Chicago Rattled by Early Morning Earthquake
Feb. 10, 2010 – Residents of the Chicagoland area were rudely awakened by a magnitude 3.8 earthquake that struck around 4 a.m. this morning and causing generally light damages.
The earthquake shook homes and inflicted only minor damages with no reported injuries but could be felt by residents in neighboring Indiana and Wisconsin, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The tremor was centered in a farm field adjacent to Plank Road near the town of Hampshire, Illinois and initially was reported to be a magnitude 4.3 earthquake centered in Geneva, Illinois, until U.S. Geological Survey officials later revised their report.
The tremor is the first to hit the Chicago area since a magnitude 5.2 earthquake centered 270 miles south of Chicago struck in April 2008, damaging several walls and foundations but otherwise doing no harm.
Although California and other western states are most noted for earthquake activity, about a third of major U.S. cities considered to be at risk for significant earthquake activity are located east of the Rocky Mountains, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. And about 75 million U.S. citizens in 39 states are considered at risk for earthquake activity. A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck Charleston, South Carolina, in 1886, and a magnitude 5.3 earthquake was recorded in northern New York State in 1944.
One of the nations most active earthquake areas, the New Madrid Seismic Zone, is situated roughly along the Mississippi River near the Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee borders is one of the nation’s most active and has spawned highly destructive earthquakes ranging up to magnitude 8.0.
A particularly strong series of earthquakes estimated at up to magnitude 8.1 occurred in the New Madrid Seismic Zone in 1811 and 1812 that heavily damaged the few structures existing in the area at the time and was strong enough to be felt as far away as Boston, New York City and Washington D.C., temporarily changed the flow of the Mississippi River and created Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee.
Scientists anticipate a major earthquake in the range of a magnitude 8.0, such as the 1811-1812 series, to strike the New Madrid area every 200 to 300 years. Smaller but equally devastating earthquakes of about magnitude 6.0 are expected to strike about every 80 years along the New Madrid Seismic Zone, but one of that strength has not been reported since 1895, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Although earthquakes east of the Continental Divide are less common than west of it, the larger urban centers in the eastern United States means even a modest earthquake would affect much larger areas and cause a great deal of damage.