Posted on 11/04/2009 4:18:57 PM PST by decimon
The small earthquakes that sporadically rattle the central United States may actually be aftershocks from a few extremely large quakes that occurred in the region almost 200 years ago, according to a new study
The New Madrid Earthquakes, which struck between December 1811 and February 1812, are some of the strongest seismic events ever to occur in the contiguous United States in recorded history. The largest quake is estimated to have been 8.0 in magnitude and was powerful enough to temporarily make the Mississippi River flow backwards. The heart of the seismic activity was near the town of New Madrid, Missouri, close to the Kentucky and Tennessee borders.
The town has shaken with numerous earthquakes since, from tiny ones that don't cause much of a stir, to moderate sized ones, such as a 5.2 quake in 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Rollback ping.
A lot of little ones are much better than one big one.
Can't argue with that. Maybe the little ones will help forestall another big one.
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Suppose they are pre-quakes.
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