The New Madrid Fault Line

New Madrid Seismeic Zone <---Link

Great Lakes Tectonic Zone <--- Link

How many of you think that quakes can only happen near a known fault line? How many agree that it's possible for them to happen even on a stable plate zone? If you think it's the latter than you'd be correct. All across the globe there are hundreds if not thousands of dormant but ancient fault zones that haven't been reawoken. There is even one under Lake Ontario in Ontario Canada, the prime source of nearly all the Seismic Activity in Ontario itself. However in the mid western USA, there is a fault zone that many either know about, and choose to ignore due to it's inactivity, or, simply do not know about at all and have no idea of the very real danger they are in. 

Quote: "he New Madrid fault system was responsible for the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes and may have the potential to produce large earthquakes in the future. Since 1812, frequent smaller earthquakes have been recorded in the area. Earthquakes that occur in the New Madrid Seismic Zone potentially threaten parts of seven American states: Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi." 

The old saying goes, it's "It's happened before, it'll happen again, we just don't know when, or how bad it'll be." So with that in mind, these seven states have begun a race against time to reinforce structures that are most likely to be damaged or collapse: Bridges, tall, un-reinforced buildings and before earthquake reinforcements became available to them. However, this zone has shown that it can go 300 or even 500yrs with no issues, and only belch out small, unnoticed quakes for a few years before giving out the Big One. 

Quote: "Because uplift rates associated with large New Madrid earthquakes could not have occurred continuously over geological timescales without dramatically altering the local topography, studies have concluded that the seismic activity there cannot have gone on for longer than 64,000 years, making the NMSZ a young feature, or earthquakes and the associated uplift migrate around the area over time, or that the NMSZ has short periods of activity interspersed with long periods of quiet. Archeological studies have found from studies of sand blows and soil horizons that previous series of very large earthquakes have occurred in the NMSZ in recent prehistory. Based on artifacts found buried by sand blow deposits and from carbon-14 studies, previous large earthquakes like those of 1811–1812 appear to have happened around AD 1450 and around AD 900, as well as approximately AD 300. Evidence has been found for an apparent series of large earthquakes around 2350 BC. About 80 km southwest of the presently-defined NMSZ but close enough to be associated with the Reelfoot Rift, near Marianna, Arkansas, two sets of liquefaction features indicative of large earthquakes have been tentatively identified and dated to 3500 B.C. and 4800 B.C. These features were interpreted to have been caused by groups of large earthquakes timed closely together." That being said, this shows that the area goes long periods of quiet before going boom and then it seems to almost always produce an 8.0 quake. 

So with even that being said, this zone would more than likely be even more active than even the San Andres Fault just outside of California, making this area, even more dangerous. The real question that people now have to answer is: Are we ready? And sadly, in hindsight of what happened during Hurricane Katrina, many scientists don't believe we are. It took First Responders and FEMA nearly several days before they could get into the crippled City of New Orleans. None had suspected that the Hurricane would of broken the Levis down and no one ever guessed it'd be as bad as it was (however this is coming from people who believe in the phrase "Never say never"). After that, scientists now believe, that if a New Madrid Quake were to happen today, the seven affected states and their respective cities, simply would not be ready to cope with a 3 month long period of seismic unrest. 

Keep in mind, the early quake was felt as far away as New York City and there are even records of it showing up in Ontario. That's a pretty far stretched out area for a quake, however, if it's happened once, it'll happen again. Ontario itself sees about a dozen small tremors and quakes each month due to the Great Lakes Tectonic Zone, however, Ontario has never seen an 8.0 quake that I know of or have read about, most have been small, only big enough for people with more sensitive senses to feel and often times, they have over exaggerated that fact, however if a New Madrid quake were to happen, everyone would feel it and there would be no denying what we had just felt.

So in the future, when you scoff and say "it can't happen to me." Remember. Never say never.