If a quake of that magnitude were to occur, it would result in widespread damage across much of the midwestern states, including Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The location of Pine Mountain, Kentucky is in the Appalachian Mountains, which are ancient mountains that were built up over time by the movement of the plates and their associated faults. East of the fluorspar faults there are two sets of faults that trend east-west. The zone of radiating faults in far western Kentucky adjacent to the Tertiary strata are part of the Fluorspar District. A fault line is a place in the earth where two plates move against each other which causes movements in the Earths crust. First obvious indications of the arch occurred in 198 earthquakes in the past 365 days. Seismologists say we can expect the next one any day now. Fun times! The tectonic plates of the earth are the large, moving portions of the lithosphere (the solid outer layer of the earth) and they typically cover entire continents or ocean basins. The epicenter of the quake was located about 10 miles from the city of Ridgecrest and was located about 124 miles northeast of Los Angeles. In 1811-1812, three earthquakes measuring between 7-8 (out of the standard magnitude scale of 1.0-10.0) in magnitude originated from this fault. bounded rift zone which is responsible for the relatively high level of modern seismic activity in the New The oldest rocks at the surface in the State occur in central Kentucky, because older rock strata is pushed upward along a broad bulge, called the Cincinnati Arch, which in Kentucky, stretches from Covington in the north, to just west of Dale Hollow Lake in the south. Deposition of the Upper In seismic exploration, energy waves are directed into the ground and are reflected by the different grouping of rocks back up to the surface and recorded. composite thickness for the entire basin of at least 63,000 ft but reaches a maximum thickness in any one The quake was felt for over 200,000 square miles, including in the Carolinas, Alabama, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Trends: Faults tend to have linear to slightly curving trends, so orientations can be projected in advance of mining. In the block diagram, one can see that the faults continue beneath the Tertiary strata. Turn off the KY basemaps layers to display these ESRI basemaps. the Nashville dome in central Tennessee through central Kentucky to northwestern Ohio, where it https://mrdata.usgs.gov/services/wfs/sgmc2. For example, in 1980 New Madrid experienced a magnitude 5. At the surface it is represented 12, Geologic Map 1, scale 1:100,000. trachyte, rhyolite basalt, and weakly metamorphosed sedimentary rocks are characteristic. indicating growth faulting with a total throw at the top of the Precambrian of 5,000 ft along the northern The fault zone covers a surface area of 8,846 km2 (3,426 sq. Note that most faults that can affect residents are either onshore or just offshore. Webb (1969) and Silberman (1972) have interpreted subsurface data as Englund and Roen (1963) suggested a meteor-impact origin for the structure on the basis of the presence of And there are many more than what you would expect! The death toll likely would have been much higher if the quake had lasted any longer. Alternate titles: Mississippi Valley fault system, New Madrid Fault. The present structural relief on the arch results mostly from latest Paleozoic The origin of the Jeptha Knob structure is uncertain, but meteoroid impact seems most likely In addition to the physical destruction caused by the 9. Welcome to the Kentucky Geography Network. place of about 35,000 ft (Colton, 1970, p. 13). The 15). It is responsible for several of the fault lines that run through New York City, including one under 125thStreet. recurrence curve plotted for the New Madrid seismic zone (Nuttli, 1979) shows that, for example, in a Surface traces of the faults in the soft alluvium erode quickly or may be rapidly covered by new deposits thereby hiding evidence of earlier earthquakes locations. Alaska has a long history of powerful earthquakes, including the 1964 Great Alaskan Earthquake which had a magnitude of 9. The sulfur content of coals may also increase or decrease near faults because of past fluid migration that led to deposition or removal of sulfates from the seam. The main fault lines located in Kentucky are the Rough Creek Fault, the Martin-Clifty Fault, the Green River Fault, the Horse Cave Fault, the Copper Creek Fault, the Brier Creek Fault, the Middlesboro Fault, the South Fork Fault, the Memphis-Ridgemont Fault, the Motts Valley Fault, the Barren River Fault, the Pigeonroost Fault, the Elkton Fault, the McKee Fault, the Newpaw Fault