| From: | HHackerH@***.com HHackerH@***.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | New Madrid/Mighty Mississippi (RE: Europe 2060) |
| Date: | Sat, 1 Apr 2000 01:28:55 EST |
<sommers@*****.umich.edu> writes:
-=-=-=-=-
Uh, last time I checked the island of Manhattan IS on a fault line. Nothing
much has happened on it in the recent past, but then, that's a good reason
to think that there could be one.
As an aside, there is also a good sized one that's not really studied very
much running right down the center of North America along the Mississippi.
I think it was something like one good big one and a good part of Louisiana
drowns.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
So close and so very far all at once. The New Madrid fault does, for the most part,
follow the course of the Mississippi river, and is often described as a major thing should
it ever go active. It has, in the history of the united states even, altered the course
of the Mighty Mississippi not all that far from St. Louis/Alton.
As for Louisiana, it has a far bigger problem than earthquake difficulties. At it's
current rate of submersion, by the year 2040, it will be almost 40' underwater by the army
corp of engineers current estimates. It has become one the corps BIG projects actually
... with a lot of survey research going on currently (if quietly).
SHOULD an earthquake ever hit he New Madrid fault in full force (something at the R6 or
greater level), we would see a lot of topographical changes all along the river.
<Begin Ultra-Pessimistic View Mode>
On the worst, should another R6 or better quake hit the NM Fault at or around St. Louis,
the Missouri river plains could submerge into one of the largest shallow-water, in-land,
seas in history. Anyone who was present for the big floods half a dozen or more years ago
(I've got the tapes at home actually, my grandparents living in Quincy IL) has a really
good idea of this. It was enormous.
Were the quake to hit further south, no farther north than Little Rock Arkansas, the
effects might be limited somewhat, and we might see a lot of property damage only, simply
because the building codes in the Midwest/River states are NOT the same as they are along
the West Coast, but the ground in that region of the country is more "solid".
However, were the quake to trigger further south than this (Louisiana boundaries), then
the Big Easy is likely to take more than just a bath in the Gulf.
As it stands now, the only real threat we are imminently looking at is the Big Easy's slow
subsidence into the Gulf and it's surrounding marshes as well. On a report I watched on
Discovery, and verified later through web research, I had some problem imagining the whole
thing at first, by 2040, at the least problem, best option, New Orleans will be direct,
ocean front property.
Part of this problem has to do with what has been done to the Mississippi river further
north above the city. All the diking and controlling it has now does not allow for the
river to disperse it mega-millions of tons of water and silt like it should. All of that
literally plumes out into the Gulf now, as far as 60 miles out actually now (go check out
the Terraserver websites and see that stuff for yourself). Absolutely mind-boggling IMO.
I've was born in Quincy, and lived on the Illinois for a long time. The stories about the
"quakes" are weird variations on urban myths there, but they do exist and make
you have a chance to realize that the fault holds a silent sway over the land and rivers
both.
Want to hear something odd? An R4 level quake in california is barely felt more than 100
miles, if your sensitive, away from the epicenter. In the midwest, an R4 quake can be
felt almost 300 miles away and shakes furnite at times, depending upon the actual property
the furniture is on. Now make that an R7-8 range quake (which is what some are predicting
for the New Madrid btw), and just imagine the effects. Chicago itself will rock with more
than just the sounds of music.... ;-)
-Keith
