(FEMA photo)

Expert: Small Ark. earthquakes could be warning

By JON GAMBRELL

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)
A series of small earthquakes that rattled central Arkansas in recent weeks could be a sign of something much bigger to come.

...Five earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 2.2 to 2.7 have hit central Arkansas this month. Quakes with a magnitude of 2.5 to 3 are typically the smallest felt by people....

The area does not have any permanent seismograph, so researchers asked the University of Memphis in Tennessee if they could use its portable equipment. The nearest seismographs aren't close enough to provide the detailed readings scientists need to determine what could be causing the tremors or properly locate their origin, said Scott Ausbrooks, the geohazard supervisor for the Arkansas Geological Survey.

"I don't know if you've looked at a map of where these events are located, but they've got a scatter on them," he said. "We're thinking this is probably the inherited error built in when you try to locate events of this small a magnitude from that far away."

Ausbrooks said officials would install the three seismographs around Magnet Cove, a Hot Spring County community near where a magnitude-2.7 earthquake hit on Nov. 1. Residents told police dispatchers they heard what sounded like an explosion...

"Now, it's not active, but in geologist time, that's yesterday," he said.

Ausbrooks wouldn't speculate on what could be causing the earthquakes, saying he wanted to see what data the seismographs capture. However, he acknowledged an unknown fault could be running through the area.

"There are numerous faults across the state, both known and unknown," Ausbrooks said. "This area has got a lot of faults associated with it from the mountain building of the Ouachitas, but they're considered inactive."

AP full article


We have a quake here in central Arkansas about eight years ago that was a pretty good one.

Good ol' Scott Ausbrooks...xtnyoda had the great honor of taking Scott to the throne of God's grace and salvation not long after Desert Storm. He was with the Marines and was on the front line in the liberation of Kuwait City from Saddam's madness.

God Bless him, and give him God Speed in finding any possible real and present danger.

xtnyoda, shalomed