Foreshock? A Significant Earthquake Just Hit The New Madrid Fault Seismic Zone

I remember a weird day at school when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. My teacher moved up a grade so I had the teacher for 2 years and I can't remember which year this happened. Usually, a notice of guest speakers at school would be sent out well in advance. Living in Tennessee, it was not unheard of for some of the more conservative "Bible Belt" families to request their children be pulled out of participating in some assemblies. Nearly everything required permission slips, but this time it was a surprise guest. I remember it mostly because it scared the crap out of us elementary school kids AND because some parents absolutely lost it that their kids participated. More parents than usual were upset because some kids didn't handle it well.

Anyway, the speaker was a guy I can't remember specifically. I know he was from a government office. Basically, he told us that the New Madrid fault had reached the time frame where a quake was expected any day. Something along the lines that it was overdue in terms that a large quake usually happened every x amount of years, but there had not been a quake for much longer than average.

He told us about devastating quakes that had happened like the creation of Reelfoot Lake where 2 faults interacted. He told us about towns being swallowed up and the Mississippi River flowing backwards. Some quakes from this fault lasted 15 minutes...some strong enough to clang church bells in the New England area. This was what we were told, but I'm not sure it is fact or more folklore type stories.

He also told us about emergency planning and talking to our families to prepare.

Obviously, a couple of hours of this was enough to cause nightmares for kids ages 5 to 11. This warning was also on the news at the time which only made the fear worse.

Nothing came of it, but I know I got as life long fear of it...and it is actually worse because the silence of the faultline is both comforting AND foreboding.

It seems like every decade people Chicken Little the New Madrid fault...but eventually they will be right.

originally posted by: BO XIAN
It's not very scientific to conflate across several points in a muddying-the-water sort of way.

Says the person talking about "Christian prophetic sources" and religiously delusional "visions".

If you want to talk science, I'm on board, but please don't be claiming to be of a scientific mind while talking about Christian prophesy as some kind of supporting "evidence" for your views.

This never happens for me so I never say anything but I had a dream last night about an ungodly massive earthquake. Basically I was looking at a sort of interactive map and somebody was explaining how "this entire mass of land will move here in a matter of minutes, and this land mass will move here, and these areas covered in water......" I remember feeling fear and wondering "how will I survive this?".....

Not saying it means anything at all, just an exciting dream, but I figured I would record it here.

I'm about an hour from La Center. Didn't feel the quake but remember well feeling them when I spent my summers in Wickliffe, a town only a few miles from La Center. I'm not sure what gave this guy writing the article the idea that a 3.5 is a "significant" event. We get these small quakes pretty much continuously, as can be seen by looking at the USGS maps.
I remember the 1968 shake that hit on a Saturday morning quite well. Suddenly the earth under my feet was rolling like the ocean. The grass in the pasture looked like ocean waves and yet there was no wind blowing.....
I think that most of us who grew up in the fault zone know the stories of the Big One and realize that it could happen again. Just like folks who live where hurricanes can hit, we keep supplies on hand in case that Big One comes around.

originally posted by: Meldionne1
I always wondered when Edgar cancer said the US would be divided or split , if he meant that fault line would blow. ????

"cancer"? Autocowrecks? or slip of the tongue?

Honestly, I am just across the state from the New Madrid, and I've never felt any of these quakes. I haven't felt any of the ones coming up from the Oklahoma area either.

Doesn't mean if it lets go we won't be in a world of hurt, but surely we'd be feeling a significant quake here to some degree?

a reply to: Rocker2013

I'll continue to talk about whatever combination of sources seems fitting, sensible, plausible and contributive to reasonable pondering and preparedness.

Folks uninterested in my perspective are welcome to scroll on by. I don't run around p*ssing in their cereal!

It appears, in this case, that you have not examined sufficient evidence to have a fair-minded perspective on the factors involved. I'll weigh the inputs accordingly. You may also be unaware that Pascal and Newton were Christians . . . as have been and are some of the greatest scientific minds of history and the present.

