Originally posted by CajunBoy
reply to post by riverwild
snip
I just don't see how the Bayou Corne sinkhole can be related to the New Madrid fault line when it was a man made disaster. Though when it comes to
earthquakes in Louisiana, the biggest one happened in White Castle, LA back in the day. It measured around 4.0. White Castle is just 15 or so miles
north of the sinkhole.edit on 5-12-2012 by CajunBoy because: (no reason given)
This image shows the NMSZ in a regional context:
As you can see, the New Madrid Seismic Zone is quite far north of the are in which the sinkhole has developed. Now, that is not to say that Louisiana
would be unaffected if this fault zone were to rupture in a big way once more, it most certainly would. I just don't see how the sinkhole could have
any appreciable affect on the fault zone.
This image shows a 3d representation of the underlying rock strata with a bit of vertical exaggeration:
This is the Mississippi River Embayment, in which the Old Man River runs and has, as been mentioned, changed courses several times.
The following image is a cross section of a typical section of the embayment:
You can clearly see the several layers of aquifer and sediments that make up the river plain. It also shows the direction of the flow of water through
the system, which may play into some of the unseen forces acting upon the sinkhole.
And I though this image which shows historic shorelines to be very interesting:
As you can see, the prior shorelines were many many miles further out in the more recent past and then also many many miles further in in the more
distant past. Really gives you something to consider.
All above-referenced images taken from
The Mississippi Embayment The Quaternary
Canvas
Not directly related, but of interest i thought is this image:
I don't remember exactly where it is from, it's in my uploads section. A bit of googling would turn it up at some petroleum database, I am
certain.
Anyway, if you notice the number of producing wells just off the shore and think about the effect removing all those millions (billions?) of gallons
of crude oil would have on all of the layers above it boggles the mind.
All of the upper layers continue to push downward, and the entire Mississippi River Valley is not much more than one huge sediment glacier that is
slowly flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Something's going to give at some point, and when it does I hope that people are as safe as can be.