Earthquake...

[Buckeye Ranger]

I don't know why people think there aren't any earthquakes in the Great Lakes or Midwest. Yes, there are. They aren't all that rare.

And for those who think all earthquakes happen in California, look up the following bits of trivia:

1. How many of the top ten historical earthquakes in the Lower 48 occurred in California?
2. In what state in the Lower 48 did the largest historical earthquake happen?
3. Where was the largest earthquake ever recorded anywhere?

The truth is that California has a very large number of small earthquakes that don't do much. Occasional outliers occur, but they aren't the most damaging or the most energetic.

California is ranked #2 based on greatest magnitude achieved every year. If you want to count how many Quakes occured in Cali compared to the lower 48... Cali had 6 in the top 10. It goes: New Madrid, Missouri, Fort Tejon, California, Owens Valley, California, Imperial Valley, California, New Madrid, Missouri area, San Francisco, California, Pleasant Valley, Nevada, New Madrid, Missouri, Landers, California, Kern County, California.

So 6 outta the top 10 are in California Pretty sure u can draw a conclusion from that info that most Quakes are in Cali, (or the west coast).

The Largest Historical Earthquake In The Lower 48 is TIED between New Madrid, Missouri (1812) & Fort Tejon California (1857). So what is your point here it doesnt make your "Cali isnt the only place for Quakes" stronger...

Largest Earthquake ever recorded is in 1964 in Prince William Sound, Alaska in the US... World Wide Chile had the largest Quake rating a 9.5 in 1960.

Most of us people that thought this was really crazy are from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky... That have not had this experience before. I know that Ohio only had this experience one other time in 1986 up in Cleveland they felt a little shake. So how are you going to say that its not a rarity around here compared to Cali where yall have em all the time... Not get'n what you are try'n to prove here to much...I mean when 6 of the top ten historical quakes happen in Cali... What you try'n to prove here? The largest Quake in US history in the lower 48 is a tie between Cali N Missouri... AGAIN what are you try'n to prove? And for the largest quake ever recorded is Chile world wide and Alaska... Still dunno what you are try'n to prove. So in conclusion its pretty damn rare to see "earthquakes" over here in the "midwest".

 

[MAKG]

Two tenths of a point in magnitude is considerably more significant than you think.

And the Mercali scale is more reliable, as that is a direct measure of damage caused by the earthquake. And Landers wasn't THAT big. The difference between a 7.4 (Landers) and an 8.2 (largest New Madrid) would have been hundreds of thousands of lives had New Madrid been populated similar to Landers.

New Madrid appears THREE times in the list because there were THREE major events, months apart.

The point is not that earthquakes don't happen in California. Clearly they do. But the largest ones do not occur on strike-slip faults. If the top ten list includes the entire US, it's almost completely filled with Alaskan quakes associated with the Aleutian subduction zone. Some with magnitudes over 9.0 and shaking events lasting several minutes.