As my very brilliant Dissertation Chairman (a Mormon Bishop) noted (referring to his LDS theology etc that I'd sort of questioned some inconsistencies on) . . . "Life is so complex, just about any cock-a-may-mee explanation will do.

Life rarely fits into tidy little boxes--particularly extremely narrow, myopic ones.

"

originally posted by: ketsuko
Honestly, I am just across the state from the New Madrid, and I've never felt any of these quakes. I haven't felt any of the ones coming up from the Oklahoma area either.

Doesn't mean if it lets go we won't be in a world of hurt, but surely we'd be feeling a significant quake here to some degree?

THANKS MUCH That's the kind of input I was hoping for in this thread.

I assume you are all prepped up?

a reply to: GoShredAK

Did you have any impression or info about a region?

Sounds like a frightful dream, for sure.

a reply to: BO XIAN

Emergency food, yes. Sadly our emergency water went bad on us (i.e. don't trust without boiling), but we do have some extra hanging out.

We also have a plan of attack should it come to pass and we're all split up. Sad thing is we need to revise now. I am the one who will have to try to get to son and then exit city and it is across a bad stretch of highway that is almost always clogged morning and evening although the unencumbered drive is only about 10 minutes.

a reply to: ketsuko

Sounds like a challenging contingency that bears some creative thinking.

Prayer for your planning and prepping.

How old is your son?

a reply to: BO XIAN

5, so a problem. At least he is at a small, tight knit Christian school. He might have a shot at someone taking care of him in that environment because my biggest fear if I'm at work is that my building will collapse. You can feel the floor shake as someone walks behind you. It's one of those.

Earthquakes in the Midwest are different from other areas of the country because of all the limestone deposits. Limestone transmits vibration much better than a different type of rock.

We've had some mild earthquakes here in the Wisconsin/Illinois area that have registered out east because of the ground composition. If the New Madrid goes, it will be felt by a good portion of the US and the damage will be widespread.

originally posted by: BO XIAN
a reply to: GoShredAK

Did you have any impression or info about a region?

Sounds like a frightful dream, for sure.

I remember seeing coastline. That's about it. And it felt like we were talking about the US. I've been waiting to be in, or hear about the big one since I joined ATS. I feel strongly we will see it within a lifetime.

Honestly, the biggest problem with the New Madrid fault, is that it's been so long since a major quake has hit it that basically no Midwestern city is prepared for it in any way. I live in St Louis; the vast majority of buildings are 100+ year old red brick houses. A quake on the scale of the one from the 1800s that made the Mississippi run backwards and all that would absolutely level St Louis, outside of some of the newer skyscrapers perhaps. I can't speak for other Midwestern cities, but I don't imagine most of them are much better off.

originally posted by: BO XIAN
I assume you are all prepped up?

I have a question, as a Christian myself... Why prep if you trust God? I'm seriously not trolling here, I'm curious. My parents are also Christians, and they've got their garage filled to bursting with canned food and water. I ask, "How are you going to take all that with you once the government declares a 'National Emergency' and takes your house away?" because there are definitely Executive Orders (tm) that have set up exactly that: private ownership of property vanishes the instant they decide to decree it. After that, you're either on your own, or you're God's to take care of. He feeds all those stupid little birds; why wouldn't he feed his own children if they're in need (and they will be, for a little while)?

Here's my SHTF plan: go sit somewhere quiet and wait. Trust follows faith. If it kills me, so what? Who'd want to live in a nation where nobody's allowed to own anything, where all ordinary average citizens are rounded up into camps and treated like criminals just to keep those in power safe and fed? "No hiding place" sound familiar? If you read the Bible, if you believe the Bible, if you've seen that fig tree start growing new leaves, how do you not know summer is near? "When you see all these things taking place, you can know that His return is very near, right at the door." Christians don't need to prep; it's everyone else who'll be glad they did (at least, until someone murders them for ten ounces of creamed corn).

