Small quake on the New Madrid 3.0

[HeeBGBz]

Magnitude 3.0
Date-Time Monday, June 20, 2005 at 02:00:32 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
Sunday, June 19, 2005 at 9:00:32 PM
= local time at epicenter

Location 36.930°N, 88.980°W
Depth 16.6 km (10.3 miles)
Region WESTERN KENTUCKY
Distances 2 km (1 miles) SW (224°) from Blandville, KY
7 km (4 miles) NNE (23°) from Bardwell, KY
10 km (6 miles) ESE (113°) from Wickliffe, KY
35 km (22 miles) WSW (243°) from Paducah, KY
150 km (93 miles) WNW (286°) from Clarksville, TN
219 km (136 miles) SSE (149°) from St. Louis, MO

[HeeBGBz]

1. Whoops! There's another one!

This one was 3.5 in the same area about an hour ago.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Maps/US2/36.38.-90.-88.html

[HeeBGBz]

2. Several more small tremblors last night and this am

There seems to be a bit of action on the Braggadacio monitor right now.

[smirkymonkey]

3. Isn't New Madrid overdue for a major quake?

[SaintLouisBlues]

4. It's overdue for a 6.0-6.5.

Hopefully we will not see the multiple 8.0-9.0's from almost two hundred years ago.

Scientists think the really big ones hit every 500-1000 years.

[Mutley]

5. So, what is going on with the recent 'outbreak' of eathquakes

in the states recently? Part of the overall pattern, or something else?

[smirkymonkey]

6. More on New Madrid

Seismic Activity in Country's Center Sparks Debate
- After California Quakes, Attention Turns to New Madrid Zone -

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/06/22/new.madrid.quake/

"Doomsayers have warned about the Pacific Coast for years. But only a few have raised concerns about an area with the potential to be more dangerous than California -- the New Madrid seismic zone in the center of the country.

It's a 120-mile-long system of three to five faults stretching from 40 miles northwest of Memphis to southern Illinois, near Cairo.

"The system is capable of producing a quake near 4.0 magnitude every three years," said Gary Patterson, a geologist and information services director for the Center for Earthquake and Research Information in Memphis, Tennessee. "And they'll cause minimal damage."

But New Madrid already has spawned four earthquakes this year of similar size, along with nearly 100 smaller quakes. Patterson said such activity may or may not be the precursor to a much larger quake."

It states that the 1811 quake on that fault was felt over 2 MILLION square miles away - they felt it in Boston!! Apparently, this type of fault can cause much more destruction that the plate boundaries on the Pacific coast. Maybe the rapture is coming after all! ;)

[Mutley]

7. Wow!

So this could be a precursor to something bigger...

[HeeBGBz]

8. New Madrid in the news lately

Earthquake Researchers Say Severe New Madrid Quakes Still Possible

snip

MEMPHIS, TN - University of Memphis researchers say the New Madrid seismic zone remains under enough strain to unleash devastating earthquakes.

The Memphis research team's study published in the journal Nature rebuts the conclusions of a Northwestern University researcher's 1998 report that the dangers of the seismic zone had been "vastly overstated."

snip

The study showed that the crust of the earth is "deforming" or pressing in on portions of the seismic zone a few millimeters anually.

[HeeBGBz]

9. Another quake - this time in Southern Illinois

Magnitude 2.8
Date-Time Monday, June 27, 2005 at 15:46:51 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time
Monday, June 27, 2005 at 10:46:51 AM local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 37.61N 89.49W
Depth 5.0 kilometers
Region ILLINOIS
Reference 30 km (15 miles) WSW of Carbondale, Illinois
35 km (20 miles) N of Cape Girardeau, Missouri
135 km (85 miles) SSE of St. Louis, Missouri
245 km (150 miles) S of SPRINGFIELD, Illinois

[Eloriel]

10. Yes, they say the severity of the damage would be due to the

difference in the type of soil, etc. I don't know the details, but it's fascinating. I grew up near St. Louis, so the New Madrid fault wasn't far from me at all.

I was always fascinated by one account of the time (or so I heard) that the Mississippi was made to flow BACKWARDS during that really big earthquake. If you've ever seen the Mississippi at that part of its length, that would be quite a sight. It definitely relocated parts of it. And that's along a really wide flood plain, too, btw. 20 - 30 miles wide at St. Louis, and about that much downstream, or so I'd think. Very flat, very fertile land.