New Madrid -- DEWs? Plate shifting? Big quake?

[Ninurta]

@"Ninurta", it's not the New Madrid fault line that runs near me. Don't know what I was thinking (or in this case, not thinking). It's a different one.  Too close for comfort!

If you look into the quakes represented by individual dots in that zone, they are all almost invariably smaller ones. These mountains were created around 300 million years ago in the collision of two tectonic plates, and that collision also created the fault lines and fractures. Over time, it has had 300 million years to work out most of it's energy, so the slips and quakes are generally less energetic now, so no worries.

If New Madrid has a large slip, however, it can get transmitted through the bedrock between here and there, and could potentially create a swarm of smaller quakes locally for us as the underlying strata seek equilibrium. Smaller quakes can still be scary. That one I mentioned earlier in VA that we felt in NC was strong enough at our location to create a crack in the wall just above the fireplace.

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