And just so I'm not completely off-topic, I've always expected foreshocks to precede any big New Madrid activity. If "this is it," the foreshocks (if any) will slowly increase in strength and then go totally silent for a day or a week before the big one hits. It'll be bad, but there's no way it could affect the West Coast, so a nation-wide state of emergency isn't likely. Yellowstone, now... there's an emergency waiting to happen, a bottomless pit waiting for someone with a key to open it and let out all that fire and brimstone (you ever smelled fresh lava? Nothing describes it better.) If that Russian/Chelyabinsk meteor had hit the middle of Yellowstone at a sharper re-entry angle instead, you wouldn't be reading this now because civilization (and thus Phoenix) would already be a memory. That's how delicate it is: a couple miles of fault-ridden rock and ground holding back thousands of cubic miles of pressurized magma. Every quake they ever have there is caused by all that pressure being just barely held back. The human race's fate hinges on whether that fractured scrap of paper-thin ground stays unbroken or not, and our atmosphere is thicker than it is. If you're afraid of the New Madrid fault, move to central Texas, where we only have a bit of fracking to worry about. Our water might turn flammable eventually, but seismically, we're golden. If you decide not to move, or can't, I wish you all the best. But if you're afraid of Yellowstone, Mars is just about your best bet. Boy, the UUSS picked a great time to reduce the accuracy of seismographs to 45% of what they used to show... took me weeks to adjust The Yellowstoner so it could support both the older ones and "new" ones... but I still think that when it finally erupts, it's more likely to be caused by some outside stimulus, not simply because the ground finally gave out. Just a hunch.

But seriously... why would a Christian prep?

a reply to: Thought Provoker

God does take care of his own. If I feel the urge to prep by buying some extra food, I do. Who can say? Perhaps it's God telling me to prepare and giving me that urge. Do you know? Do I? Does anyone?

Generally speaking, I do not let anxiety run my life. I'm not crazy enough to think I need a three year supply of all necessary supplies, but I do have some extra food and water and other things hanging out. We have family emergency plans for most major disaster contingencies. Outside of that, I go about my day.

a reply to: ketsuko

WOW!!!

Glad your son is with a more responsible caring group than some likely are.

I don't know how I could handle your situation. I think I'd have trouble sleeping nights.

That's another reason I chose not to have kids. I knew I'd want to spend all my time with them and not go to work. LOL.

I was sure glad I had no kids when my wife of 9 years decided to marry her co-worker instead of continue with me. Divorce and kids would have about killed me, imho.

I assume moving regions is out of the question. Sigh.

Prayer for the best for you, family and son, regardless. Thankfully, we can know Someone who has it all His very large hands, as the old song goes.

'Here, there or in the air' . . . Wheeee.

originally posted by: Cheddarhead
Earthquakes in the Midwest are different from other areas of the country because of all the limestone deposits. Limestone transmits vibration much better than a different type of rock.

We've had some mild earthquakes here in the Wisconsin/Illinois area that have registered out east because of the ground composition. If the New Madrid goes, it will be felt by a good portion of the US and the damage will be widespread.

That's the info I'd forgotten. Thanks for those details.

Makes a lot of sense.

a reply to: AshOnMyTomatoes

That's my understanding, too.

. . . kind of like old towns and villages down-island in Taiwan--when 6.X quakes hit--there's massive devastation with the old buildings.

There's enough wealth on the island, they COULD destroy the old buildings and construct solid quake resistant housing and work places. They just don't. Individual and family selfishness and pride is evident all around the globe.

originally posted by: Thought Provoker

originally posted by: BO XIAN
I assume you are all prepped up?

