Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

(CNN) -- A magnitude-5.2 earthquake, centered 131 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri, shook southern Illinois early Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There were few reports of damage immediately after the predawn quake, which struck at 4:36 a.m. (5:36 a.m. ET), but CNN affiliate WHAS-TV in Louisville, Kentucky, showed footage of rubble left in a street after a cornice fell off a brick building there.

The epicenter of the earthquake was about three miles below ground, six miles northwest of Mount Carmel, Illinois, and 38 miles north-northwest of Evansville, Indiana, according to the USGS.
People as far north as southern Michigan and as far west as Des Moines, Iowa, reported feeling the quake, according to The Associated Press.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/18/ill...ake/index.html

Mind you, a 5.2 is just a baby quake.
I remember reading some time ago that there is a major fault going right up through the heartland and into Quebec...and that it has not had a seriously major quake since 1812....but when it does it could be a huge one.

the most widely felt temblors in North America were a series of four that hit near New Madrid, Missouri from December 16, 1811 through February 7, 1812. They ranged from magnitude 7.6 to 8.2. The largest was felt from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. New Madrid also represents an intracontinental fault system.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

Found it..it is called the New Madrid Fault.

The New Madrid fault line is located in the central United States. It covers parts of Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Arkansas. It was formed 550,000,000 years ago when North America began to split apart. It never completely split apart, but it left a break called Reelfoot Rift, which is a weak spot in the earth's crust. Much of the soil in this area is loose and wet because it is near the Mississippi River. This makes it more likely that the ground will shake violently and have a lot of movement during an earthquake.

Between December of 1811 and February of 1812, there was a series of earthquakes around New Madrid, Missouri. These earthquakes caused damage over 50,000 square miles. The tremors could be felt for 1,000,000 square miles, all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. These earthquakes changed the course of some rivers and streams, and made new lakes. They also destroyed whole forests full of trees.

One weird event that happened was that the Mississippi River flowed backwards. A boat called the New Orleans was sailing down the river when one of the earthquakes caused a huge wall of mud across the river. Suddenly a huge wave came up the river the wrong way and smashed into the boat. The crew lived to tell the people what had happened. The earthquakes measured from 7.6 to 7.9 on the Richter scale, which measures earthquake intensity.

This is an important fault line because a large earthquake there could affect the whole United States. There are also a lot of chemical companies located near this fault today. If these buildings were damaged, it could release poisonous chemicals into the air and water supply. There is a 50% chance that an earthquake measuring 6.0 or more could occur by the end of this year and a 90% chance by the year 2040.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

Terrible news. I hope that everyone that was affected is safe and well, and in contact with family members to reassure them that they are ok.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

We're all good Sue. My mom was shakin' a bit both literally and figuratively. Alls well and the pictures are on the wall. I just woke up from my bed shaking like I was laying on cheap hotel bed with Vibramatic quarter machine on the night stand.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

So you've been on a few of those then?

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

I've been to one. That was the only thing novel about the place. All the other classy establishments had the 'No acancy' signs flashing.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

Well..they definitely don;t want any acancy going on. :p

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

That is good news. Happy to hear that you are safe and well!

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

I know Im probably going to regret asking this, but here goes anyway.

Why was this thread moved from the lounge to the US and the living and moving abroad part.

I would think that there would be a far greater audience in the lounge that would be concerned about folks and would like to reply to the message. I probably would never have seen this thread if it had not originally been in the lounge.....

Just asking....

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

i was up at 4:40 with my alarm and didn't notice a thing...

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

I was in San Francisco a while back standing on the pier in Fisherman's Wharf when there was what I have since found was a very minor tremor. Hilarious - all us tourists were panicking like hell, and all the locals were like "what...where....what happened????"

A little embarrassing....but gave the locals a giggle. I suspect it happens all the time though!

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

Apparently it was felt in 16 states. An expert on the news I saw said the quake was a very good thing - it released some pressure and that promotes more stability vs. letting it build up. The last time something similar was felt in Cincinnati was 1968.

