OK, all you smug midwesterners that have joked about us left coasters falling into the ocean in the next earthquake, here is a map showing that you guys aren’t exactly imune from severe shaking. This only covers the earthquake area of the central U.S.
Remember that what is thought to be the most severe earthquake ever recorded in the continental US was near New Madrid, Missouri. (I think the 1964 Alaska quake from the fault that David Thomas is sitting directly over may have been bigger. Don’t remember what the severity of the 1700 quake in the Seattle area was thought to be.)
The .jpg is 3.3 megs, so may be warned if you are on a dial-up. The map comes up too small to see any features, so you need to click on it and after several seconds, a small button will pop-up that you can click on to get the map sized so that it is way too big to see more than a fraction of it, but that you can see a lot of detail. (Couldn’t get it sized to anything but too small and too big…)
http://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i-2812/i-2812map.jpg
Some other files relating to this map are at:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/imap/i-2812/
The press release is at:
http://www.usgs.gov/public/press/public_affairs/press_releases/pr1869m.html
Replies
In 1990, some psychic predicted that the New Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid, not ma-DRID) fault would yield another great earthquake, one that would topple the St. Louis arch. All it did was foster a short termed industry in installing breakaway gas fittings and strapping water heaters to walls. One guy, reported in the St. Louis Dispatch, even had his dining room hutch screwed into the studs. Now they all seem like kooks. The original New Madrid quake in 1811 created Reelfoot Lake. We crappie fishermen are all sitting, rods in hand, away from the arch, waiting for the next one.
Edited 4/13/2004 10:30 pm ET by barmil
even had his dining room hutch screwed into the studs
DW had me screw her hutch to the wall (as an afterthought after writting that! -- Prospero-- this is ligit construction talk, do not edit!) we are in Seattle area.
Pop and his cronies went to Reelfoot lake every year for a fish/drink extravaganza, big network of miles long lakes less than 5 ft deep due to the madrid quake.
I live a couple hours south of Reelfoot and we go to see the bald eagles I tkink they're over 50 mating pairs in the area.Great place to go bike riding or boating.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.
Remodeler/Punchout
do people from Seattle call themselves Seattlites or Seattleinians?
and do most of them have screwed up hutches?
Sorry - I'll go to bed now. my day's work is done.
;)
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My 1863 Seth Thomas perpetual day-date mantle clock is screwed to the wall behind it. But then, I've been though a few quakes here in the last 8 years.
The nasty thing about quakes is that there really is no clue they are coming. One might happen before I finish this message. But I'd rather deal with that than the yearly certainty of tornados and hurricanes that hit other parts of the country.
http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2004/2004_data.html
This is another fun site to prowl around.
There are some folks nervous about seinic activity around Yellowstone.
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>> There are some folks nervous about seismic activity around Yellowstone.
As well they should be. You've probably seen this picture, or others like it. The boomerang shaped scar in the lower right is the track of the continent moving across the Yellowstone hot spot. I don't know if it's due, but when it blows, it's going to be bad. Like Mount St. Helens, only instead of blowing up a mountain, it blows up whole mountain ranges.
http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/usgsnps/province/ColumbiaRelief.jpg
I know there's been seismic records showing an increase in unstability and Old Faithful is going thru a mid-life crisis, getting less faithfull. Supposedly there is more pent up tension there than in Calif.
"May you live in interesting times" is an old chinese insult. these are interesting times.
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The whole Yellowstone area is the result of a giant caldera some 30 by 40 miles square.
"in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king..."
In the first week of April this year there where 249 quakes in So Calif. I didn't feel a one. that was up from 191 a year ago in the same period. I believe UCLA has predicted a big one in the desert along the san andreas fault system for this year. So I could have a busy time if it hits while school is in session.
True, Yellowstone is a super-volcano. There's another on the coast of Italy, the bay of Naples.
-- J.S.
John,
Don't forget the Long Valley Caldera in California. It last had eruptions about 250 years ago and rises and falls by several inches periodically - along with swarms of earthquakes. Not exactly a high population area, however, but if it starts getting active it could kick up a lot of ash to cover those downwind.
Some pretty good info on Long Valley: http://lvo.wr.usgs.gov/
Probably the most potentially dangerous place in terms of loss of life from earthquake activity within the U.S. is from Mt. Rainier. I have seen geologic maps showing lots of past pyroclastic flows towards Olympia and Seattle. If Mt. Rainier goes again - which seems likely - it could wipe out a number of recent housing developments. If Mr. Rainier really lets go, we might not have Microsoft to kick around any more...
Article on lahars from Mt. Rainer: http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=3015
Another interesting thing about this site was comparing the locational uncertainty of the quakes in different places. The location and especially the depth of the West Yellowstone and Missouri quakes was pretty vague, but when I started looking at the ones in southern California, they believe they have those located to within 100 meters in all three dimensions. So. California is wired with seismographs. I read somewhere that if a truck tips over on the freeway in California, the earthquake people know about it before the highway patrol.
It is said that the Mississippi River flowed backwards when the earthquake that made Reelfoot Lake happened.
Just a bit of trivia. At least a dozen pipelines carrying everything from natural gas to jet fuel run under the Mississippi river at Memphis.
All of these are headed toward New York & the northeast. If these are broken lots of people will get cold sitting in their unheated houses and empty SUV's......
Once again, thank god for the new tinfoil hat design, that wards off this kind of calamity.
Casey,
Nice map. Glad I have a fast connection. Yes, midwesterners are not immune to quakes. They just think they are because they come every 200-400 years.
The 1964 Alaska quake was recalculated as 9.2 Moment Magnitude (the simpler magnitude scale dosen't capture the greater energy released over large areas) making it the 2nd largest in modern history after Chile's 9.5 in 1960.
So, while it might seem we are "pre-disastered", the state has dozens of 5+ and a couple a 6+ every year. And while a 7+ would be newsworthy and cause deaths anywhere else (10,000's of death in the 3rd world), our 7.1 last year had one effect. Someone broke their arm while running out of the house. An artifact of 1) sparse population, 2) good seismic codes, and 3) no old structures.
New Madrid has 3 out of 4 (1811, 1812, 1812) of the biggest 48-state quakes on record and the is the only non-Alaska location in the top 9 for all states. That doesn't mean that is the only area where such big quakes could happen. And with stress relieved at that location, that fault may well cut loose somewhere else next time.