New Madrid Fault - A Threat to Ohio (Cincinnati, Dayton: 2014, insurance)

[gottaq]

The New Madrid Fault, near St. Louis, is one of the most dangerous siezmic zones in the world. If there were to be another 8.0 earthquake, like a few hundred years ago, do you think this would affect Ohio? Or is OH too far away from any major damage?

[bluecarebear]

There are earthquakes in the Youngstown area due to fracking. I am sure other places of Ohio and PA are experiencing them. Strange thing happened the other night. My car, which is parked in a level area, rolled back several feet. That has never happened before. I wouldn't be surprised if it was from an unnoticeable quake since drilling has increased in the Pittsburgh area.

[dxdtdemon]

Lots of earthquakes happened in this area before fracking as well. There've been quite a number of 4-5 magnitude earthquakes around Dayton and I can barely feel them when they happen.

[SWOH]

OP, it would affect SW Ohio, Cincinnati in particular. It is still within the seismic zone because the vibration would travel up the Ohio River.

[IDtheftV]

Ohio is considered to be in the New Madrid Fault zone. What the OP is talking about is a great quake that happened in 1811 and again in 1812 with an epicenter just NW of Memphis. There were aftershocks all through the whole year that would have been big enough to be the biggest in known history were it not for the huge Dec, 2011 and Jan-Feb, 2012 events.

You can read about it here if you don't already know as much as you want already: 1811 ( wiki )

Earthquakes centered in the region can be felt much further away than the ones that happen in CA.

It can be seen in the sedimentary records that significant earthquakes have happened before 1811.

The thing is that we don't really know how many earthquakes have happened over geologic time. We look at our own puny lifespans and say "this never happened before," but we don't really know. The biggest quake I ever felt was in Dayton in 1980 or so. Most people didn't even know what it was - even if they felt it.

Within our limited history in Ohio, it is known that OH is a seismically active area. Some of this is due to "rebound." The surface is "bouncing" back due to the retreat of the great ice sheets. This is a totally different phenomenon than tectonic-movements that cause earthquakes. From the standpoint of a brick chimney, it doesn't matter. It feels the same.

Any claims that fracking has anything to do with earthquakes are just crap. There is no way that drilling a fraction of a mile into the miles-deep crust of the earth is going to make it move. If it really worked that way, ND and TX would be plagued with them. All the reports of fracking causing earthquakes are coming out of already "busy" areas quake-wise. East of the Rockies, OH is about the most quake-prone state there is.

Chimneys have been falling in Ohio for centuries. The fact that someone doesn't remember it personally is irrelevant. I've been interested in earthquakes in Ohio long before the Utica or Marcellus gas drilling started.

As for the "New Madrid" fault, it could rip hundreds of miles N of the town of New Madrid or hundreds of miles S. It could rip this year or not for another 1,000 years. The thing is one day, it's going to rip. All those mountains to the East of OH didn't happen by accident. The N. American techtonic plate is being pushed W by the Mid-Atlantic rift. That pressure has to be relieved somewhere. If it happens well into Indiana, there are big buildings in Ohio that are going to come down.

Here is a good place to look at the history of quakes in OH: Ohio There are lots of other pieces of literature available on quakes in OH.

List of earthquakes in all states in the US ( that we know of ) http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...state.php#ohio

[RiverLover11]

It will be interesting to see how the fracking waste injection wells change things. Or maybe they'll just start dumping the radioactive waste in landfills to avoid earthquakes, like they are doing here in Ohio.

National Geographic~~
Scientists Warn of Quake Risk From Fracking Operations
Tremors induced by wastewater disposal are larger and harder to predict than previously thought

"Underground disposal of wastewater from fracking may pose a much greater risk of causing dangerous earthquakes than previously believed, particularly in areas of the U.S. Southwest and Midwest where earthquake faults have not been mapped extensively, seismology researchers said at a conference Thursday."
Scientists Warn of Quake Risk From Fracking Operations

& this,

Confirmed: Fracking practices to blame for Ohio earthquakes

"...Kim stressed these earthquakes are not directly related to fracking of rock for natural gas. "They are due to injection of waste fluid from fracking," he noted.

In the future, "we need to find better ways to image hidden subsurface faults and fractures, which is costly at the moment," Kim said. "If there are hidden subsurface faults near the injection wells, then sooner or later they can trigger earthquakes."