We wouldn't have been aware of it at all, but our dog was very upset.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

Definitely felt it where I was. The shaking of my bed woke me up. My first thought was that it was an earthquake. I get really mean if woken up in the middle of the night ~ and I yelled really loud 'What the hell was that?" as I awoke. I was mad that I was woken up. Stayed up for a while and then went back to bed. My first earthquake that I know of.:)

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

Hi:

It also depends upon how close you are to the damn thing -- and it is roughly a logrithmic scale. A very close by 5.2 can be slightly scary. I can tell you that being 12 miles from a 6.8 at 4:31 a.m is downright frightening!

After the rumbling had finished and I turned off the water main -- the two things I remember -- 1) every car and business alarm had been set off 2) how beautiful the sky was with all the lights off from the power failure. BTW, one thing that to this day no one seems to make earthquake proof -- the porcelain tank on one toilet was shattered when the top was tossed up by the shaking and came down.

Once you go through a big one -- the little ones cause you pause and wait to see if it stops. Sometimes even a "mild" quake can be a sharp jolt. But when starts and then KEEPS ON GOING -- lets put it this way -- a minute can be an awfully long time.

Our phone rang at 7:45 and it was my father letting me know he was OK [and he was a lot closer to the quake -- we had power back at 11:30 am that day, Dad didn't get his back for 4 days.] We then called the New Jersey relatives to let them know we were OK. Funny thing is that they were telling US what was on TV from Los Angeles.

The aftershocks were not truly babies either.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

Agreed that close proximity amplifies the negative experience. I've experienced at least 4 quakes, all in the 5's, highest I think was a 5.8. One in Turkey, two in Chile and one, surprisingly, in Ontario. Haven't been through one in Peru yet, but no doubt will have that experience at some point given how much time I spend there, and will be spending more time there even more eventually. The quakes in Chile were preceded by a very loud noise akin to what it might sound like if large boulders were rolling down the street. Both times it woke me from a sound sleep. No movement, just noise. Then, soon after the noise subsides, the quake comes. People I know in La Serena, Chile, decide whether or not to get out of the house by the loudness and length of the noise that precedes the quake. I was on the phone with a friend there a few years ago when she said..wait, there is an earthquake coming, wait.....then a few seconds later she said, ok, it will just be a small one. Now what were we talking about? Very casual and matter of fact.

Agree with you on the length of the quake increasing the stress on people. The recent quake in Peru that did so much damage along the coast was a long one. Friends there, who have been through quakes before, told me that one was very disturbing due to how long the tremor lasted. They were in Lima, which suffered very little in the way of damage. I seem to remember it being reported that it lasted in the neighborhood of 2 minutes. That would feel like a lifetime, and the reason the coastal city of Pisco was nearly obliterated.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

Hi:

The 1964 Good Friday temblor in Alaska was 9.2 [8.4 on the old Richter scale] -- I understood it last for FOUR minutes. I recall the Tsunami warnings for Los Angeles coastal areas. It did cause damage up and down the California coastline including severe damage to Crescent City up near the Oregon border.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

1960:

The world's strongest recorded earthquake devastates Chile, with a reading of 9.5 on the Richter scale. A tsunami 30ft (10m) high eliminates entire villages in Chile and kills 61 hundreds of miles away in Hawaii. They also had an 8.7 in 1922.

I mentioned to my friend in La Serena once that it wasn't the quake that worried me, it was the possible tsunami. La Serena is right on the coast. She seemed to think you would have 2 hours to get out of the city, so no problem. Along with 200,000 other people trying to do the same thing. :blink:

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

This was my first quake as well. I was dreaming, so was already partially awake, when I felt our bed shaking. Just like Uga said, it was like being on some cheap hotel vibrating bed. I sat there for a few seconds, started to hear my perfume bottles rattling together, then shoke my hubby awake. We could hear what sounded like a low rumble, which is why I initially dismissed it as possibly a chopper or airplane flying too low. We are only about 150miles from the epicenter. From what the news guy said, it reached us in 37 seconds and lasted about 25 seconds. Definitely scary stuff!

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

Hi:

The Valdivia was a biggie alright.

I actually grew up in a period which was fairly quiet seismically speaking. I was in the Army when Sylmar Earthquake happened -- so I missed that one. I was unable to get through on the telephone for four days. I actually got a letter from my parents first saying they were OK. However, my company commander kindly got me to a location with a television. When I saw where the pictures were coming from, I realized that my parents neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley was relatively untouched. But I worried about my friends at what is now Cal State Northridge. One buddy from Granada Hills received a notice from the Red Cross that his family was OK.

