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April 18, 2008

Illinois quake details

USGS 

This morning's Mag. 5.4 earthquake in Illinois occurred in an area with a history of small tremors - and some big ones - going back to the early 1800s.

Here's a link to the U.S. Geological Survey report on today's quake. And here's one to a description of the local geology and the history of tremors in the region.

Although we don't think of the middle of the country as being earthquake-prone, there have been some very powerful quakes in the region, centered mostly on the New Madrid, Mo., area. Historical accounts of New Madrid quakes in the early 19th century are quite astonishing. They were felt as far away as New England.

Here's what the USGS says about the area: "Moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the region each decade or two, and smaller earthquakes are felt about once or twice a year. In addition, geologists have found evidence of eight or more prehistoric earthquakes over the last 25,000 years that were much larger than any observed historically in the region."

Emergency managers in Memphis and other communities in the area have recently begun to take the threat very seriously, and there has been a great deal of planning, and quake-proofing work in recent years to protect key Mississippi River crossings and gas and oil pipelines.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 8:35 AM | | Comments (2)
Categories: Events
        

Comments

Well there are lots of after shocks that ranges up to 4.0 mag. I haven't had the chance to felt it though... :(

FR: In fact, Jessica, there have been 25 aftershocks in the area since the first 5.2 quake on April 18. They have ranged from a 1.0 on the Richter Scale, to 4.6. Here's a list:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/32.42.-95.-85_eqs.php

Here's more on aftershocks from the Illinois quake:
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/8049.html

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About Frank Roylance
Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1992, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page.

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