NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The rare earthquake that shook the East coast on Tuesday afternoon is causing some folks in the mid-state to look twice at our own earthquake threat from the New Madrid fault.
The fault has caused massive earthquakes before including four of the largest earthquakes in North America's history.
The massive quakes in 1811 and 1812 caused the Mississippi River to supposedly flow backwards and created Reelfoot Lake.
"The geologists and seismologists tell us that we're probably going to experience some type of event which will cause damages, about a 50 percent chance in the next 60 years. And so we're ready, we want everybody in the state to be ready for that," said Cecil Whaley with TEMA.
Experts said there's no need to panic, like many did in 1990 when a seismologist said the conditions were right for a massive earthquake. Fortunately, that prediction did not come to pass.
The magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck Virginia on Tuesday was the largest on the East Coast since one of the same strength in New York in 1944.
The epicenter of Tuesday's quake, which hit at 1:51 p.m. EDT, was 3.7 miles underground near Mineral, Va., and about 90 miles southwest of Washington. It could be felt as far south as South Carolina and up into Martha's Vineyard where President Barack Obama was vacationing.
It was the largest in Virginia since a 5.9 temblor in 1897. The largest East Coast quake on record was a 7.3 in South Carolina in 1886.
No comments:
Post a Comment