 and 2.1).

“The biggest I’ve ever heard of was around a 4.7 magnitude back in the 1940s in Buffalo,” said Scott McKenzie, assistant professor of geology and paleontology director at Mercyhurst University. “My grandfather used to tell me about it. It actually cracked his chimney and he had to have someone come in and repair it so it didn’t completely collapse.”

Fault lines exist throughout the region. Fault lines are essentially cracks in the earth, McKenzie explained, and pressure builds up in the cracks. When suddenly the pressure releases, an earthquake happens. Most earthquakes happen in the earth’s crust. But “every once in a while” an earthquake can begin in the mantle of the earth (a semi-liquid beneath the crust), McKenzie said.

“What happens around here are small, incremental earthquakes that are releasing the pressure so hopefully we’re not going to have a big one — this area is not noted for large earthquakes,” McKenzie said.

Earthquakes smaller than a magnitude 3 may not even be noticed by most people, especially if they’re walking around, he added. “If they’re seated at a desk in a tall building, they might feel it a lot more than at ground level.”

As for the Feb. 6 Buffalo earthquake, McKenzie learned about it while watching the morning news. He looked up the earthquake when he got to work and noted it was “not horrendously large.” It wasn’t even mentioned during his class later that morning: “We were doing meteorites and things like that today, which incidentally can cause an earthquake if a big enough one hits.”

The Buffalo earthquake came on the same morning as the massive Turkey earthquake. McKenzie said that the timing of the earthquakes was coincidental.

“The earthquake in Turkey and Syria — that was a bigger one. It was a very damaging earthquake and those people are going to need a lot of help,” he said.