But now, I've seen the I-5/CA14 interchange destroyed twice and rebuilt in my adult lifetime. I still try and avoid stopping in underpasses on the street despite the extensive retrofitting. I often wonder about the I-5/CA14 being named after Clarence Wayne Dean. He was the LAPD motorcyle officer who was in a rush to report for duty the morning of the Northridge quake -- he rode off the stub end of the freeway at top speed. Given the fact that the interchange had been destroyed in the last big quake, I don't think he was thinking all that clearly.

See http://www.wvdhsem.gov/WV_Disaster_L...s/image006.jpg . FWIW, the road below, the old "ridge route" was the only road between the northern suburbs and the San Fernando Valley for some months afterwards. The MetroLink rail system got used a lot.

BTW, they cleaned the rubble away a lot quicker in 1994 than in 1971.

I remember the 1987 Whittier Narrows quake, a 5.9 being scary. But I was only about 8 miles from it. At that time, my office was within a mile of the epicenter. I had to put all my books back on the shelf. The landlord had to do a lot of drywall repair and painting. The plate glass windows did not break. Go figure.

In 1994, my office in mid-Wilshire was undamaged. However, there had been a lot of dust above the false ceiling which had been shaken and deposited in the offices. We had to do a lot of vacuuming.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

You've been through a few beauties alright. I'll never forget I was watching the World Series when that quake hit. I remember the videos of the collapsed elevated highway and the announcers did not twig in at all to the fact that there would be many people dead or trapped underneath it all.

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Second response -- a lot of construction in Los Angeles has seismic consideration very much in mind -- most of which worked in 1994. Lessons are learned from each quake. Fortunately, although built in 1939, it was built bolted to its foundation [albeit 6' on center rather than the 4' required today. The retrofitter people tell me it isn't worth it to change]. I know that I stand a good chance of losing my brick chimney although it has ridden out several major quakes. If that happens, it will be replaced by a stuccoed wood framed box with a metal flue. My brother had done extensive seismic retrofitting to his 1917 house in Larchmont Village. That work involved a placement of a big "I" beam between the first and second stories and having the beam welded to a big metal post in a large caisson. In 1994, he lost his two chimneys and that was it.

I often see seismic retrofitting about where old houses still have cripple walls. When I last went house hunting, cripple walls caused us to go away without even considering the house.

Believe it or not, I get a tad nervous when I travel and I see lack of seismic consideration. The next New Madrid will cause more damage that earthquakes in LA due to that reason. To be honest, if my house should be destroyed, at least it shouldn't collapse on me while I'm still in it.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

You're right. Nothing along the New Madrid is built to earthquake standards, so it would be devastating. Chile has a serious program of quake standards for construction. But some of the older buildings in Santiago will give you a ride in a quake you won't soon forget. Lima is pretty on top of it too when it comes to major structures, but not so much when it comes to individual dwellings.
Down there they often look at you like you are weird if you want to build or frame with wood. They have no concept that wood is safer in a quake.

The there is Cusco where there are stone houses that are many centuries years old, surviving through quake after quake and barely a stone out of place. Those Incas knew how to build.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

Hi:

I remember an article about 10 years back or so, there was a training program set up in Japan to teach Japanese carpenters American construction methods. It seems that Japanese and US immigration laws are mirror image so that it was hard to determine WHERE the training could be done.

The funny thing is that American wood frame construction was developed in mid-19th century Midwest. It was developed for economy of materials and ease of construction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-frame_construction

A side advantage is that is also superior in a seismic sense -- and with fairly minor changes is even better yet. [The changes have to do with tying various elements together and also full "shear panels]. So unreinforced brick, stone and block construction is not good in a seismic sense.

Re: Earthquake in the heartland.........
 

In a quake some years ago in Japan, they were confused as to why there were so many collapsed houses...It just didn't make sense to them. They overlooked the fact that they all had tile roofs, adding weight to the top, which caused the motion of the buildings, due to the quake, to actually amplify well above what would have been normal, moving like an inverted pendulum. Boom..down went houses that otherwise would have remained standing.