Earthquake In Iowa!!!!!

I live in Des Moines, IA. The headline in todays Des Moines Register said that an earthquake that registered 3.3 on the richter scale and had an epicenter about 4 miles outside of the sw Iowa town of Shannondoah woke people up at about 7:15am friday morning. This is the first and only earthquake that has ever been recorded in this state. I just found this to be kind of odd and wondered what this has to say about the state of the EARTH today?

[edit on 19-7-2004 by John bull 1]

I have not seen anything on the news, and I did not Iowa has a fault line? Get prepared for the aftershocks, and the seismic scientist that are going to flow to your state.

Actually a 3.3 is nothing to write home about. I would be surprised if there's 25 per day worldwide. This link will take you to the IRIS seismic monitor which tracks all 4.0 and above activity in a real time manner. Blinking red is within the past 24 hours, orange 24-48 hours, yellow last 2 weeks and purple, last 5 years.
www.iris.edu...

yes..Iowa has 3 or 4 minor fault lines that run through pretty much the middle of the state that run from the northeast corner of the state all the way to the sw corner. we should expect aftershocks even though the quake was only a 3.3??? and also...3.3 is something to write home about when there has never been a recorded earthquake in this state. I for one feel that this is kind of an odd occurence that may have something to do with how we treat this wonderous planet or ours.

[edit on 17-7-2004 by shoafy]

Quakes breed quakes, and cautions breed cautions.
it's a NASCAR thing

We don't have any active faults here in NM either, but about a month ago, we had 3 or 4 quakes. All little ones, from 2.2 to 3.8. One of them hit at 2:45 AM one night.
I am never up that late, but on this night I got up about 2:30 'cause I couldn't sleep.

I had a dream that the neighbors teenage kids where out on the street bowling with cars. They were shoving them into peoples house.

OK, weird sidebar.

I was sitting on the couch watching TV, when it felt like my whole house shifted, real quick. I heard stuff rattle in my laundry room and then it was over. I had know idea what it was. I found out 2 days later it was a 3.4 quake.

Small earthquakes are good, they let some of the accumulated energy to escape.

Nothing unusual, it doesn't say anything about the current state of the planet, what do you maen by this exactly, another crazy theory??? Small magnitude earthquakes happen all the time.

Yeah one hit in Illinios around the same time. Kind of odd. Different epicenters though. Maybe the Earths gonna explode!!! Yeah right but its kind of unusual.

[edit on 7/19/2004 by cyberdude78]

Here is something "official" if anyone would
like to take a look. It contains all Magnitude Greater
Than 2.5 Earthquakes from around the World
within the last week.


earthquake.usgs.gov...

There have been several small quakes in Illinois and South East Missouri over the past 10 days.

It is strange the amount of activity in such a short time frame, generally we have no activity that is noticed, except by testing. but with todays in Iowa, I can think of 6 in 10 days around the midwest.

What we have always been told here in the St. Louis area, is that its better to have a bunch of small tremors than 1 big one!

small quakes (in theory) release pressure along a fault line and prevent a big one, so small quakes are good

john

Earthquakes are normal, often earthquakes, i.e fault movement tend to cluster and then die down in activity again.

Yes we all know earthquakes are normal but are they normal in Illinois or Iowa? I live in California, and have experienced at least five earthquakes my entire life. Most of them being under 3.5.

Dude I live in Illinios and I can only remember one that was even noticeable. And I slept through that one. Very of my neighbors or friends have ever experienced an earthquake. Hardly anybody knows that the San Andreas isn't the only fault line in the US. Earthquakes are virtually unheard of out here.

Yes it is totally normal to get earthquakes in Illinois or Iowa, you have to understand that the surface of the earth has hundreds of fault over its surface, take any geological map of any region and the chances are you will see a load of faults. Even in areas were their are no active stresses, such as with the san andreas, fault movement, i.e earthquakes can occur for a multitude of reasons, such as the the surface re-adjusting itself after loading fo the crust by ice sheets during the last ice age.

Its normal to get stuff nobody notices. An earthquake that somebody actually feels is rare in northern Illinios. Theres some activity in southern Illinios but up north its almost once in a life time for you to feel an actual earthquake in northern Illinios.

Right I'm not sure if people quite get my point here, ok you had a quake in north Illinois, and yes it maybe has never happened before, but this happens all over the world, it is NORMAL. You don't need to worry that America is splitting in two and it is centered in North illinos, a lot of quakes happend were people feel them in areas that have never experience quakes before.