Posted on 01/10/2008 4:35:30 AM PST by Robert A Cook PE
Perhaps these small, easily ignored earthquakes should remind us that it was only 200 years ago that the largest earthquake in the US struck in this same region. They are clustered in a straight line between Paducah, KY; Memphis, TN; and Cape Girardeau, MO - Very close to the New Madrid quake of 1811-1812.
More info:
http://hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/
http://quake.usgs.gov/prepare/factsheets/NewMadrid/
It's dismissed almost casually in most of today's "history" books as an "inactive" fault, or as an earthquake not occurring in a fault zone at all, but as we see exaggerated environmental scares every day (every hour ?) we should realize that real (uncontrollable) dangers exist even in Mid-America.
Meant do not recall title etc.
An 1812 level event might not happen for 500 years, or it might happen next year. I’d bet on a few more centuries before another 1812 event. But like you said, one could whack a city like Charleston next. It’s happened before, it will happen again. When and where are unknown.
I was born and raised in New Madrid County; your new book will be of great interest to me. Be sure and let us know when you get it published.
You bet. It’ll be at least a year. The quake is background to the novel, which is set a few years in the future. That is, the quake has happened a year before the events portrayed in the novel. Western TN is practically cut off from the world, Katrina on steroids, for much longer.
Concur.
I have often stopped in Paducah when driving cross-country to Atlanta or Chattanooga.
I have wondered how openly the dangers from the Land between the Lakes dams have been discussed in that area.
he is a New Madrid compendium for reference
http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/compendium/
This site:
http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/catalogs/html/cat_nm.html
Has a nice tool where you can plug in a time frame, like the last fifty years, and a magnitude range like 3 to 8 and then generate a map.
We have had a good share of 3 to 5 shakes in the last fifty years in that area.
If the Ohio and MS Rivers were already at flood stage when the TN River dams broke, Katie bar the door.
Cool.
Exactly. “Foreign Enemies.”
So that leaves people to live where exactly?
The rain is cusing our pond to overflow.
I can’t wait.
They can live anywhere they choose, but if they choose to live on the Gulf coast they shouldn’t complain about the Hurricanes, or sue the government. They should accept it as a trade off for not having blizzards or earthquakes.
Ummmmm, New Orleans does look like a mud puddle.
That makes you slightly stupider than Rush, he was born 50 miles from New Madrid...
Take a board.
Clamp one end in a vise.
Start adding weight to the free end.
Listen.
Hear that creaking noise?
The creaking is the wood protesting before the strain gets high enough to shatter the board.
The small 'quakes are the rocks protesting before the strain gets high enough to shatter the earth....
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