I have a question, as a Christian myself... Why prep if you trust God? I'm seriously not trolling here, I'm curious. My parents are also Christians, and they've got their garage filled to bursting with canned food and water. I ask, "How are you going to take all that with you once the government declares a 'National Emergency' and takes your house away?" because there are definitely Executive Orders (tm) that have set up exactly that: private ownership of property vanishes the instant they decide to decree it. After that, you're either on your own, or you're God's to take care of. He feeds all those stupid little birds; why wouldn't he feed his own children if they're in need (and they will be, for a little while)?

That was my stepdad's perspective, too.

imho, the Bible warns us of calamities coming and says to prepare. That's also sensible to me. Yes, the PTB may well steal it all. They may not. Perhaps God will protect at least some with stores of stuff for periods of safe haven for groups of believers.

I just know it's been a strong urge of mine for 40+ years. Que Sera Que Sera. At least, I've done what I could. I've mostly expected to be taken by God on other duties once the festivities begin. So I have expected others to more benefit from whatever meager amounts I've managed to store than I likely will. That's OK with me.

Here's my SHTF plan: go sit somewhere quiet and wait. Trust follows faith. If it kills me, so what? Who'd want to live in a nation where nobody's allowed to own anything, where all ordinary average citizens are rounded up into camps and treated like criminals just to keep those in power safe and fed? "No hiding place" sound familiar? If you read the Bible, if you believe the Bible, if you've seen that fig tree start growing new leaves, how do you not know summer is near? "When you see all these things taking place, you can know that His return is very near, right at the door." Christians don't need to prep; it's everyone else who'll be glad they did (at least, until someone murders them for ten ounces of creamed corn).

I'd rather have something to offer folks--on the chance I'll be able to--rather than not. And, while I expect God to be multiplying food and water a la the 5 loaves and fishes . . . I think it's probably wise to have something on hand to start the multiplication with. LOL.

And just so I'm not completely off-topic, I've always expected foreshocks to precede any big New Madrid activity. If "this is it," the foreshocks (if any) will slowly increase in strength and then go totally silent for a day or a week before the big one hits. It'll be bad, but there's no way it could affect the West Coast, so a nation-wide state of emergency isn't likely.

Nationwide emergency may well depend on how the oligarchy wants to USE the massive New Madrid quake for their own tyrannical ends rather than rational geographic related decisions.

Yellowstone, now... there's an emergency waiting to happen, a bottomless pit waiting for someone with a key to open it and let out all that fire and brimstone (you ever smelled fresh lava? Nothing describes it better.) If that Russian/Chelyabinsk meteor had hit the middle of Yellowstone at a sharper re-entry angle instead, you wouldn't be reading this now because civilization (and thus Phoenix) would already be a memory. That's how delicate it is: a couple miles of fault-ridden rock and ground holding back thousands of cubic miles of pressurized magma.

That's very vividly descriptive. Indeed.

Every quake they ever have there is caused by all that pressure being just barely held back. The human race's fate hinges on whether that fractured scrap of paper-thin ground stays unbroken

or not,

and our atmosphere is thicker than it is. If you're afraid of the New Madrid fault, move to central Texas, where we only have a bit of fracking to worry about. Our water might turn flammable eventually, but seismically, we're golden. If you decide not to move, or can't, I wish you all the best. But if you're afraid of Yellowstone, Mars is just about your best bet.

LOLOL.

Boy, the UUSS picked a great time to reduce the accuracy of seismographs to 45% of what they used to show... took me weeks to adjust

The Yellowstoner

so it could support both the older ones and "new" ones... but I still think that when it finally erupts, it's more likely to be caused by some outside stimulus, not simply because the ground finally gave out. Just a hunch.

But seriously... why would a Christian prep?

BTW, If you want most folks to read . . . it's better to keep paragraphs to 5-7 lines. Any more comes to tired eyes as a wall of text that is almost painful for some of us to read.

I prep because it's what I feel led in my spirit to do and what I see the Bible exhorting to do. . . . and I write about it as a kind of watchman on the wall. And that's a very sobering role.