The state of Illinois is at risk from two major seismic zones, the New Madrid Seismic Zone, and the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone. The New Marid Seismic Zone is located in the Central Mississippi Valley and includes portions of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The Wabash Valley Zone is located between southeastern Illinois and southwestern Indiana.
The earliest report of an earthquake in Illinois is in the year of 1795 at Kaskaskia. This particular phenomenon only lasted for a minute and a half. Subterranean noises were heard and it was also felt as far as Kentucky. Due to the thin frontier population, an accurate location is not possible and the shock may have originated outside the State. Among the largest earthquakes occurring in Illinois was the May 26, 1909, a vibration which knocked over many chimneys in Aurora, a suburb of Chicago. It was felt over 500 thousand square miles and strongly felt in Iowa and Wisconsin. Buildings flexed in Chicago where there was fear that the walls would collapse.
Less than two months later a second intensity VII earthquake struck on July 18, knocking down chimneys in Petersburg, Illinois, and at Hannibal, Missouri, and Davenport, Iowa. Over twenty windows were broken, bricks loosened and plaster cracked in the Petersburg area. It was felt over only 40,000 square miles.
Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) has mapped out areas and earthquake zones of Illinois. The most dangerous zones are located in the southern part of the state. IEMA has also made available online several prepare guides and checklists for disasters. The state also has a READY Illinois initiative to help with the outreach of disaster planning. Illinois' Ready to...
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... mitigation strategies. Analysis of several landslides within the New Madrid Seismic Zone indicated that the landslides were stable, but failure is possible during an earthquake of the magnitude experienced in 1812.
Works Cited
"IEMA Links." Illinois Disaster Recovery Plan (IDRP). N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. .
"IEMA Links." Welcome to IEMA. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. .
"Illinois State Geological Survey." Earthquakes. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. .
Puchner, Martin. The Norton anthology of world literature. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2012. Print.
"The Great Central U.S. ShakeOut - Get Ready!." The Great Central U.S. ShakeOut - Get Ready!. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. .
Illinois State Geological Survey, 2005, Time Talks – The Geology of Starved Rock and Matthiessen State Parks
Tectonic plate movement can occur as close as two and up to 450 miles below the Earth’s surface. According to the Indiana Geological Survey, Indiana’s fault lines are further underground than those in California and Alaska, causing more minor quakes in the Midwest. However, Hoosiers should heed the recent earthquake as a warning for future quakes. Earthquakes can and do happen in Indiana, and almost anywhere else in the world. This is the one natural disaster that people cannot avoid no matter their location on Earth. And, being unprepared can have devastating results.
When the quake, registering 6.1 on the Richter scale, first struck, it was thought to be centered along the Old Whittier Fault. However, after extensive study, it was determined that it was actually the result of a "new" fault, or a fault that had not previously been discovered by scientists.
"The Great Quake: 1906-2006 / Rising from the Ashes." SFGate. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014.
New Madrid earthquake of 1811-1812 was known to be “one of the most powerful earthquake felt throughout the Eastern United State”(2,75) . “December 16, 1811 at 2 a.m”(1). , the first earthquake had struck in the Northern part of Arkansas through Missouri. “This earthquake occurred in Central Mississippi Valley”(2,2) . New Madrid fault is located in the northern part of Missouri and southern part of Illinois. On the morning of December 16, 1811, when the earthquake struck; “people were scared”(10,26) , they ran out of their houses as the trees were falling onto the ground and the ground was breaking up. After the earthquake ended, around 7 a.m., one of the largest aftershock occurred and it was known to be a destructive shock because
At 5:12 in the morning of Wednesday, April 18, 1906 an earthquake struck the City of San Francisco according to seismograph records. People remembered this event as especially violent and everyone within the vicinity woke up to white dust in the air from fallen debris. As remembered by a bystander of the event, “I was awakened by a very severe shock of earthquake. The shaking was so violent that it nearly threw me out of bed... As soon as it was over, I got up and went to the window, and saw the street filled with a white dust” (Stetson, 21). The strong shaking lasted from 45 to 60 seconds, which people felt from as far north as southern Oregon and as far south as Los Angeles. The earthquake caused the water supply to shut off. As a result of the lack of water supply, firefighters cou...
benchmark for the future, and integrated investigation into the effects of earthquakes in the U.S.
