New Madrid Fault Assignment

Instructions:

You are to assume the role of a seismologist. You have been hired by the Carbondale, Illinois Chamber of Commerce to write a short, one page minimum (not including figures), report about the New Madrid Fault and the earthquake activity in the area.

The report should be written for new home owners in the area. It should introduce them to the New Madrid Fault. It should discuss the type of fault, the frequency and magnitude of earthquakes in the area, and the reasons (theories) why the fault is active even though it is not on a plate boundary. Please use you own words in your discussion.

Also, your report should give the homeowners "expert" advice on whether or not to buy earthquake insurance. You must justify all your conclusions.

Please include the references you used at the end of the report. You are encouraged to include pictures and figures in you document if they help you in your discussion.

Extra credit: Why did a New Madrid shake ring the church bells in Boston, while a San Francisco quake can barely ring the church bells in Fresno?

Good luck!
from www.gk12-uiuc.net

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000012.shtml

What is an earthquake and what causes them?
How are earthquakes detected?
Explain how earthquakes are measured and what is the Richter scale.
Have earthquakes occurred in the central part of the United States? Can an earthquake occur today?
What is the New Madrid Fault System? Where is it located?
When did the Great New Madrid Earthquakes occur? How severe were they?
How can a person prepare for earthquakes?
Which major cities in the United States are located in earthquake zones?
What is the epicenter?
How do scientists know the exact spot where an earthquake begins?
Which seismic waves cause the greatest destruction? Why?

Advanced

The magnitudes of noticeable quakes range between about three and eight. Below a four, no one cares. A seven and above becomes catastrophic.

One unit of magnitude (for example, from 4.6 to 5.6) represents a 10-fold increase in wave amplitude on a seismogram and approximately a 30-fold increase in the energy released.

The new Magnitude scale is similar to the old Richter scale, but improved. The Mercalli Intensity scale (Roman numerals go up to 12) should not be confused with the Magnitude scale.

Consider quake magnitudes of

Less than 4
Four
Five or six
Seven and above

How often do we expect each?

How widely are they felt? (Mercalli scale can help with this.)

Liquefaction (sandy soil turns to jelly when soaked and under pressure)?

What possible life lost, damage to buildings, or effects on business are forecast? (See USGS Fact sheet)

Richter Earthquake
Magnitudes Effects

Less than 3.5 Generally not felt, but recorded.

3.5-5.4 Often felt, but rarely causes damage.

Under 6.0 At most slight damage to well-designed buildings.
 Can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings
 over small regions.

6.1-6.9 Can be destructive in areas up to about 100 kilometers
 across where people live.

7.0-7.9 Major earthquake. Can cause serious damage over larger areas.

8 or greater Great earthquake. Can cause serious damage in areas several
 hundred kilometers across.

A new bridge Bill Emerson Memorial bridge was opened in 2003 across the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. What magnitude of quake is it designed to handle? What part of the design helps handle motion?

Imagine that you are a politician or private business owner in St. Louis or Memphis. Considering what the government and other agencies have said about risk and possible damage, but also considering the cost involved, how would you approach decision-making, spending money on quake-proofing, retro-fitting and other mitigation initiatives?

Earthquake lights - have been seen since ancient times. 1811-12 New Madrid quake eyewitnesses saw them possibly from as far away as Savannah GA. They were first photographed in 1968 in Japan. USGS admits their existence. There are a handful of theories for their cause, such as quartz piezoelectric effect.

Resources for Teachers

Classroom Activity Grades 7-12

A. Introduction - Tell students that an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 or greater may cause saturated sand or clay soils to liquefy. During the winter of 1811 and 1812, a series of earthquakes affected the central portions of the United States that we now know as Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, and Tennessee. As the soft sediments along the rivers were violently shaken, tremendous volumes of sand were liquefied and ejected onto the Mississippi River flood plain. These sand boils, as they are called, are still visible in the rural countryside today. Fortunately the area of the earthquakes was not heavily populated in 1811-12, so loss of life, injuries, and loss of property were minimal.

During the 1989 World Series in San Francisco, a 7.1 earthquake struck the Bay Area. Millions of people viewed firsthand the fires and severe damage to buildings in the Marina District. Some of this damage occurred because soil liquefaction caused lifelines to rupture and buildings to collapse.

TEACHING CLUES AND CUES Students may be aware that the flooding of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in the summer of 1993 caused mud boils in some places. Explain that these eruptions, somewhat similar to sand boils, were caused by extreme saturation of muddy soils in combination with the force of the torrential rains. Mud boils, like sand boils, can also be caused by earthquakes over magnitude 5.0.

VOCABULARY Consolidated: tightly packed, composed of particles that are not easily separated.

Ground water: subsurface or underground water.

Lifeline: a service that is vital to the life of a community. Major lifelines include transportation systems, communication systems, water supply lines, electric power lines, and petroleum or natural gas pipelines.

Liquefaction: the process in which a solid (soil) takes on the characteristics of a liquid as a result of an increase in pore pressure and a reduction in stress.

Sand boil: a forcible ejection of sand and water from saturated soil, caused by an earthquake or heavy flooding.

Saturated: having absorbed water to the point that all the spaces between the particles are filled, and no more water can enter.

Unconsolidated: loosely arranged, not cemented together, so particles separate easily.

B. Lesson Development 1. Write the word liquefaction on the board, and ask student to identify its root work (liquid). Emphasize that liquefaction does not cause an earthquake, but is the result of an earthquake. Liquefaction occurs only in highly saturated sand or clay soils. An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 or greater is usually needed to cause liquefaction. Earthquake vibrations cause soil particles to lose contact with each other, so the soil takes on the characteristics of a liquid.

