Future History: The New Madrid Seismic Zone

[Mike Stearns]

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/06/22/new.madrid.quake/index.html

Its the year 2010 and the NMSZ unleashes seismic triple play on the United States, generating three earthquakes in a one week period ranging from 7 to 9 on the Richter scale. The shock waves are felt all over the mid-West, as far east as the Carolinas, and as far north as Canada. What happens next.

[Chris Oakley]

For starters,KC and St.Louis are screwed with a capital S.They're literally wiped off the face of the earth.And Chicago?The town fathers are going to have a hell of a problem cleaning up all the broken glass that'll be lying around after the Sears Tower collapses.

[Mike Stearns]

For starters,KC and St.Louis are screwed with a capital S.They're literally wiped off the face of the earth.And Chicago?The town fathers are going to have a hell of a problem cleaning up all the broken glass that'll be lying around after the Sears Tower collapses.


Not to mention the hospitals being overloaded with people who've been injured by flying glass, of course that's assuming that there are any hospitals left standing.

[JLCook]

Just have Mt. Ranier do a MAJOR, Plinean eruption, say on par with Krakatoa!

[Mike Stearns]

That would be messy, not to mention destory the volcano.

[Bulldawg85]

The really bad thing would be if the quake set off the caldera underneath Yellowstone. :eek:

[Mike Stearns]

Lets hope not. That would finish off the United States and probably Canada too.

[Bulldawg85]

That much ash and soot in the air would probably take care of any lingering fear of global warming. :o

[Nik]

Quick check on Volcano site confirms Indonesian Event did NOT set off any of the dozen grumbling volcanoes in the region: it tumbled unstable slopes, spilled some lava pools etc, but all minor stuff...

Big worry for NMSZ is that it may lurch in sympathy with San Andreas and/or the off-shore subduction mega-fault...

Hmm: I can't find resonance 'slosh' times for the Great Lakes. They could be susceptible to an earth-quake induced 'Seiche', the fresh-water equivalent of a tsunami.

Last thing Chicago needs is to become the 'Atlantis of the North', after a tidal wave rolls up the Chicago River then over the watershed into the Mississippi catchment...

Added : Gotcha !! Duh, worse than I'd feared...

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2004/alm04jun.htm
http://www.geo.msu.edu/geo333/seiches.htm

[Mike Stearns]

Well, I dn't know how likely it is, but if you believe the scenario put forward in the book, 8.4 by Peter Hernon, as being likely ,then the possibility exists that the NMSZ could actually split the Mississippi River wide open, allowing the Gulf of Mexico to flood the American heart land. That combined with nation wide earthquake damage could cause major problems.

[Max Sinister]

That much ash and soot in the air would probably take care of any lingering fear of global warming. :o

That'd be the only good thing about it... but that effect'd be only temporary

[Torqumada]

That'd be the only good thing about it... but that effect'd be only temporary

Umm not really. The ash would probably be short term, but the gases would stay up for a long time. A major volcanic explosion, like the Yellowstone Caldera more than likely would initiate a new ice age. Both The Discovery channel and National Geographic have run recent programs on the effects of an eruption at Yellowstone.

A major earthquake in the New Madrid fault would probably be devestating, as the buildings in that area aren't desgined for earthquakes, but for floods. Not sure about the Missippi being split, but it could certainly be reoruted, like it was the last time. Most of the bridges could probably collapse, seperating East from West.

Torqumada

[wkwillis]

The earthquake would really screw over what's left of America's industrial economy. Major road, electrical, railroad, pipeline, optical fiber, and barge bottlenecks there.