When someone talks about earthquakes of an American fashion, all eyes focus on California. Is there a more famous earthquake than the San Andreas Fault? How about the Alaskan version? On Good Friday, March 27, 1964, an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2 struck Prince William Sound, Alaska. This earthquake is the third largest recorded in the world. Within the first 24 hours, there were 11 aftershocks and with a magnitude greater than 6.0 and 9 more took place over the next few weeks.
But could there be an earthquake in the middle of these United States? How about a little history!
On December 16, 1811, an 8.1 earthquake with an epicenter in northeast Arkansas hit. It caused only slight damage to man-made structures, mainly because of the sparse population in the epicentral area. The future location of Memphis, Tennessee was shaken at Mercalli level nine intensity. Large waves were generated on the Mississippi River by fissures opening and closing below the surface. Local uplifts of the ground and water waves moving upstream gave the illusion that the river was flowing upstream.
Talk about optical illusions!
At New Madrid, trees were knocked down and riverbanks collapsed. This event shook windows and furniture in Washington, D.C., rang bells in Richmond, Virginia, sloshed well water and shook houses in Charleston, South Carolina, and knocked plaster off of houses in Columbia, South Carolina. In Jefferson, Indiana, furniture moved and in Lebanon, Ohio, residents fled their homes. Observers in Herculaneum, Missouri, called it “severe” and claimed it had a duration of 10–12 minutes.
So much for the history books other than to say two more major 7-8 power earthquakes hit (each a month apart) and did great damage.
Thus we have what is called the New Madrid Seismic Zone, sometimes called the New Madrid Fault Line, is a major seismic zone and a prolific source of intra-plate earthquakes (earthquakes within a tectonic plate) in the Southern and Midwestern United States stretching to the southwest from New Madrid, Missouri. For some reason my “inner voice” is telling me that while the San Andreas fault is the first choice for one of the two major earthquakes predicted for America in 2010, the New Madrid fault just might be the second one.
Ah, there’s just a little over eight months to judge if that’s the case. Hey, for me, it beats watching Dancing With The Stars!