and the Pottsville Fault. The general configuration of the basin is shown by a contour map of the base of the by a brecciated center within a belt of concentric faults. From AIPG (1993). stratigraphy or sedimentation of the Ordovician rocks that can be related to the arch (Cressman, 1973, p. 8; The 150-mile (240 km)-long seismic zone, which extends into five states, stretches southward from Cairo, Illinois; through Hayti, Caruthersville, and New Madrid in Missouri; through Blytheville into Marked Tree in Arkansas. Seismic risk associated with these faults is very low. field (sheet I of the geologic map). (The Illinois basin is referred to in some reports, for Overall, the Madrid Fault Line affects the following states: Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. 0000001550 00000 n Digital Map of the Hayward Fault Map showing active fault traces within the Hayward Fault Zone, including a virtual tour of the Hayward fault in the east San Francisco Bay Region that can be viewed in the Google Earth. OKeefe and others (2008) reported on a mine in Hopkins County that began in the Springfield coal, crossed a fault without much offset into the Coiltown coal (W. Ky. No. Cincinnati arch (fig. 1979, p. F23) (see cross section G'-G"). Creek but has fewer and smaller faults; fault scarps along this system exposed by strip mining of the coal It hugs the borders of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois, and it birthed massive quakes in 1811 and 1812 that temporarily reversed the flow of the Mississippi River. Cross sections and block diagrams (like the one above) can be used to illustrate why the units of geologic strata on the geologic map and corresponding land-surface features on the physiographic map occur where they do in the State. These structures are described by the following categories: The block diagram shown above, represents a slice through Kentucky, as if a giant knife had cut the State to a depth of 3,000 feet. Black (1978) has compiled structure contours for central Kentucky from the geologic quadrangle maps. While stronger quakes can still occur, they are rare and damage is usually minimal. Fractured limestone, such as that found in Richmond, can result in leaky reservoirs or embankments. If faults were active during peat/coal accumulation (called syndepositional faults), coals may split or change thickness across faults. Drag folding and steepened bed dips (with possible bedding-plane movement along beds) near faults can also lead to roof weakness. 15). The ground shaking that would result could cause buildings to collapse, gas pipelines to rupture, and transportation routes to be blocked. Of the three The most recent major earthquake in Ky was the M4. Howell (1963), who applied the name Rome trough to a belt of thickened Cambrian Rome Formation in the 8, with anything past that not being measureable or happening at all. Where this occurs, minor unmapped faults may be encountered. Thousands of earthquakes have been recorded in this region since 1974. to thicken into the Appalachian basin. Last modified exposed and subjected to erosion only briefly at the end of the Ordovician, during the period of intensive Dataset Size: 0 bytes. Hawaii sits atop the Ring of Fire and experiences around 900 earthquakes each year. several thousand years (McKeown, 1982, p. 1), damaging earthquakes in the region have been common Remedies vary from mere maintenance that keeps drainage away from the house to expensive reconstruction of foundations. Stresses exerted by swelling soils have caused this block wall surrounding a condominium complex (not in Madison County) to tilt and break. A recently assembled series of studies on the New Madrid region (McKeown 0. 0000000879 00000 n States located along the Madrid Fault Line include Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The arch continued province, and a western mildly deformed part referred to as the Appalachian Plateaus; the latter include the thisYr = now.getYear(); } The quakes epicenter was in Mineral, Virginia, about 90 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., and was so powerful that Union Station, the Pentagon and the Capitol Building were all evacuated. No major damage was reported, although numerous cracks and water leaks appeared in homes in Hardinsburg. Radon levels in the black shales may be high, and homes and buildings in these areas should be tested for radon, but the homeowner should keep in mind that the health threat results from relatively high levels of exposure over long periods of time, and the remedy may simply be additional ventilation of the home. Summaries of the geology in each of Kentucky's counties by Kentucky students. What states are on the Madrid fault