Scientists find likely cause for recent southeast U.S. earthquakes

AGU Blogosphere ^ | 5/5/2016 | Ilipuma

[JimSEA]

The southeastern United States should, by all means, be relatively quiet in terms of seismic activity. It’s located in the interior of the North American Plate, far away from plate boundaries where earthquakes usually occur. But the area has seen some notable seismic events – most recently, the 2011 magnitude-5.8 earthquake near Mineral, Virginia that shook the nation’s capital.

Now, scientists report in a new study a likely explanation for this unusual activity: pieces of the mantle under this region have been periodically breaking off and sinking down into the Earth. This thins and weakens the remaining plate, making it more prone to slipping that causes earthquakes. The study authors conclude this process is ongoing and likely to produce more earthquakes in the future.

“Our idea supports the view that this seismicity will continue due to unbalanced stresses in the plate,” said Berk Biryol, a seismologist at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and lead author of the new study. “The [seismic] zones that are active will continue to be active for some time.”

[JimSEA]

It isn't all human caused fracking after all.

Earthquake locations

North American Plate

[Roos_Girl]

It’s like a giant, slow motion sink hole.

[headstamp 2]

Its Fracking. We’re all gonna die!

[Bitsy]

Those scientists earning their grants and pay checks again.

[Lee'sGhost]

Must be Gorebull Warming.

[JimSEA]

A companion article to this one is one from 2006 on the formation of the Appalachian Mountains..

[mbarker12474]

Then we need to increase taxes and regulations on real estate development on top of these mantle slippages.

And let boys use the girls locker rooms in public schools.

[Disambiguator]

Here I was expecting an article about Rosie O’Donnell traveling in the Southeast.

[minnesota_bound]

The surface of the earth at the equator moves at a speed of approx 1,000 miles per hour. It orbits around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour plus it has a molten core of iron with a rocky mantle sloshing around on it.
Naw that cannot be the cause.

It must be man causing the earthquakes by drilling an oil well using a small diameter pipe down a few thousand feet......