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Central U.S. Earthquake Info

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the rock-and-roll dept.

ronbo142 writes "The United States Geological Survey site has real time (or close to it) information on the now two significant events of the day. Check out their site to enter your experience and view other event specific information."

6 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Click-through by saveth · · Score: 4, Informative

    With the supplied link, you need to click through to the Illinois data set.

    Or, just click this one: http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/cus/

  2. Only one moderate quake and an aftershock by Somegeek · · Score: 5, Informative

    The summary makes it seem like there have been two different big quakes. In actuality there was a moderate 5.2 followed by what is apparently a 4.6 aftershock.

    --
    And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
  3. Webicorders? by jd · · Score: 3, Informative
    In the Pacific Northwest, there are webicorders - online seismographs for the volcanos and other potentially unstable regions. The major earthquake that caused the devastating 26 Dec (Boxing Day) tsunami a few years back showed up extremely clearly on these. The shockwaves were not just large enough to register, but large enough to show up as a massive feature. If those graphs are still online, they would make for good material in a basic course on geology.

    What I don't know is whether there is anything comparable in the areas affected by these central US tremors. A description of experiences is useful, but plenty of reports will have those. Those are easy to come by. Much rarer is actual raw data, actual hard information on the nature of the quake. A quantitative experience, rather than a qualitative one. There will be much more to the story than what could be felt or described through experience, and that "more" bit is the bit that seperates understanding from simply witnessing. The latter facilitates understanding but is not a substitute for it.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  4. Re:Not a big deal by AbsoluteXyro · · Score: 3, Informative

    While other threats like severe weather are much more imminent, I wouldn't write off the possibility of a major quake in the mid-US. Anywhere there are active faults, it isn't matter of if, but when. You should all at least have a basic understanding of what to do to protect yourself during a quake, and this little shake-up should serve as a reminder.

  5. New Madrid fault line by jonfr · · Score: 4, Informative

    The main earthquake and the aftershock are on an fault line known as the New Madrid fault line. This fault line is known for making earthquakes up to 8 on the ricther scale. Last time that did happen was in the 19th century.

    I am fairly sure that this event now is part of normal movement of the fault line, due to happen every 20 to 50 years.

    People in the area should expect aftershocks in the next one or two weeks, maybe longer. Btu the aftershock pattern depends on many factors that I don't know all.

    For those interested the waveform of the earthquake was recorded by people interested in recording earthquakes in nearby states. The plots can be seen here, http://www.simnet.is/jonfr500/earthquake/othersten.htm

    But I have collected them into one nice web page. The data is near real time and is updated every 5 min, at least that is the case for most of the plots

  6. Re:Foreshocks, or is that it? by node+3 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Foreshocks only become foreshocks once the main quake happens.

    Or, put differently, to know these are foreshocks before the main quake happens requires a level of earthquake prediction we do not yet have.