Earthquakes

[jdmidwest]

Since the 90's, I have watched the Seismic Activity of the local area on the net. The prediction of a major event coupled with some pretty major seismic events really peaked my interests. We go thru periods of tremors then quiet times. This year, we have seen some motion on the New Madrid fault and the Wabash Valley fault along with isolated tremors in Hot Springs and the Mt Carmel incident that has been quiet since I was a kid in the 60's. It is a different pattern than normal.

One of these days, the New Madrid fault system is going to let go of some pressure like it had done in the past. Has anyone really gave it much thought or do you just plan on coping with it when it happens? Any Geologists on here want to comment?

Wabash Valley Seismic Zones

St Louis University Seismic

[Trout Stalker]

I would say that majority of the people don't care or even think about it until it hits. People don't worry about things until it hits close to home. You know what I mean. All I can say is a country boy can survive.

[jdmidwest]

Around here, closer to ground zero, there will be massive damage. Most bridges will fail, infrastructure will be shut down for days. I don't sit around and worry about it all of the time but I have thought about it some. I do have the camper if the house is damaged. If I can make it back from where I am at.

Back in the late 80's there was a guy that predicted that one would happen on a certain date and everyone stocked up and prepared for it. Nothing came about except for a small 4.0, 6 months early. But like you said, a country boy will survive.

[Terry Beeson]

Most people don't even give it a second thought. But being one of those "country boys" who will survive, I tend to make preparations for things like that in a rational manner. I don't have water and canned goods horded in a bunker out back, but I do have plenty of flashlights, camping gear, etc. to survive things like earthquakes, ice storms, etc. Also keep plenty of ammo on hand in case the neighbors turn into vampire-like zombies who only come out at night.... Wait.... their like that NOW!!!!!

During the great ice storm, we stayed in our house and did not really suffer at all. Plenty of food, hot coffee, and heat via gas fireplace. Didn't lose any meat from the freezer (afterall, it was 25 deg in the garage...) all without renting a motel room or staying with family as almost everyone in our subdivision did.

On another note, I work for St John's and we have a disaster plan in place in the event that there is a major earthquake along the New Madrid fault. I've seen the plan and if there is a major quake, we will be taking a lot of the casualties here. So, someone IS planning for it...

[denjac]

Its my understanding that when the new madrid goes that north and south of there will have heavy damage. East and west not so much. Its not a matter of if rather than when. I had heard that Reel Foot lake was created in the early 1800's when the Misssissippi ran backwards during the big earthquake.

[snagged in outlet 3]

I work in the seismic protection industry. We manufacture, sell and install base isolation platforms for computer data centers and heavy power equipment around the world. Some companies insist on it, while others take a wait and see attitude. When your dealing with a companies data you would think they would be proactive but some are not. Once the equipment is damaged you not anly lose the equipment but you also lose all the information.

Think of a company like Mastercard where they do millions of transactions an hour. Or the human genome project where the data is almost priceless. It just depends on management.

One of our biggest customers is a casino operator. I think its funny that a company in the gambling and odds business doesn't take chances betting against earthquakes.

At home, the best thing you can do is strap your hotwater heater to wall studs and install flexible gas and water lines to it. All gas appliances should have flexible tubing installed. These two things will save you from fire and water damage.

SIO3

[Al Agnew]

If and when the New Madrid fault complex acts up, the areas most likely to be heavily damaged are those that are not sitting on solid bedrock. Most of the Ozark area and much of southern Illinois probably won't be too badly damaged, but Southeast MO, up the Ohio Valley, and down the Mississippi are likely to be in bad shape...anywhere that buildings and other structures sit on sediment or fill dirt. If it's a big one, many places in the St. Louis area will be badly damaged as well.

The New Madrid quakes of 1811 and 1812 were some of the strongest ever recorded in North America, and their effects were felt over amazing distances. For the three month period from December of 1811 through February of 1812, there were three major quakes and almost constant smaller ones. That's a LOT of earth movement. And the major quakes were at least 8.0 on the Richter Scale, according to the best estimates. The biggest quake actually rang church bells in BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. And a metronome in Charleston, SC, never stopped moving during that three month period. Reelfoot Lake was indeed formed from the quakes, but it was formed by a downdropping of the land where the lake now is, and then filled by incoming streams. The Mississippi, however, DID run backwards at least once as a down-dropping rift formed across the bed of the river, making the bed drop enough that the river below ran backwards to fill the depression. There were also eyewitness accounts of rifts forming that caused 1 to 2 foot high waterfalls in the Mississippi.

Any similar quake of that magnitude today would most definitely be a truly major and lasting disaster. Much of this area has not prepared for earthquakes in the way that California has...fewer buildings built to be quake resistant, and it's probable that all the major bridges across the Mississippi from Memphis to St. Louis will collapse. It's possible that the dams that form Kentucky and Barkley Lakes would fail, along with at least a possibility that Wappapello Dam wouldn't survive, either. The hit to the economy of the region and indeed the United States would make Hurricane Katrina look like a hiccup.

And, according to some data, the New Madrid fault zone produces a major earthquake, on average, about every 200 years. So we may be due. I'm not staying up at night worrying about it, but my wife and I have an earthquake plan for what to do if we're at home. I don't think we'd suffer serious damage, since the house sits on bedrock and is a wood frame home (brick homes are much more likely to collapse, since the brick doesn't flex as wood does). But the first thing we'd do in the case of an earthquake, after either running out into the open field in front or getting under something heavy if we couldn't make it out of the house, would be to shut off the propane at the tank outside. We have a tankless water heater so that wouldn't be a problem, but copper gas lines could still be damaged throughout the house.