The San Francisco Earthquake commenced at five thirteen o’clock in the morning, with the epicenter offshore of San Francisco. The city carried more than 400,000 people during this event (Earthquake of 1906, 1). Most of the
The New Madrid Earthquake is referred to the area that exposed to the robust earthquakes in the United States of America. The area is located in Southeastern Missouri, Northeastern Arkansas, Western Tennessee, Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois, which is the most active seismic in the USA east of the Rocky Mountains. Historically, in 1811-1812, the New Madrid seismic zone suffered a sequence of earthquakes that included three very large earthquakes estimated to be between magnitude 7 and 8, which led to destroy most of the buildings. Therefore, the man-mad infrastructures were a main cause of injuries and deaths among population (United States Geological Survey, 2016).
Stretching from the Flathead Lake region in the northwest corner of the state of Montana, to the Yellowstone National Park where the borders of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming get together, the Intermountain Seismic Belt exists. The Intermountain Seismic Belt has an unbelievable width of 100 kilometers in western Montana alone. This is one of the major reason why Montana is one of the most seismically-active states in the United States of America.
The Tangshan earthquake was the second deadliest earthquake on record. It began in Tangshan, China at 3:42 on July 28, 1976 and took many lives. The citizens and their families were asleep when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake began to violently shake the ground beneath them. Earthquakes in China average at around 4.7 magnitude so, this one unordinary. The earthquake was caused when two underground plates moved past one another and eventually broke from all of the built up pressure. Citizens were unable to scramble to safety in time because the novice systems failed to detect the earthquake in time. Tangshan officials relied on surveying the land and how the storm altered the surrounding environment. Because of the power of this earthquake, it caused
Before examining the Northridge event, understanding the naturally occurring hazard that is an earthquake will help to better understand exactly what happened and why it was such an important geological event. With four distinct layers, two layers, the crust and upper portion of the mantle, compose the skin that is the surface layer of the Earth. The crust is not a single, continuous piece. It is actually several different pieces, or plates, that come together to form the puzzle that comprises the surface of the Earth. These plates are in constant motion rubbing against one another. These areas, known as fault lines, where the plates rub up against one another have spots where one plate ”gets stuck while the rest of the plate keeps moving. When the plate has moved far enough, the edges unstick and is how most of the earthquakes around the world occur” (Wald, 2012). The energy stored from the friction of the two plate...
On October 10, 1138 in the city of Aleppo north of Syria a small quake shook the Aleppo region. Residents of the area fled to surrounding towns because of the first quake. The Aleppo earthquake of 1139 was felt 220 miles away to the south and was the beginning of two intense sequences of earthquakes. The first sequence occurred on October 1138-June 1939 which affected the areas of Aleppo and the west part of Edessa which is part of Turkey today. The second sequence occurred from September 1139-May 1139 and this affected an area that includes north-west Syria and north part of Lebanon.
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). (2011). Seismic Events of Special Interest [Brochure]. Author. Retrieved April 15, 2014, from http://www.iris.edu/hq/files/publications/brochures_onepagers/doc/EN_OnePager4.pdf
Whereas more stable land, where the landscape is even and buildings are located in land, can make them fairly resistant to earthquake waves, the soil type can also cause issues, exacerbating the strength and leading to an increased risk of damage. This is the case in China, where many buildings were built on uneven land and due to being located in a mountainous area, rock slides and responses where made harder by the physical geography of the area, which shows how even MEDCS can be more vulnerable during larger