[JimSEA]

I know there is a lot of interest here on FR about earthquakes in general and about the potentially massive New Madrid fault system which has produced huge quakes in the past. This article provides some hints about faults which only meaningfully slip every few hundred to thousands of years.

[GunHoardingCapitalist]

It must have been cause by all the fracking back in those days.

[A CA Guy]

We are in southern California a thousand miles away from the Yellowstone super volcano, what could go wrong?

[M Kehoe]

Good afternoon.

Which was first, the New Madrid fault, or the Miss. River?

5.56mm

[logi_cal869]

Tinsley said he plans to continue collecting earthquake records from caves in the central and eastern United States for as long as his knees hold out.

Must have Zerocare or VA.../s

[onedoug]

How about seismic tomography?

[COBOL2Java]

Damaged stalactites called soda straws fell from cave ceilings during the 1811 and 1812 earthquakes, and also around the years A.D. 1450, A.D. 900 and 2350 B.C. Less reliable results also suggest quakes around the years A.D. 1640 and A.D. 300 — more data from additional caves are needed to confirm these earthquakes, Tinsley said.

Early results from caves in southern Indiana, near the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone, and in Tennessee, in the East Tennessee Seismic Zone, suggest earthquakes are fewer and far between in these regions. The damaged cave growths hint at strong quakes hitting every 6,000 years, Tinsley said.

Tinsley noted that the cave evidence is only a circumstantial argument for ancient earthquakes. That's because floods and erosion can also collapse many cave rocks at the same time. Even a blundering bat can knock down the delicate soda straws, he said. Humans have also altered caves in the central and eastern United States for thousands of years.

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Very interesting!