Concern Over Upcoming Major Earthquake

10/05/09

Katie Powell

http://geology.com/usgs/new-madrid-seismic-zone/

United States Geological Survey, 2009, Earthquake Hazard

in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, Retrieved October 5th, 2009

from Geology.com, http://geology.com/usgs/new-madrid-seismic-zone/

The New Madrid Seismic zone has been home to numerous large and small earthquakes throughout history and scientists have done research and think that another large and devastating earthquake will hit sometime soon. The New Madrid Seismic Zone is in the Mississippi river valley and would endanger places in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas. They have been tracking the move of the tectonic plates using GPS. The concern is that there has been a process occurring naturally for thousands of years and there is no indication that it has stopped. This means that we're getting towards another destructive earthquake of high magnitude.

Another thing is that besides from just seismic waves this hypothetical earthquake could cause landslides, lateral spreading, soil liquefaction, bridge failures, roads breaking, flooding of water, sand and mud, disrupting the agricultural world and devastating towns and cities near there. Yet, there has not been much preparation made for any upcoming natural disaster.

I think that it would definitely affect not only the land across the New Madrid Seismic Zone but also the economy of those regions. Farms would be flooded, roads would be blocked, and buildings would crumble. And with landslides, flooding, and knocked down houses the situation would appear somewhat similar to a hurricane like Katrina. We know how much damage these natural disasters can cause and I think that people need to start doing things now like coming up with a plan of what those cities are going to do when this happens and how they are going to get by.