In the future, operators of such wells may look for earthquakes for about six months after the beginning of operations, Kim said."

Confirmed: Fracking practices to blame for Ohio earthquakes - NBC News

The only ones that deny what scientists are saying are the oil industry & IDtheftV.

[ohioaninsc]

In my Cincinnati office building a few yrs ago, I remember feeling the earthquake that hit just outside of Washington DC that damaged the Washington Monument...that was only a 5.4 or something...so yes if the New Madrid fault had a big one, most of Ohio would feel it.

I think if another big one hit Charleston, SC like the 1886 quake, we'd also feel it...earthquakes east of the Rockies are felt for hundreds of miles out from the epicenter. The 1886 Charleston quake rang church bells in Boston and was felt in the Bahamas.

[no1brownsfan]

Originally Posted by ohioaninsc

In my Cincinnati office building a few yrs ago, I remember feeling the earthquake that hit just outside of Washington DC that damaged the Washington Monument...that was only a 5.4 or something...so yes if the New Madrid fault had a big one, most of Ohio would feel it.

I think if another big one hit Charleston, SC like the 1886 quake, we'd also feel it...earthquakes east of the Rockies are felt for hundreds of miles out from the epicenter. The 1886 Charleston quake rang church bells in Boston and was felt in the Bahamas.

We felt that one here in Northeast Ohio too. I was sitting at my desk in the office wrapping up my lunch hour when all of a sudden I felt like my equilibrium was off, as if you were on a boat that was gently rocking. I was like "why am I getting a dizzy spell?" Then one of my coworkers yelled, "did you guys feel that?" In which I and another coworker responded that we did.

[jbcmh81]

The Eastern US is extremely susceptible to earthquake damage, because the energy waves are able to travel great distances in the type of rock that exists underneath the region. The 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquake sequence is one of the most famous in history. There were at least 3, perhaps 4 events between December 11th and February 23rd at a minimum of magnitude 7. Recent research has questioned just how large they were, but the strongest, the last one in February, was likely between 7.5 and 8.2. This caused damage as far away as the East Coast. In between and after the large events, the ground had near constant activity, with literally thousands of aftershocks, with perhaps a few dozen in the 5-6 range. Ohio cities at the time were basically villages, if they existed at all, but I know Cincinnati did suffer some damage... there just wasn't that much to damage. If the same kind of event happened today, it would be pretty catastrophic for a large portion of the Midwest. Widespread damage would occur for about 1,000 miles out, so Ohio would definitely be in the range. If the quake was in the 8 range, you'd see damage in the state in the form of collapsed buildings, etc. So yeah, it would be a significant event if it happened again, but few seismologists believe a repeat is likely within the next 100 years at least.

[IDtheftV]

Originally Posted by jbcmh81

If the same kind of event happened today, it would be pretty catastrophic for a large portion of the Midwest. Widespread damage would occur for about 1,000 miles out, ...

Still, the New Madrid is like the San Andreas Fault - it runs for miles. In 1906, the great quake of San Francisco was felt in Los Angeles, but barely. If the epicenter of a new big one happens in Indiana then, damage in Cinncinnati would be catastrophic. In Memphis, it might cause insurance claims.

I read that there is evidence of many earlier large ones, but I don't remember if it mentioned evidence of epicenters of large ones outside of the New Madrid-Memphis area.

The 1811-1812 event was known for "sand geysers" ( blows ) that shot up hundreds of feet in the air. In the river deposits, these are visible. There are old sand geysers much older than 1811 in evidence. That's how they know that 1811 wasn't the first time. Other than that, they don't know if it's going to be one day or another.

If you haven't already seen such things, here are pictures.

Originally Posted by jbcmh81

.... few seismologists believe a repeat is likely within the next 100 years at least.

Of course, people ask seismologists all the time what the chances are, but they are just giving odds, like what are the odds that you'll roll a pair? Sooner or later, a pair will come up. There is no set time when it will happen. It might happen the next roll, it also might not happen for 100 rolls.

On average there is a great quake in the Bay Area every 60 years, where the 1989 Loma Prieta event doesn't count. The last one was in 1906. The next one might not be till 2106. Nobody knows.

The next time the New Madrid rips just might be before some random person ( no idea who ) posts something about fracking in this thread that is not related to fracking ( where the current sentence doesn't count ... ).