Scientists Discover Hotspot Track Cross-Cutting the New Madrid Seismic Zone

[Elderberry]

Strange Sounds -Mar 5, 2020

Scientists Discover Hotspot Track Cross-Cutting the New Madrid Seismic Zone

There is a hotspot track cross-cutting the New Madrid Fault Lines!

And it may explain the upstick in recent intraplate earthquakes across the eastern United States!

The New Madrid rift system is responsible for some of the most powerful earthquakes in North American history and this newly discovered hotspot track could explain the late Mesozoic reactivation of the New Madrid rift system and the increased seismicity of the eastern United States.

More: https://strangesounds.org/2020/03/geological-oddity-scientists-discover-hotspot-track-cross-cutting-the-new-madrid-rift-system.html


There is a hotspot track cross-cutting the New Madrid Seismic Zone. The rectangular boxes
show the locations of the seismic anomalies detected by USArray. The blue line shows the
track of the hot spot. Black triangles are where diamond-bearing rocks from deep in the
mantle have been found. Black and red lines are the boundary of the Mississippi
Embayment and the New Madrid rift complex, respectively.  The inset globe shows where
the hotspot is today and the ball shows the epicenter of the 2011 Virginia earthquake.

[Polly Ticks]

@txradioguy
Duck and cover.

[DB]

It wouldn't take much of an earthquake to level the eastern US.

Many buildings are unreinforced brick and morter.

[txradioguy]

@txradioguy
Duck and cover.

Something tells me my basement won't protect me from this...

[Free Vulcan]

It wouldn't take much of an earthquake to level the eastern US.

Many buildings are unreinforced brick and morter.

If the New Madrid rips off another one like it did 200 years ago, it'll drop buildings all the way to Chicago.

[Smokin Joe]

If the New Madrid rips off another one like it did 200 years ago, it'll drop buildings all the way to Chicago.

We just don't know how much of a mess that would make, simply because much of what is populated today wasn't populated by folks who kept good records.
There is little doubt that some major midwestern cities would be hard hit.
Possibilities include the failure of one or more of the three Missouri River dams, (Lake Oahee, Sakakaweja, and the Fort Peck reservoir), with the mess that would make downstream of those failures. Infrastructure failures would be a given, from bridges to possibly pipeline and power line crossings. How complete that damage would be, we don't know, but it could divide the country in half.

[GrouchoTex]

I figure Memphis would be in a lot of trouble.

[Fishrrman]

Groucho wrote:
"I figure Memphis would be in a lot of trouble."

Ever read Matt Bracken's "Enemies, Foreign and Domestic" series of novels...?

[GrouchoTex]

Groucho wrote:
"I figure Memphis would be in a lot of trouble."

Ever read Matt Bracken's "Enemies, Foreign and Domestic" series of novels...?

No, i have not.

[DB]

The San Andreas fault in California has had significant quakes on both ends of it where it goes out to sea over the last couple of days. Including a swarm of quakes last night on the northern end. A major quake in California right now would really be a mess.

[PeteS in CA]

The San Andreas fault in California has had significant quakes on both ends of it where it goes out to sea over the last couple of days. Including a swarm of quakes last night on the northern end. A major quake in California right now would really be a mess.

California was pretty thinly populated until 1849, and much of CA's growth took place after 1906, i.e. after building codes started being put in place to improve resistance to earthquakes. By way of contrast, the eastern half of the US has a larger percentage of older buildings and buildings not built to withstand earthquakes.

The 1989 Loma Prieta quake did damage, but illustrates something about CA geography that is unlike eastern US geography. My parents lived about 150 miles from Loma Prieta. They did not feel it at all. This is because there are faults between where they lived and Loma Prieta. Those fault zones are breaks that attenuate shock waves from earthquakes. By way of contrast, the 1811 and 1812 quakes on the New Madrid Fault were felt in Boston. Those quake were definitely stronger than Loma Prieta, but a quake on the New Madrid Fault of magnitude and depth similar to Loma Prieta would probably do much more damage and do some of that serious damage much farther from the epicenter.