Monday, April 21, 2008

Not much seismic monitoring in the Wabash Valley

Over the years, I have read a lot of papers about this seismic zone. It's a bit sad that the really big zone next door sucks in all the money. That's only for St. Louis and Memphis. What about Chicago? Don't they deserve their monitoring?

I have to laugh, because all the seismic monitoring in the States is a result of local concerns. Every tiny state university has a seismic monitoring network. That's why I probably can't get a single map of seismic coverage for that area. And if the pork does start to flow, it will probably be by state.

The Wabash is a branch fracture zone, and is greatly affected by what happens south of it. It's probably a factor of ten less active than New Madrid, but it can pop off some big earthquakes. The important thing is that it is closer to Chicago, which is woefully unprepared for earthquakes. I'm sure that they have the Mexico City 1 Hz buildings on 1 Hz soil (or 0.5 on 0.5), which will make for interesting times if they get an M 6 or 7 down there.

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