Road trip in central USA

Notes from today’s road trip from Mississippi to Michigan: we are now in the 4th state of the 7 this drive will take us through (Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan). Oddly, I just noticed that 3 of these begin with “Mi” - anyway, the sign for New Madrid, Missouri sounded vaguely familiar so I went to Wikipedia. Very interesting.

“The New Madrid Seismic Zone (/ˈmædrɪd/), sometimes called the New Madrid Fault Line, is a major seismic zone and a prolific source of intraplate earthquakes (earthquakes within a tectonic plate) in the southern and midwestern United States, stretching to the southwest from New Madrid, Missouri.

The New Madrid fault system was responsible for the 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes and has 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 eight American states: Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Mississippi.

“In a report filed in November 2008, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that a serious earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone could result in "the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States," further predicting "widespread and catastrophic" damage across Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and particularly Tennessee, where a 7.7 magnitude quake would cause damage to tens of thousands of structures affecting water distribution, transportation systems, and other vital infrastructure. The earthquake is expected to also result in many thousands of fatalities, with more than 4,000 of the fatalities expected in Memphis alone.

The potential for the recurrence of large earthquakes and their effects today on densely populated cities in and around the seismic zone has generated much research devoted to understanding in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. By studying evidence of past quakes and closely monitoring ground motion and current earthquake activity, scientists attempt to understand their causes and recurrence intervals.

In October 2009, a team composed of University of Illinois and Virginia Tech researchers headed by Amr S. Elnashai, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), considered a scenario where all three segments of the New Madrid fault ruptured simultaneously with a total earthquake magnitude of 7.7. The report found that there would be significant damage in the eight states studied – Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee – with the probability of additional damage in states farther from the NMSZ. Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri would be most severely impacted, and the cities of Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, would be severely damaged. The report estimated 86,000 casualties, including 3,500 fatalities, 715,000 damaged buildings, and 7.2 million people displaced, with two million of those seeking shelter, primarily due to the lack of utility services. Direct economic losses, according to the report, would be at least $300 billion.”

Sorry - TMI. But just imagine the catastrophe in an extensive area if those 3 parts of the Fault ruptured at the same time.

I hope that event doesn’t occur while we are driving through today ....

Ford Explorer. Filled to the ceiling, like a proper gypsy caravan.

No way! Where in MS is your home?

I didn’t realize we were close to AR until we left Memphis and plunged across the state line, as we traveled north on Interstate 55.

Had we known, daniel , we’d have waved!

That New Madrid fault line, spanning 200 km, is a scary situation. When people live in California, they understand that they live in an earthquake zone. But the possibility of earthquakes is not even considered in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee. Yet all of these states are in danger of “the big one.” That’s almost like learning that BsAs is in a tsunami zone!

I made up that tsunami zone bit. But if any tectonic plates shifted in the vicinity of the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, river water would be pushed up its tributaries.

Argentina seems to be very fortunate in not being prone to natural disasters.

Quote from Splinter

Just prone to its own home made disasters.

Isn’t that enough?!

Quote from GlasgowJohn

Just prone to having the worst politicians in the world ( well something it shares with the UK...

... and, now, the US -