line? 16). Keller and others, 1982, p. 220). Several types of smaller, nontectonic faults have also been encountered during mining and are discussed separately in different sections of this website. The Rough Creek fault zone is made up of numerous high 16). Major changes in a coals apparent elevation in core and old mine maps provide hints of possible faulting and offset (although sometimes errors in underground mine-map elevations can lead to apparent offsets between mines, which are not real). sedimentation, the Reelfoot basin, in roughly the same position, and Cressman (1973, p. 57) interpreted Campbell County - Alexandria. structure, about midway between Louisville and Lexington (sheet 2), is 14,000 ft in diameter. Jeptha Knob, first described by Bucher (1925), has recently been described in detail by Cressman (1981). The Irvine-Paint Creek fault system extends eastward from central The most powerful earthquake to be ever recorded was a 9. Originally, the network provided a group of geologists who served as resource persons for teachers. 5 earthquake, the resulting tsunami impacted countries thousands of miles away, devastating communities and taking even more lives. University of Kentucky. This earthquake caused about 2,000 deaths and left about 1. It was the first major seismic activity in Ky since 2003 when a magnitude 4. dome (Lexington dome of some authors), a culmination of the arch in central Kentucky; the Cumberland 0 Illustration prepared by Paul D. Lowman Jr., NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Rough Creek fault system through at least Early Permian time. thisYr = thisYr + 1900; No, earthquakes arent particularly rare in Kentucky. (Photographs by Paul Howell, USDA-NRCS. At the second fault the mine operators were able to ramp 15 feet into the Herrin coal (W. Ky. No. 16), resulting in the Underlying shale may restrict percolation in some areas. But, also located beneath much of western Kentucky is the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). Boonesboro Quarry mines the Camp Nelson Limestone along the Kentucky River. Fish and Wildlife, 2003, National Wetlands Inventory, http://www.nwi.fws.gov/, Copyright 2003 by the University of Kentucky, Kentucky Geological Survey. extensive denudation. What are gas prices at Buc EEs in Richmond KY? There has been no activity along these faults in recorded history. expression of a cryptoexplosive structure nearly 4 mi across in Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian rocks. Cryptoexplosive structures: J, Jeptha Knob; MO, Middlesboro; MU, Muldraugh dome; V, Versailles. A map of the fault lines database from the United States Geological Survey. at the surface, which has a structural relief of about 400 ft (Withington and Sable, 1969). (Cressman, 1981, p. 14). The New Madrid earthquake series of 1811-12 produced the strongest shocks known to have been felt in U.S. to be a positive feature in Devonian time, but its influence on sedimentation in Kentucky waned and Across a span of millions of years, this gradual, periodic movement can result in thousands of feet of offset along a fault. The fact is most states are at risk of major . The potential for significant shaking and ground movement can cause considerable damage to structures in the region. Cincinnati arch.--The Cincinnati arch, a prominent regional uplift in the eastern midcontinent, extends from 16). Dams should be constructed of compacted clayey soils at slopes flatter than 3 units horizontal to 1 unit vertical. basis of geophysical data, that the present embayment stems from the late Mesozoic reactivation of the bifurcates to form the Kankakee and Findlay arches (fig. Natural gas piplines (30-inch mains) are laid across a new subdivision in Kingston, Madison County. However, Ammerman and Keller Illinois basin.--The Illinois basin is a major structural downwarp in the eastern midcontinent, occupying large Known Kentucky occurrences: Tectonic faults do not occur everywhere, so faulting is not pervasive. var d = new Date(); Major tectonic events in Kentucky for which evidence has accumulated begin with late Precambrian rifting The time of formation of the Cincinnati arch in central Kentucky has recently been discussed by McDowell if (thisYr < 1900) { This 150 mile-long series of faults stretches under five states: Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, and is responsible for four of the largest earthquakes in the history of the United States, which took place over three months from December 1811 and February 1812. Ervin and McGinnis (1975) suggested, largely on the It's by far the largest earthquake ever to strike the United States east of the Rockies. 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