You may have heard about the New Madrid Fault Line, which runs underneath this very region we occupy, my fellow Kentuckians.
Although not much of major seismic importance has occurred in our lifetime, we still must take note that in 1812, the New Madrid quake was an estimated 8.0 or greater. Described as "the most intense intraplate earthquake series to have occurred in the contiguous United States", it was powerful enough to make church bells ring in Boston.
A University of Kentucky website calls the Western Kentucky area "the most seismically active region in the United States east of the Rockies". And if that wasn't bad enough, to the East, we're bounded by the Southern Appalachian Seismic Zone, which is also extremely active and produces tremors that affects Kentucky greatly. We're surrounded.
Despite its strongest shocks having taken place a century ago, some say the New Madrid Fault is just getting warmed up because it's such a very young geological feature. Wikipedia says:
Because uplift rates associated with large New Madrid earthquakes could not have occurred continuously over geological timescales without dramatically altering the local topography, studies have concluded that the seismic activity there cannot have gone on for longer than 64,000 years...
3 comments:
Within the past few months, there have been some minor earthquakes in Texas, of all places. It is a distinct possibility that these earthquakes are the result of the increased amount of natural gas drilling that it taking place in the Haynesville Shale area which comprises a good portion of northeastern Texas and northwestern Louisiana ... and if one were to draw a line from the area where these earthquakes have taken place, through the Haynesville Shale area, you would find it pointing right at the area of the recent New Madrid Fault Line quakes ...
http://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/recenteqs/
I was in Maysville,Ky(Rectorville) during the earthquake on a visit from Florida. My relatives were sitting around the table in my parents home and you could hear the rumbling before,during and after.. it went through the rollings hills.. we all ran out of the 2 story country home. Very scary! Maysville now has a new Hospital because Hayswood had too many cracks to re-open, chimneys fell, Bank of Maysville front glass broke.. it was something o remember for sure!
What gets me is that people will argue up and down that we do NOT get earthquakes (floods, snow, tornadoes, etc) here in Kentucky. Are these people living under a rock or what? lol
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