Is The New Madrid Fault Earthquake Zone Coming To Life?
Posted by JAC on 1/7/2011, 3:42 pm



*According to the U.S. Geological Survey, more than 500 measurable earthquakes have been recorded in central Arkansas just since September.

*A magnitude-3.8 earthquake that shook north-central Indiana on December 30th is being called "unprecedented". It was strong enough to actually cause cracks along the ground and it was felt in portions of Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

*More than 3,000 red-wing blackbirds fell out of the sky dead in the Arkansas town of Beebe on New Year's Eve.

*Large numbers of dead birds were also found in Kentucky right around Christmas.

*Approximately 500 dead blackbirds and starlings were also recently discovered in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana.

*Approximately 100,000 fish washed up dead on the shores of the Arkansas River just last week.

So could all of these things have some other very simple explanation?

Possibly.

But the fact that they all happened in or around the New Madrid fault zone is starting to raise some eyebrows.

About 200 years ago, in 1811 and 1812, there were four earthquakes that were so powerful in the area of the New Madrid fault zone that they are still talked about today.  All four of the quakes were estimated to have been magnitude-7.0 or greater.  It is said that those earthquakes opened deep fissures in the ground, caused the Mississippi River to run backwards and that they were felt as far away as Boston.

The last major earthquake to hit the region was a 5.4-magnitude quake that struck the town of Dale, Illinois in 1968.  Things have been strangely quiet in the region since then until recently.

If a true "killer earthquake" struck along the New Madrid fault zone today, cities such as St. Louis, Missouri and Memphis, Tennessee could potentially be completely destroyed.

Unfortunately, this is not an exaggeration.

One interesting theory is that the "oil volcano" unleashed by the BP oil spill in 2010 may have sparked renewed seismic activity in that part of the world.

Jack M. Reed, a retired Texaco geologist-geophysicist, has been carefully studying the geology of the Gulf of Mexico for over 40 years.  Reed is convinced that the Gulf of Mexico is currently tectonically active, and that the Gulf of Mexico is the source for most seismic activity along the New Madrid fault.

According to Reed, there is substantial evidence that the New Madrid fault zone is directly connected to "deeply buried tectonics" in the Gulf of Mexico....

"This entire zone through the United States is suffering some type of tectonic activity that I believe is tied to the deeply buried tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico."
So did BP disturb those "deeply buried tectonics" by drilling such a deep well and unleashing all that oil that flowed into the Gulf of Mexico?

Let's hope not.



http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2002/11nov/rift_zone.cfm



74
In this thread:
Earthquake swarm in Arkansas - JAC, 1/6/2011, 10:22 am
< Return to the front page of the: message board | monthly archive this page is in
Post A Reply
This thread has been archived and can no longer receive replies.