As I write this, the New Madrid Fault continues to rumble with small earthquakes. Most of them are occurring along the Mississippi River and several miles either side of it. I don’t want to unnecessarily alarm anyone about the danger with the fault.
But, unfortunately, the danger is very real and a major earthquake on this fault would be catastrophic to not only our region directly, but indirectly to the entire nation. A lot of folks say the small quakes are due to fracking.
Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside.
Water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock at high pressure which allows the gas to flow out to the head of the well. The process can be carried out vertically or, more commonly, by drilling horizontally to the rock layer and can create new pathways to release gas or can be used to extend existing channels. The term fracking refers to how the rock is fractured apart by the high pressure mixture. The state of Oklahoma has seen a severe spike in earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or higher since 2008, when energy companies ramped up their hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and gas in the state. The number of 3.0 magnitude quakes rose from 2 in 2008 to 889 last year, according to USGS statistics. So far this year, there have been 572. The only problem with blaming the earthquakes on the New Madrid Fault is that there doesn’t appear to be any fracking occurring on the fault.
At least not that I can find.
There are a few fracking wells in Illinois and Indiana, but none on the actual New Madrid Fault. The other argument I keep hearing is that the small quakes are relieving the pressure. This may or may not be true. The New Madrid Fault is not your normal fault. Most faults like the San Andreas are caused by two tectonic plates rubbing against each other. But the New Madrid is an area of significant geological weakness. This area of weakness formed when the continents were breaking up. The rift that formed did not end up splitting the North American continent at that time, but the area of weakness remains. So there is no way to know for sure if the small quakes are relieving pressure or building up to something far worse. To get a better idea of what may be happening is to look back at the horrific 1811 to 1812 earthquakes and to see what happened prior to their occurrence.
I have been doing extensive searching for facts and archives concerning this. I did find that in the 2 or 3 years prior to the New Madrid earthquakes many mysterious loud booms and cracks were heard. Many described these sounds as resembling the sound of very large guns or artillery explosions.
Much louder booms and explosion sounds were heard directly before the New Madrid earthquakes struck and signaled the following shocks. In the area around the New Madrid fault zone, mysterious loud booms and explosions are being heard with increased frequency. Yet there is no way to know if these are warning signs or not. There have also been others times throughout history when we have seen a major earthquake along the New Madrid fault.
Geological evidence indicates that two such super-earthquakes happened twice in the past 1,200 years: the first sometime between 800 and 1000 A.D., and the second between 1300 and 1600 A.D. And now earthquake activity in the central portion of the nation is increasing again. The USGS says that the frequency of earthquakes in the central and eastern portions of the United States has more than quintupled in recent years. I will discuss a few more facts on the New Madrid in my next post. In the meantime, continue to with emergency plans for you and your family. It is always good to be prepared. Feel free to leave comments and be sure to hit the “Like” button at the bottom of this post.