The Great Milwaukee Earthquake of 2004

Tim J. wrote:

Having an earthquake in the Midwest puts an entirely different perspective on
things. Will everything west of Milwaukee slide into the Pacific, or will
Milwaukee have beach front property on the Atlantic? Hmmm. . .

"Most people think that destructive earthquakes only occur in the
western United States. To the contrary, St. Louis is located in the most
active seismic zone east of the Rocky Mountains. In the winter of
1811-1812 the Central Mississippi Valley was struck by three of the most
powerful earthquakes in U.S. history. The Great New Madrid Earthquake
was actually a series of over 2000 shocks in five months, five of which
were 8.0 or more in magnitude. Eighteen of these rang church bells on
the Eastern seaboard. The very land itself was destroyed in the Missouri
Bootheel, making it unfit for farming for many years. It was the largest
burst of seismic energy east of the Rocky Mountains in the history of
the U.S. and was several times larger than the San Francisco quake of 1905."

http://stlouis.about.com/cs/maps/a/newmadrid.htm

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

"rw" wrote...
Tim J. wrote:

Having an earthquake in the Midwest puts an entirely different perspective
on
things. Will everything west of Milwaukee slide into the Pacific, or will
Milwaukee have beach front property on the Atlantic? Hmmm. . .

"Most people think that destructive earthquakes only occur in the
western United States. To the contrary,
snip

Yeah, I know. However, they don't talk about the "doom" factor like they do when
quakes hit the west coast. Having grown up in Calif., it became a bit of a joke
when the quakes would hit and the soothsayers would predict us sliding out to
sea.

If you're from Southern California and haven't seen the Steve Martin movie "L.A.
Story", which satirizes the SoCal lifestyle, there is a thirty-second scene
worth watching where Martin and friends are dining at a fancy coffee shop when a
quake starts shaking. The group acts as if nothing is happening - a fairly
genuine reaction to anything under about a 5.5 in CA.
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

"Tim J." wrote in message
...

"rw" wrote...
Tim J. wrote:

Having an earthquake in the Midwest puts an entirely different
perspective
on
things. Will everything west of Milwaukee slide into the
Pacific, or will
Milwaukee have beach front property on the Atlantic? Hmmm. . .

"Most people think that destructive earthquakes only occur in the
western United States. To the contrary,
snip

Yeah, I know. However, they don't talk about the "doom" factor like
they do when
quakes hit the west coast. Having grown up in Calif., it became a
bit of a joke
when the quakes would hit and the soothsayers would predict us
sliding out to
sea.

If you're from Southern California and haven't seen the Steve Martin
movie "L.A.
Story", which satirizes the SoCal lifestyle, there is a
thirty-second scene
worth watching where Martin and friends are dining at a fancy coffee
shop when a
quake starts shaking. The group acts as if nothing is happening - a
fairly
genuine reaction to anything under about a 5.5 in CA.

As is so often the case, there seems to be a systematic error in the
media coverage of last night's event. It has been widely reported as
a magnitude 4.5 quake. In fact, it was a 45.

Wolfgang
who will now probably spend the rest of his life waiting for "the big
one".

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 10:06:09 -0400, "Tim J."
wrote:


"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...
woke me at shortly after one o'clock this morning.
"Hm........earthquake," thinks I. I went back to sleep.

Having an earthquake in the Midwest puts an entirely different perspective on
things. Will everything west of Milwaukee slide into the Pacific, or will
Milwaukee have beach front property on the Atlantic? Hmmm. . .


I've been wondering what a really good one would do to some of the
Great Lakes and the rivers near them? What if Lake Michigan decides
to flow down to meet the 'Sippi? What if Lake Superior cracks just a
bit and starts to empty down the St. Croix river?

And the cities? Eeek! The Midwest has never built with earthquakes
in mind. Chicago would be, uh, twisted and shattered. And they
thought that when Nachez Under the Hill (the local slum, I gather)
became a literal name it was a disaster. It'd be a worse one in these
days.

