With that small tremor in Oklahoma causing a stir, many of course will focus upon the New Madrid quake zone causing more headlines before it all dies away again.
I have covered this earthquake zone and people do not comprehend just what this was, as there were 4 massive earthquakes from December to February in the 1812 time line, and the were from Arkansas to the Missouri foot.
What is the underlying theory is this is the Reelfoot Rift, when God divided the world if you recall in the days of Babel, it was not language but continents, this stress fracture occurred in what is these United States.
It was then buried under sediments, unlike the Rift Valley in Africa, and the result is this massive fault that connects to Oklahoma in a passive way.
The thing which is overlooked is the history published here in Davy Crockett as most will not read hunting stories.
Davy in his bear hunting in Tennessee cane breaks for meat, lard, fur and just to kill those bears eating the homesteaders pigs was talking about the New Madrid quake several years later as the ground was still roaring frequently in Tennessee.
He at one point speaks of jumping into a fissure where a black bear was holed up and killing it. The fissure was caused by the earth being ripped apart......once again this is not Missouri or Arkansas but several hundred miles away in Tennessee.
A great deal of history speaks of bedrock and bells ringing in Boston, but the reality is this quake system reaches into middle Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. The focus is on 8 scale quake at center, but the surrounding areas are in the 7 range and 6 range which are quite a problem as roads buckled in Oklahoma at almost 6 magnitude.
No one is going to know what will happen as this American area is like all areas filled with bedrock which also has sand, clay and even liquids and gases. Each will be unique in structure and some will absorb the shock and others will shake to liquefied status in a water off a bears back being thrown off.
Even precipitation in groundwater levels will affect what the quake will entail.
As stated New York City sits on a massive quake line, and the American south has it's own fault line, but the odds are there is a New Madrid lurking to unleash in areas which people think is quite safe.
Reelfoot though after the massive shocks, had shocks which were quite frightening years later, making it more known than the California quakes. It quieted and for over 100 years was not that active with only a semi major 1895 quake.
What matters in earthquakes is the ground and soils, which really makes the USGS estimates all bullwhip in reality, as not all 7 earthquakes are the same in damage depending on many factors.
There definitely must be a subsoil survey to designate areas of concern, and just like in flood planes, have earthquake planes of liquefaction as designated hazard zones.
They do for oil exploration, so the data is readily available and then one does not have to find some always expert like a Susan Hough trying to sound intelligent in downgrading the New Madrids from 8 to 7.
When 7 proves catastrophic in this region what on earth does trying to assemble data on the impossible like global warming have any context in meaning..........hell I can say it was a 9.5 on my data, and then come right back and say, "Yes it was a 7 but due to soil structures it magnified to an 8."
Devastation is devastation and dead is dead, numbers don't mean squat unless based upon local data.
That should be enough of this to mull over.
agtG
