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The Earthquake That Never Went Away (Gutenberg-Richter Earthquake Series, No 2)
The Earthquake That Never Went Away - Gutenberg-Richter Earthquake Series, No 2 Author:David Stewart A series of great earthquakes struck the central Mississippi River valley during the winter of 1811-12 and changed the landscape forever. At five of these more than 2,000 events were at least 8.0 on the Richter scale. In their wake, an area about the size of New Jersey, about 150 miles long and 80 miles wide, was left with thousands of gash... more »es and scars still visible today, almost 200 years later. Sand boils, explosion sand craters, fissures, crevasses, seismic sand ridges, earthquake ponds, sunk lands, earthquake lakes, surface faults, landslides, and a host of other morphoseismic features abound throughout the region. This book contains 150 photos, maps, and drawings of these with a description of their impact on life there today--how it effects transportion, construction, agriculture, and the lives of those who live in or near the fault zone. For example, vast areas were turned into temporary quicksand during the temblors (seismic liquefaction), leaving numerous places sensitive to vibration, even today. One of these locations is just outside of New Madrid, Missouri, where a railroad crosses. When trains happen to cross at just the right speed, weight, and length, the rumbling of the cars triggers temporary quicksand conditions, causing the rails to sag and derailing the train. The last time this happened was in 1993. So here we have trains being derailed today by an earthquake that happened 200 years ago. That's why we call it "The Earthquake that Never Went Away."« less