How bad would an earthquake devastate Tennessee and how prepared are we?

[Tennesseestorm]

There was a 2.6 earthquake reported in Knoxville today.... nothing major for sure.

[SimCity]

Maybe it's just me...but it seems like an earthquake fault of such magnitude and activity has no business being in the middle of the North American continental plate. Most fault activity takes place on the edges of continental plates. I wish I had more geological knowledge but I wonder if the New Madrid fault is in any way associated with the ancient orogeny of the southern Appalachians,Ozarks, and Ouachita mountains?

[MidTenn1]

Maybe it's just me...but it seems like an earthquake fault of such magnitude and activity has no business being in the middle of the North American continental plate. Most fault activity takes place on the edges of continental plates. I wish I had more geological knowledge but I wonder if the New Madrid fault is in any way associated with the ancient orogeny of the southern Appalachians,Ozarks, and Ouachita mountains?

[crossroad]

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/...new_madrid.html

Look at this.

Man, how prepared are we, Tennessee, especially Memphis? It seems there is avoidance of this topic!

[Clobber]

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/...new_madrid.html

Look at this.

Man, how prepared are we, Tennessee, especially Memphis? It seems there is avoidance of this topic!

[SimCity]

I have heard the New Madrid fault is a result of the North American continent being torn apart, between the forces of the Atlantic and Pacific plates. This is the reason for the generally low elevation of this area and the resultant existence of the Mississippi River.

The fault is not a consequence of plates colliding into each other, but rather the opposite. While there may be earthquakes, the good news is, we have no volcanos.

[Rardy]

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/...new_madrid.html

Look at this.

Man, how prepared are we, Tennessee, especially Memphis? It seems there is avoidance of this topic!

[kayman]

The New Madrid Fault Zone is a lot more widespread that you think. My Geography 101 professor, Dr. Neilson, is on the National Geology Society Board, he said the New Madrid Fault Zone stretches from the Missouri/Illinois border of the Mississippi all the way well into northern Georgia. He showed me the fault line zone map and I copied and drew it myself on a map, I will attempt to recreate this map on and post soon.

I can describe it:

"The New Madrid Fault Zone begins along the Mississippi River south of St. Louis and does go into Eastern Arkansas, but it loops through Northern Mississippi and Northern Alabama where there are numerous smaller "faults" branching off there in Alabama."

Dr. Neilsen said that the New Madrid was caused by interplate stresses that are forcing it to separate.

A simliar situation exists in Southeastern Canada around and south of Montreal except they are volcanoes. Most of the "mountains" around Montrel are ancient volcanoes that formed do to the stresses with in the North American Plate.

[smeagolsfree]

Here is a link that may interest a few of you. This is part of the Emergency Plan for TN.

http://www.cusec.org/ProgMgr/manager_tn.htm

I do remember hearing that the airport in Smyrna would be the staging area for emergency operation in the event of an earthquake in Memphis.

[crossroad]

Yes it would be desirable to have Emergency Plan... However, it is the building codes and standards that matter more since once buildings are there for many years and hard to adapt to newer codes.

[TopCat]

The New Madrid fault is nothing to take lightly. Memphis is in a serious position as far as the fault goes. The silt it sits on, as posted earlier, is a major problem. According to the International Building Code (2006 version) the maximum ground motion @ 0.2 spectral response acceleration along the Mew Madrid, and right at Memphis is 300. The highest this number gets in CA is 200 that I could find on the map. So to think that the fault lines are "bigger" or "badder" out there is inaccurate. Fortunately for CA the SA fault is very active and blows off the pressure regularly in small bursts, most of the time. the NM is pretty much silent. These small quakes are a blessing really. The more of them there are, the better for us.

Nashville sits on limestone bedrock and will fare pretty well. There will be damage, especially if the New Madrid blows big. The new buildings are of course, designed for it, but 2nd Avenue could get hit hard. It is speculated that the last "big one" was equivalent to something like a 12.0. If that happens again, Memphis is going to be under the Mississippi River. Remember that this fault is the one that created Reel Foot Lake and legend says that it made the Mississippi run backwards for a while and changed the actual river bed location.

So, lets consider this...if the NM blows a big one, say a 8.0-9.0 would that be enough to cause the Wolf Creek Dam to fail?

Perhaps, maybe it would be. I don't really know the condition of the dam's footing. But isn't that it's problem? That it is being undercut? Then you have St. Louis, Memphis under the Mississippi and Nashville and towns up stream under the Cumberland.

Pretty sobering thought.