Earthquakes in NWA?

[Mith242]

I remember a few weeks ago about they're being a pretty small earthquake centered near Centerton. Sounds like they're was another small earthquake while I was gone last week as well near Rogers. You certainly don't think earthquakes when you think NWA. But there are faults in the area. There's at least four sizable faultlines in NWA. All run in a southwest/northeast line. There's one near Huntsville, one near Fayetteville (Zero Mtn is actually a fault zone), one near Bentonville and one near Decatur. But they aren't active fault zones like you see at the edge of tectonic plates like on the west coast. I believe I heard there's been a number of small earthquakes in central Arkansas recently. I think northeast Arkansas has them on a somewhat often occurrence. If there's enough activity in nearby areas I suppose it could cause a slight jolt along the faults in NWA.

But someone at the U of A recently came out with a different theory. That they're not really earthquakes but caves/caverns collapsing due to the heavy rainfall. We all know there are small caves all over the area, we live in a karst region so caves are pretty common. Anyway I thought the whole thing interesting and thought I'd actually mention it.

[Mith242]

As more details are being worked out looks like scientists are leaning more to the recent tremors being earthquakes rather than cavern collapses. One of the earthquakes' position has been revised. Moving it closer to Bentonville rather than Centerton and also saying it's much deeper than initially thought. Apparently the name of the fault near Bentonville is called the Bella Vista Fault. Although from what I've seen of it, it looks much closer to Bentonville. No idea what the others are called.

[zman9810]

As more details are being worked out looks like scientists are leaning more to the recent tremors being earthquakes rather than cavern collapses. One of the earthquakes' position has been revised. Moving it closer to Bentonville rather than Centerton and also saying it's much deeper than initially thought. Apparently the name of the fault near Bentonville is called the Bella Vista Fault. Although from what I've seen of it, it looks much closer to Bentonville. No idea what the others are called.

This whole situation is fascinating- the fact that the epicenter was 12 miles down seems to rule out the cavern collapse although it could have been a combination of earthquake and collapse. I hope it leads to more study of the geology of the region. It seems a little silly to be getting earthquake insurance though- an overreaction to news reports about quakes in areas of the world that are very quake prone.

[Mith242]

The earthquake scenario overall probably makes more sense. I think the biggest problem with the cavern collapse scenario was that we had two caverns collapsing in such a short time period. I just think overall the world is in an active period for tectonic plates. We've had quite a few earthquakes and volcanic eruptions the past year.

[Mith242]

Looks like we had yet another small quake in NWA. This time it was centered a bit northeast of Rogers near part of Beaver Lake. I didn't catch how strong it was but I'm assuming it was around the size of the others, barely noticeable to most.

[Mith242]

Sounds like we had yet another small quake on Thursday a bit north of Springdale. I'm pretty sure there's been a number of them in central Arkansas as well. I think they just had one last weekend. Sorta funny how all this activity just sorta popped up like this. But in reality they've all been very small and most people haven't even really noticed them. Nor is that probably going to change. I think northeast Arkansas gets these types of quakes quite a lot and people tend to just ignore it.

[Mith242]

We've apparently had a couple more small tremors in the area recently. I still think it's premature to get worried. From what I'm hearing there's been a lot more seismic activity all over the world. I think we've entered a more active pattern. It is a bit of a surprise to see our area getting as much activity as it has been. But I still just don't see our area becoming another 'New Madrid'.

[zman9810]

We've apparently had a couple more small tremors in the area recently. I still think it's premature to get worried. From what I'm hearing there's been a lot more seismic activity all over the world. I think we've entered a more active pattern. It is a bit of a surprise to see our area getting as much activity as it has been. But I still just don't see our area becoming another 'New Madrid'.

I wonder if it isn't just that we are more aware of every little thing that happens in the world now...there is so much more monitoring and with evermore sophisticated equipment that we hear about all sorts of events that we didn't used to. News races around the world 24/7 so we hear about it all. Earthquakes are a prime example- there is more awareness of them now than ever. They make great media stories also. The potential for a disaster always makes for a great news story no matter how small a chance there is of it happening.

[Mith242]

After all the earthquake talk, there had been more reported tremors in the area since the last post. Including one in central Arkansas that some local residents said they felt. They've come to the conclusion that at least several of them were actually blasts at local quarries. Sorta surprised it took someone long enough to come to that conclusion.

[Mith242]

Haven't really updated this topic in a while. Of course there's been quite a few small earthquakes in north central Arkansas. I think the biggest was a 4.3. While not tied directly to the natural gas drilling. It sounds like it might be tied to the secondary drilling where they get rid of their 'fracking' fluids. Also sounds like they discovered a new small unknown fault north of the Conway area.

But in more recent news, I think we've all heard about the massive earthquake in Japan by now. Ironically that earthquake actually showed up on the earthquake equipment stationed at Hobbs State Park. Really something to imagine that it actually registered all the way over here.