A 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered near this southern Illinois town struck before dawn Friday, rocking skyscrapers in Chicago, 230 miles north of here, but doing little damage and seriously hurting no one.

It was the kind of tremor that might be ignored in earthquake-savvy California, but the temblor shook things up from Nebraska to Atlanta and rattled nerves in Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky., where bricks toppled to the pavement.





LINKY!


I feel a little concerned about this considering that not that far from where this earth quake was there is a super volcano that is very much over due for a eruption.

I live very close to the New Madrid fault in Southeast Missouri. My parents in central illinois felt the earthquake but I'm a heavy sleeper and it wasn't very strong out here. the new madrid fault line system is quite powerful but not as active as the west coast fault lines. most people don't feel that this quake will be too much of a continuing problem. they said it happens every 10-20 years. the new madrid is due for something large but it shouldn't be too bad. i'm not sure of the connection between new madrid and yellowstone but that is an interesting look at it.

I agree. Being from Kentucky I am much more worried about the New Madrid fault. On the point of it not being bad, when it shook at the end of the 1800's it was said to cause the mississippi river to flow backwards and shook the liberty bell in pennsyvania. I do not believe that this region could deal with an earthquake this large, or close to it.

hmm that's odd...i didnt feel a thing...

Earthquakes happen all over the damn place. Just Gaia hiccuping!

But the worst and most potentially violent thing in U.S. geography? Supervolcano under Yellowstone (and most of the Northwest)! Look it up. This thing has gone off, on average, about once every 600,000 years. And it's a destroyer - think about worldwide forest fires, small pieces of silica (glass) being breathed in by every animal, acid rain, followed by global cooling because of all the smoke and sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere.

Earthquakes? -Small potatoes...

you wouldnt think it but the uk experiences them every few years. i guess earthquakes arent regionally biased?

Earthquakes arise from stresses within and at the conjunction of the matter in earth's crust (hard rock covering a molten magma sphere - within which is a molten iron core). The bottom line, the whole interior is in constant motion (fluidic) and flux. Sometimes a piece of crust slips, sometimes it cracks - and it's a lot of mass to slip or crack. So the earth shakes a little when it happens. But the earth is relatively tame compared to the torsional forces, gravitation and nuclear forces of say, our sun Sol.

BTW, the earth's crust is not "solid" neither is Mount Everest. Over time, even the things we see as solid rock move like fluids. Water takes milliseconds to flow, crust and rock - thousands and millions of years. But these are fluidic nevertheless...

Just an idea about how many quakes actually happen in the states at any given time.

that is on a bigger faultline than the san andreas!

Thanks for the link. Awesome data here...
Just an idea about how many quakes actually happen in the states at any given time.

I'm in Cali and you could easily miss a 5.2. I have slept through a few around that magnitude and have been awake for others that did not make me thing "earthquake".