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Feeling a bit shaky in Oldsmar

Nielsen Media Research workers are startled when their buildings shake. What was that?

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published March 2, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Atoyia Deans] Nielsen's buildings on Brooker Creek Boulevard in Oldsmar are some of the most hurricane-ready in the region.

OLDSMAR - Dr. Ryan, said the reporter, I'm trying to check with someone who might know whether an earthquake happened in Oldsmar yesterday.

"Oh," said Dr. Jeffrey Ryan, a University of South Florida geologist. "Fascinating. Let me look."

Not an unsteady place, Florida is an unlikely place for an earthquake.

But workers in the Nielsen Media Research complex were startled Wednesday when the buildings shook about 3:30 p.m.

"It was mostly people just being jolted," said Joe Houston, 57, who works for a contractor in Nielsen's mail room. "And enough of a jolt that people were alarmed by it. They are still talking about it today."

Nielsen's buildings on Brooker Creek Boulevard are some of the most hurricane-ready in the region. Local emergency officials have even asked to use one of the buildings as a base in a catastrophic storm.

"There was window-rattling and things like that," confirmed Gary Holmes, a Nielsen spokesman in New York. "It's unknown what caused the shaking."

A sinkhole? A sonic boom? An earthquake?

An earthquake?

"It would be more unlikely for it to occur there than the one in the Gulf of Mexico" in September, said Ryan, looking at up-to-date records on the U.S. Geological Survey's Web site.

"California, Arkansas, Arkansas," the professor said as he scrolled through a list of recent temblors. "You can sort of tell the shaky places in our country."

Nothing in Florida.

Adding to the mystery, Oldsmar Mayor Jerry Beverland was a street away from the Nielsen buildings when the shaking happened. He didn't feel it.

Had a sinkhole opened up, he would have heard about it.

"Every once in a while," offered the mayor, when jets "from MacDill break the sound barrier, you'd think you were in a slight earthquake."

I thought I would check to see if you had any planes in the area, the reporter asked Lt. Omar Villarreal, MacDill's spokesman.

MacDill Air Force Base doesn't have any planes that break the sound barrier, Villarreal said.

"I checked with my operation guys. They said there were no planes from MacDill in that area," Villarreal said a few minutes later. "Sorry I couldn't help you."

Some jets do soar through on their way to Avon Park Air Force Range, Villarreal said.

And perhaps that might have solved the mystery.

"That was a sonic boom yesterday," the mayor said, calling back near deadline. "I've had two people tell me that. Including my wife."

Jose Cardenas can be reached at jcardenas@sptimes.com or 727 445-4224.

[Last modified March 1, 2007, 23:50:13]