2. Assign a partner to each student and designate a work station for each team. Give these directions:

a. Cut off about 5 mm from the bottom portion of the plastic cup. b. Invert the cup and place it in the middle of the pie pan.
c. Holding the cup firmly, slowly pour the sand into the bottom of the cup to a level of 10-20 mm from the top. (One student may hold while another pours.) Level the sand with your fingers. Do not shake the cup to settle or level the sand.
d. Lightly place the sinker, model house, or other weight onto the leveled surface of the sand.
e. Again holding the cup, slowly pour the entire 225 ml of water into the pie pan around the outside of the cup and sand.
f. Observe what happens and record the time it takes for the soil to reach saturation.
g. Once the soil is saturated, one student win hold the cup firmly in place while the other gives the side of the cup several sharp taps to simulate earthquake shaking. Observe what happens to the weight.

C. Conclusion Help students to clean up and then initiate the discussion. Ask: If the weight in our experiment were an occupied building, and liquefaction occurred over a large inhabited area, as it did in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989, what would be the effect on:

• People?
• Private homes?
• Schools?
• Buried lifelines (gas, water, electrical, oil, sewage)?
• Agricultural lands?
• Medical facilities, fire stations, police stations?
• Large urban areas (Memphis, San Francisco, Boston)?
• Industrial areas?

ADAPTATIONS AND EXTENSIONS

1. Make sand of various particle sizes and objects of different masses available for student experiments. Investigate the degree of liquefaction each will exhibit and the effects on the structures that rest upon them. (A layer of diatomaceous earth under the sand will bubble up when the table is rapped. Try it!)

2. Invite students to find ways to vary the amount of force they apply to the sand and water mix in the model.

3. Provide an aquarium or plastic gallon jars so students can experiment with larger models. Use transparent containers of any size—even a plastic sandwich box—for an interesting side view.

4. Bury objects in the sand and observe the results.

5. Develop models of overhead power lines, pipelines, sewage lines, light posts, and highways, and observe how liquefaction affects them.

6. Challenge students with this question: If a building has already been constructed on soil that has a potential to liquefy, what can be done to reduce the likelihood of damage? Invite them to design and test model structures that would reduce structural damage during liquefaction. -- from FEMA

University

OBJECTIVE: learn about the New Madrid Seismic zone, its geologic settings and its importance as geologic hazard. Learn more about seismic effects, like liquefaction. Understand why there are earthquakes in the Midwest of United States.

Describe the New Madrid zone: Geographically and geologically, also provide some historical background of the seismic events in the area. Compare the seismic activity and effects of this area with those of the Western Part of United States.

Provide historical background
- Briefly describe the events in 1811 and 1812.
Indicate the location and extension of the New Madrid zone, list the states involved. You may use maps to depict the area.
Describe and/or depict the type of geologic structure involved in this natural hazard.
- When was this structure formed?
- What are the evidences to infer this structure?
Provide a general description of the type of sediments deposited in the area. Mainly describe the ones close to the surface, those related with the liquefaction phenomenon.
- What contributed to the great damage in the buildings? Define liquefaction and why this phenomenon occurred there?
What is the importance of this area with respect to its hazard nature
- What has changed between the 1800's and Now?
What would be the difference in effects/magnitude/frequency and extension of earthquakes happening in this area versus effects/magnitude/frequency and extension of those happening in the Western part of the United States

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2007/4/07.04.09.x.html - detailed cirriculum on quakes

Good books

Four good starting points to read about the New Madrid Fault are:

Penick, J.L., Jr., 1981, The New Madrid earthquakes, revised edition: Columbia, Mo., University of Missouri Press, 176 p. (reads like a novel, with lots of historical data)

Fuller, M. L., 1912, The New Madrid earthquakes:U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 494, 119 p. ( A thorough investigation, on horseback, 100 years after the quake).

Johnston, A. C., 1982, A major earthquake zone on the Mississippi:
Scientific American, v. 246, no. 4, p. 60-68.

Hamilton, R. M., and Johnston, A. C., eds., 1990, Tecumseh's prophecy: preparing for the next New Madrid earthquake: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1066, 30 p. (reviewing where we were in 1990, and plans for future research)

Also, a nice summary for the general reader by Arch Johnston in volume 1, number 1 of the magazine "Earth" a couple of years ago.

Some good volumes of papers that summarized current investigations:

McKeown, F. A., and Pakiser, L. C., eds., 1982, Investigations of the New Madrid, Missouri, earthquake region: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1236.

Gori, P. L., and Hays, W. W., eds., 1984, Proceedings, Symposium on the New Madrid earthquakes: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 84-770.

There is a special volume of Seismological Research Letters on New Madrid, 1992, v. 63, no. 3. Longer versions of these papers are coming out as USGS Professional papers.

This list provided by --
Buddy Schweig
Central U.S. Coordinator
Office of Earthquakes. Volcanoes, and Engineering
U.S. Geological Survey
schw...@ceri.memphis.edu
Feb 2005 sci.geo.earthquakes

CEUS-Earthquake-Hazards mailing list
http://geohazards.cr.usgs.gov/mailman/listinfo/ceus-earthquake-hazards
This is a place to share articles, meetings, and discussion on all central and eastern U.S. earthquake hazards and related issues.

Conevery Bolton Valencius, originally from Arkansas, now at Harvard, is writing a comprehensive book on the New Madrid Fault. She also wrote The Health of the Country.