[Rockhounds] New Madrid fault

Alan Goldstein deepskyspy at insightbb.com
Mon Mar 23 17:52:59 PDT 2009 

All my knowledge is from structural and ice age geology undergraduate 
classes (a long time ago), listening to speakers at conferences, reading a 
variety of articles over the years in science journals that go to their 
peers and not John Q. Public (i.e., Earth magazine from the American 
Geological Institute). Don't look for completely balanced articles in any 
newspaper. Their job is to sell newspapers and balanced journalism can get 
left behind in the enthusiasm.

There was an editorial contribution in our local paper dealing with coal 
mining and Appalachia. The writer (an instructor at the University of 
Kentucky)  makes the argument that if it wasn't for coal mining, Appalachian 
citizens wouldn't be in as bad of shape as they are now. I won't go into 
details, but the relevant part is that when Diane Sawyer (a Kentuckian) 
talked with folks in the area the first thing out of her mouth was something 
like, 'tell me about the poverty of Applachia but don't say anything about 
mountain removal and its effect on the people.' Mining, the landscape and 
the people are inter-connected. Journalism that doesn't reveal these 
connections is not telling the whole story, but cherry picking.

I suspect there is a lot of cherry picking journalism when it comes to 
science because the journalists don't have a good grasp on what they are 
writing about.

Off my soap box. There are a lot of geologists studying the fault zone, many 
associated with state universities and geological surveys in the affected 
areas. In terms of finding unbiased information, I'd start there.

Alan


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jay Bates" <jaybates at rcn.com>
To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors" 
<rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 1:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] New Madrid fault


> Excellent points Alan. You just made my hero list. Too bad the news media 
> doesn't listen to people like you, but print pure speculation for it's 
> sensational value. We obviously don't know much about these 
> mid-continental earthquakes.  There are probably not many ways we can 
> learn a whole lot more considering the massive scale of what is involved. 
> Any thoughts as to how we could learn more?
>
> Alan Goldstein wrote:
>> I've read reports regarding studies of prehistoric sandblows, where 
>> earthquake causes ground liquefaction and geysers of wet sand spewing 
>> from cracks in the earth. Geologists dig trenches through sediments 
>> looking for them. I think the evidence indicated a major quake (on the 
>> scale of the 1812 events) recurring on average about every 500 years. Not 
>> everyone of them would create a Reelfoot Lake. That would depend on 
>> whether the fault block that shifted was located under the Mississippi 
>> (or Ohio) River.
>>
>> With regards to the effects of glaciation, the southern-most tip of the 
>> continental glaciers (the Illinoisian?) reached into southern Illinois. 
>> At that point, the ice probably thinned to less than 100 feet and stopped 
>> advancing. Although 100 feet of ice is heavy, I can't see how it would be 
>> heavy enough to trigger an earthquake. The New Madrid fault zone is an 
>> unglaciated area. I've read studies that hypothesize that the weight of 
>> the Mississippi River sediments on the highly faulted basement rock are 
>> thought to keep the system active. Last time I checked, the Mississippi 
>> and Ohio Rivers are still sending sediment through the fault zone and 
>> down to the Gulf of Mexico.
>>
>> Even if the New Madrid fault zone produced one 7.5 to 8.0 magnitude quake 
>> every 10,000 years, consider how many "big ones" occurred in the past 700 
>> million years! There is one fault block in Livingston Co., KY that has 
>> several thousand feet of vertical displacement!
>>
>> Alan G.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Axel Emmermann" <axel.emmermann at pandora.be>
>> To: "'Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem 
>> collectors'" <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
>> Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 7:54 AM
>> Subject: RE: [Rockhounds] New Madrid fault
>>
>>
>>
>>>> I am thinking
>>>> statistics here - what are the odds of this happening in this 
>>>> millennium
>>>> (much less this century)?
>>>>
>>>> Alan G.
>>>>
>>> [Axel] There's an unusual way to find out whether a fault is short-term
>>> dangerous or not... If it is, there is probably a name for it in the 
>>> tales
>>> and myths of the local people. Think about Pompei... in 79 AD  it was
>>> destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.  We know of that because of 
>>> the
>>> ruins and letters of Plinius the younger.  But what if we hadn't had 
>>> written
>>> testimony? We know that Krakatau is a cataclysmic and recurring volcanic
>>> explosion. There have been movies made about it, documentaries, books...
>>> still millions of people have chosen to live in the "death zone" after a 
>>> few
>>> years. Were it to blow up now there would be millions of casualties.
>>>
>>> Still, chances of surviving a large earthquake are better than those of
>>> surviving a large volcanic eruption... No lahars, pyroclastic flows, 
>>> lava,
>>> pressure waves, climate changes, ash rains...
>>>
>>> If I were looking for an answer about the dangers of a seismic zone, I 
>>> would
>>> go looking in the mythology of the locals and first of all: the place 
>>> names
>>> in the local language If I'm not mistaking that would be in Sioux.
>>> Names like: land that dances; land that moves, land that glows (quake
>>> lights), shaking land, sand fountain ... Things like that.
>>> Reelfoot lake is a good example...
>>> http://visitreelfootlake.com/reelfootlegend.htm
>>> If cataclysmic earthquakes happen with intervals that span periods 
>>> greater
>>> than collective memory they will not reflect on the place names. If they
>>> happen more regularly you 'll most likely find place names referring to 
>>> it.
>>> Writings can such legends alive for much longer than a few hundred 
>>> years...
>>> Think of Sodom and Gomorra. Those became myth centuries before the 
>>> written
>>> word became a general tool for recording history. Still, we know of them 
>>> and
>>> archaeology seems to confirm their existence in the distant past.
>>>
>>> Axel
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "J Bryan Kramer" <codeburner at gmail.com>
>>>> To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem 
>>>> collectors"
>>>> <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
>>>> Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 11:53 AM
>>>> Subject: [Rockhounds] New Madrid fault
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I thought some may be interested in this:
>>>>
>>>> <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090313145956.htm>
>>>>
>>>> Do deep subsurface faults always produce measurable surface movement?
>>>>
>>>> BK
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> "It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly 
>>>> colored
>>>> than the day."
>>>>
>>>>                       Vincent van Gogh
>>>>
>>>> J Bryan Krämer       North Florida, USA
>>>> photos at: http://pbase.com/photoburner
>>>> blog at: http://www.photoburner.net
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
>
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