4 ms·

I come from the New Madrid Fault area of the Mississippi River. California's faults are hilariously weak in comparison to what New Madrid does/did. When one of

I come from the New Madrid Fault area of the Mississippi River. California's faults are hilariously weak in comparison to what New Madrid does/did. When one of California's faults can shift the entirety of the Mississippi River basin for a couple thousand miles, then I'll worry. Until then, you're probably better off worrying about the residents of Memphis, because if New Madrid happens to break out like it did in 1811, Memphis will sink into the aquifer upon which it was built. People like to joke about California 'falling into the water' with a big earthquake - Memphis is pretty much the only place in the country which has the actual chance of such an event happening due to its geographical location.

kaikai 7y ago
Wow, I’d never heard of the new Madrid fault, but FEMA said a recurrence if that earthquake series would cause thousands of fatalities! In California we’re aware of earthquakes since they happen with some regularity. Places like Oregon and apparently the Midwest scare me more, since they don’t have that low-level awareness (including building codes that take earthquakes into account).
- snowwrestler 7y ago
  If you're thinking of the maximum potential for a single quake event to impact human lives, the Newark Basin is high on the list due to its location. It's close to some of the highest concentrations of population in the nation, in an area of the continental plate that transmits seismic energy efficiently, and the vast majority of buildings nearby have zero earthquake resistance. Earthquakes seem rare and relatively randomly distributed, so, as with New Madrid, the likelihood is definitely lower than it is in California. But the deep subsurface geology in the Basin is older, more complex, and less well understood than the plate boundary along the west coast. It's hard to rule out the possibility of a quake that would be big enough to have significant impacts on New York, Boston, etc.

kaikai 7y ago

Wow, I’d never heard of the new Madrid fault, but FEMA said a recurrence if that earthquake series would cause thousands of fatalities! In California we’re aware of earthquakes since they happen with some regularity. Places like Oregon and apparently the Midwest scare me more, since they don’t have that low-level awareness (including building codes that take earthquakes into account).

snowwrestler 7y ago
If you're thinking of the maximum potential for a single quake event to impact human lives, the Newark Basin is high on the list due to its location. It's close to some of the highest concentrations of population in the nation, in an area of the continental plate that transmits seismic energy efficiently, and the vast majority of buildings nearby have zero earthquake resistance. Earthquakes seem rare and relatively randomly distributed, so, as with New Madrid, the likelihood is definitely lower than it is in California. But the deep subsurface geology in the Basin is older, more complex, and less well understood than the plate boundary along the west coast. It's hard to rule out the possibility of a quake that would be big enough to have significant impacts on New York, Boston, etc.