Up here in St. Paul my daughter noticed the one that happened in
Columbia in South America. I didn't because I was sleeping and
because our house was built on the kind of ground that shook when kids
ran through the yard for a short cut. Another one on the New Madrid
could be more interesting than rattling all the stuff in the
cupboards.

Somewhere on the Web is a site showing all the faults in the middle of
the country. To no one's surprize, it concentrates in the Mississippi
River valley and some of its tributaries. Hmm. Think that's how it
got to be the Mississippi River Valley? Some of us might not wind up
with ocean front, but there might be a very much wider river in the
end. Once it settled down from bursting through all the dams and
levees that'd be at least strained by a good 'quake.
--

rbc:vixen,Minnow Goddess,Willow Watcher,and all that sort of thing.
Often taunted by trout.
Only a fool would refuse to believe in luck. Only a damn fool would rely on it.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 10:06:09 -0400, "Tim J."
wrote:


"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...
woke me at shortly after one o'clock this morning.
"Hm........earthquake," thinks I. I went back to sleep.

Having an earthquake in the Midwest puts an entirely different
perspective on
things. Will everything west of Milwaukee slide into the Pacific, or will
Milwaukee have beach front property on the Atlantic? Hmmm. . .


I've been wondering what a really good one would do to some of the
Great Lakes and the rivers near them? What if Lake Michigan decides
to flow down to meet the 'Sippi? What if Lake Superior cracks just a
bit and starts to empty down the St. Croix river?

And the cities? Eeek! The Midwest has never built with earthquakes
in mind. Chicago would be, uh, twisted and shattered. And they
thought that when Nachez Under the Hill (the local slum, I gather)
became a literal name it was a disaster. It'd be a worse one in these
days.

Up here in St. Paul my daughter noticed the one that happened in
Columbia in South America. I didn't because I was sleeping and
because our house was built on the kind of ground that shook when kids
ran through the yard for a short cut. Another one on the New Madrid
could be more interesting than rattling all the stuff in the
cupboards.

Somewhere on the Web is a site showing all the faults in the middle of
the country. To no one's surprize, it concentrates in the Mississippi
River valley and some of its tributaries. Hmm. Think that's how it
got to be the Mississippi River Valley? Some of us might not wind up
with ocean front, but there might be a very much wider river in the
end. Once it settled down from bursting through all the dams and
levees that'd be at least strained by a good 'quake.
--


Well, to put things in perspective, when the New Madrid quake(s) occurred in
1811, 1812, they were accompanied with in excess of 1800 quakes of the
magnitude of the Great Milwaukee Temblor of 2004. I think there's no reason
to fear the visit of St. Paul anytime soon.

--riverman

"riverman" wrote in message
...

Well, to put things in perspective, when the New Madrid quake(s)
occurred in
1811, 1812, they were accompanied with in excess of 1800 quakes of
the
magnitude of the Great Milwaukee Temblor of 2004. I think there's no
reason
to fear the visit of St. Paul anytime soon.

Sure, it's easy to be dismissive when you're enjoying the good life in
some safe place. You don't know what it's like out here in the danger
zone.

Wolfgang

Cyli:
Some of us might not wind up
with ocean front, but there might be a very much wider river in the
end. Once it settled down from bursting through all the dams and
levees that'd be at least strained by a good 'quake.

Growing up I read Allan Danzig's short story, the Great Nebraska Sea. It
has always been more of a warning than amusement to me. Now its also fodder
for folksingers. Lyrics are linked below

Living in MO, the New Madrid fault was all too real and made its presence
known with more or less subtle reminders that the quakes of 1811 were
tremendous in scope. In 1976, a 4.2 quake centered near Blytheville AR,
at town that currently sits 9 feet below the Mississippi River as a result
of subsidance in 1811, caused the elevator I was in at a hospital in St.
Louis to sway and its breakers to trip. The radial distance was about 250
miles. In 1990, there was a quake guru who predicted a major event on the
New Madrid fault. Every hospital in MO was directed to take precautions to
quake proof as far as possible. We bought every inch of velcro available in
town to strap all of our lab equipment to the benches. When I left that
facility, it was still untested.

