Midwest Earthquakes

Today there were a number of earthquakes in the Midwest. Surprisingly I only felt one of the aftershocks (despite there apparently being a 5.4, and a 4.6 -- the 5.4 one woke me up briefly I think). Given the past few years of me monitoring the earthquakes in the region, it seems a tad bit out of place. Normally we only have a "bigger" one if there hadn't been one for a long while. Yet in this case we had a smaller one on Wednesday [2 days ago].

While it doesn't mark the end of the world (by itself), it is an interesting phenomenon. I've said for years that there's going to be a big earthquake in the Midwest again, one of the reasons why I monitor the small ones for trends. Today's was out of the ordinary. While I was out walking a thought hit me, "what if a volcano started to form". Now I'm sure it's highly unlikely for it to happen within the next few hundred thousand years, but it sure would make life here a lot more interesting. What's not as interesting is bridges and rivers in the area. Are they really designed to withstand earthquakes? And is it even possible for an earthquake in this area to alter a river's path?

Here's the thing, it's not if a big earthquake will hit in the Midwest, but when. Overdue? Not really, we're still within a "could happen anytime" zone right now. It is said some places that a 7.5 or greater could hit between 2012 and 2112 (look even slightly familiar?) But it does raise one question, what are the towns in the Midwest doing to make themselves ready for a massive earthquake? And what would happen to our food? Big earthquake, loss of power, multiple state damage, Memphis, St Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis (to name a few cities) could have massive building failures. Think New Orleans was bad? Imagine having to rebuild the equivalent of two states with potential side effects that could last 5-10 years. Midwest even produces OIL; it's not just corn, soybeans, etc! And it's all in the earthquake zone.

And guess what? Towns don't even have earthquake preparedness classes or anything! Things that should be provided free of charge to the community, and they're nowhere to be seen. I doubt very many (if any) bridges are built to withstand earthquakes, you know if there's a big one they'd all have to be inspected. Some might have to be torn down or fixed. Lose a lot of bridges and entire communities will be blocked off from the "outside world"! It's a disaster waiting to happen -- and one that no one seems to care to prepare for.