[Rockhounds] Difference between East and West Coast US earthquakes, was New Madrid fault

[Kris Rowe]

Carol, by way of analogy, would it be accurate to compare this to the
difference in transferred vibration between a tub of golf balls, and a tub
of solidified plaster?
What I mean is, by way of example, hitting one end of each tub with a
drumstick and measuring the vibrations intensity as it reaches the other end
of the tub. Of course, the plaster ( the Eastern U.S.) would be a far more
efficient conductor of vibration than the golf balls (the Western U.S.),
wouldn't it?

As they taught us back in Recording Engineering school, a contiguous solid
always transmits vibration more efficiently than a broken solid. i know this
is a bit simplistic, but should apply, more or less.

Thanks,
           Kris

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:40 AM, J Bryan Kramer <codeburner at gmail.com>wrote:

> That's interesting, of course the west was created by a series of island
> chains crashing into the western coastline. That created the Basin and
> Range
> topography and of course fractured the rock and created all those faults.
> McPhee has a good book about it called, no surprise, Basin and Range
>
> <
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Basin-Range-John-McPhee/dp/0374516901/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238175482&sr=8-1
> >
>
> But it's better to get it in his compilation Annals of the Former World
>
> <
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Annals-Former-World-John-McPhee/dp/0374518734/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238175482&sr=8-2
> >
>
> BK
>
> On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:57, Carol J. Bova <bova at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> > Dora,
> > It's not that scientists can't deal with dynamic complexity, it's that
> > there is a major difference between California and the East Coast when it
> > comes to earthquakes:
> >
> > "East Coast earthquakes, such as the one that struck Charleston, South
> > Carolina, in 1886 are felt over a much larger area than earthquakes
> > occurring on the West Coast, because the eastern half of the country is
> > mainly composed of older rock that has not been fractured and cracked by
> > frequent earthquake activity in the recent geologic past. Rock that is
> > highly fractured and crushed absorbs more seismic energy than rock that
> is
> > less fractured. The Charleston earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of
> > about 7.0, was felt as far away as Chicago, more than 1,300 km to the
> > northwest, whereas the 7.1-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquakes was felt no
> > farther than Los Angeles, about 500 km south. The most widely felt
> > earthquakes ever to strike the United States were centered near the town
> of
> > New Madrid, Missouri, in 1811 and 1812. Three earthquakes, felt as far
> away
> > as Washington D.C., were each estimated to be above 8.0 in magnitude.
> Most
> > of us do not associate earthquakes with New York City, but beneath
> Manhattan
> > is a network of intersecting faults, a few of which are capable of
> causing
> > earthquakes. The most recent earthquake to strike New York City occurred
> in
> > 1985 and measured 4.0 in magnitude, and a pair of earthquakes (magnitude
> 4.0
> > and 4.5) shook Reading, Pennsylvania, in January 1994 causing minor
> damage."
> > From: USGS, This Dynamic Earth,  Plate Tectonics and People
> > http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/tectonics.html
> >
> > ((Side note: I had just moved to Brooklyn in 1985, and the night before
> our
> > furniture arrived, was sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag when the
> > quake on the Hudson Valley  fault hit. It felt like someone shaking me,
> and
> > it wasn't until I sat up and realized my husband was still asleep, and
> > another tremor shook us that I realized I was experiencing my first
> > earthquake.))
> >
> > Check out this database:
> > U.S. Geological Survey and New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral
> > Resources, 2006,
> > Quaternary fault and fold database for the United States, accessed Jan 9,
> > 2006, from USGS web site:
> > http//earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/qfaults/
> >
> > It is so full of information and links and maps, you could spend a year
> in
> > it!
> > Carol
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mar 27, 2009, at 10:55 AM, Dora Smith wrote:
> >
> >  Thanks!  Good article!  I will add it to my page.
> >>
> >> It looks like the scientists workign on the fault really can't deal with
> >> dynamic complexity; it's a problem shared by alot of scientists.
> >>
> >> Rules that apply to the California faults don't apply to the New Madrid
> >> fault system?   Come on!
> >> Yours,
> >> Dora Smith
> >> Austin, TX
> >> tiggernut24 at yahoo.com
> >>
> >
> >  ----- Original Message ----- From: <betdav97 at aol.com>
> >> To: <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
> >> Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 12:30 PM
> >> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] New Madrid fault
> >>
> >>  Except for the first few posts, I have not been following this
> >>> thread, but this just came across the net, hope it hasn't been
> >>> posted already.
> >>>
> >>> http://news.aol.com/article/new-madrid-fault/398744
> >>>
> >>>
> >
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> “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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