When I answered the wrong ad and wound up living in Blytheville AR for a
time, there was one other fault related item that amused me. A
fundamentalist group from S. California had picked up and moved en masse
from CA to Caruthersville MO. According to their leader, God had promised
to destroy CA by earthquake and had directed them to Caruthersville MO for
safety. Cartuthersvilles sits sqaurely astride the New Madrid Fault.

http://www.efn.org/~bch/songs/nebraskasealyr.html

--
Stev Lenon 91B20 '68-'69
Drowning flies to Dark Star

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/stevglo/i...age92kword.htm

"slenon" wrote in message m...

When I answered the wrong ad and wound up living in Blytheville AR for a
time, there was one other fault related item that amused me. A
fundamentalist group from S. California had picked up and moved en masse
from CA to Caruthersville MO. According to their leader, God had promised
to destroy CA by earthquake and had directed them to Caruthersville MO for
safety. Cartuthersvilles sits sqaurely astride the New Madrid Fault.

That reminds me of a semi-tongue-in-cheek song of Mickey Newbury's
called "Earthquake":

-----------------------------------------------------------------

On his mountain, lord, there sits a long, gray, bearded, ancient
hermit
Sadly staring at the caption in the San Mateo Times.
It reads today the prophets all agreed that California,
Was to be swallowed up in the twinkling of an eye.

He goes thumbing through his growing stack of half-unfinished rhymes,
Till he finds the one he'd once submitted, to the New York Times.
They just laughed at him and said you senile, wino, drunk old fool
Get out of here, you must have lost your mind.

So he went back to his mountain, where he began to pray.
He prayed for those in ignorance, that would treat a man that way.
For the truth will fall, like his mountain, lord, on those that have
grown deaf,
The day the world is swallowed up ...
And California's left.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I was in an earthquake in Ixtapa, Mexico in 1999, and happened to
be on a 10th floor balcony enjoying a beer and smoke when it occurred.
I crawled back inside on hands-and-knees. (I'm not fond of heights,
and when the building itself starts to shake ...)

This earthquake was centered around Puebla (near Mexico City), but
was strong enough to be felt as far away as Ixtapa (roughly 400 miles
away).


Chuck Vance

I was in an earthquake in Ixtapa, Mexico in 1999, and happened to
be on a 10th floor balcony enjoying a beer and smoke when it occurred.
I crawled back inside on hands-and-knees. (I'm not fond of heights,
and when the building itself starts to shake ...)

Chuck Vance

Fun little lyric. Thanks for posting it. I'd have been really worried
about being in a ten story building in Mexico during a quake of any size.
I've never been around anything bigger than a 4.5 on the New Madrid.
That'll do for me, having been within a mile of an arclight strike. I've
been convinced that the earth can move under us in frightening and dangerous
manners.
--
Stev Lenon 91B20 '68-'69
Drowning flies to Dark Star

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/stevglo/i...age92kword.htm

"Wolfgang" wrote in message ...
woke me at shortly after one o'clock this morning.
"Hm........earthquake," thinks I. I went back to sleep.

Wolfgang
who, having now lived through one, still doesn't understand what all
the fuss is about.

They can be a lot of fun.
I was on the 32 floor of a building in downtown San Francisco when
there was a "mild" one ( can't remeber the Richter #s ). The guy in
the next office said " Don't worry, if it's bad, at least for 30
seconds you get the best view in the world."
When I was a kid earthquake would shake the cans and jars off the
shelves at Safeway. The jars would break and all the labels would
come off the cans. Safeway would sell the cans twenty for a dollar.
It made for some interesting meals. Thats how we discovered gorbonzo
beans, gooseberrys, and other interesting things.