Bizzare and Slightly Terrifying

[Blake Noble]

If you live in a state that a.) has been awash in rainstorms for days on end and b.) borders the Mississippi or Ohio Rivers, there is a great certainty that you've probably heard about the Army Corps of Engineers blowing a hole in the Bird's Point Levee in Missouri to relieve residents of Cairo, Illinois of any serious flood threat while, simultaneously, destroying 130,000 acres of prime farmland in Missouri. A tragic story that's slightly twisted in what sacrifice it makes, but nonetheless interesting considering what geological region this story has unfolded within.

I'm of course talking about the New Madrid fault line here, which encompasses the states of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, and, the home state of yours truly, Kentucky.

Of course, the New Madrid fault line last went off in very late 1811 and early 1812 with a series of earthquakes that ravaged the Eastern US to hell and back, with all three reported quakes measuring as high as an estimated 8.6 magnitude. Aftershocks continued to be felt until the year 1817. Since then, the most significant quakes came in the years 1843 (6.0M) and 1895 (6.6M). The most recent quake rang in at 5.4 magnitude and occurred in the year 1968.

Of course earthquakes and floods typically do not correlate with one another ... unless a flood is the result of an earthquake, so let me get to the point. During this time of intense rainfall, there has interestingly been a large outbreak of sand volcanoes (or sand boils, as some people like to call them) in the town of -- you guessed it -- Cairo, Illinois, some of them quite large. Sinkholes have also appeared. The soil in this area has almost reached the dangerous point of liquification, if it hasn't already.

Of course, sand volcanoes are just one precursor to serious seismic activity. On the other hand, it could be possible that these sand boils were also caused by a massive build up of water pressure in the soil from the recent flooding, but something ... something just doesn't add up when you try to explain their appearance in that fashion. I can't put my finger on exactly why.

It also becomes a little bit puzzling considering the fact I've been seeing some data from last month (and getting to that data involved sifting through and waltzing around some sites that were hardly credible in the least, to be polite) showing the New Madrid falling silent during a period of increased seismic activity.

I don't know what's going on here, I'm not a seismologist, but some folks would like for you to believe that this fault line is seriously overdue to show itself again. And, to my dismay, I think those nutjobs may be on to something ...

[Camino LS6]

Hmmm...

It may me a minor measure of both things that I have recently been hearing about the flooding/planned levee destruction and the New Madrid fault when I had never heard of them before.

Sounds like there is more to the story on both.

[nightwave]

Is it bad my first thought was "Sand Boils; hmm, I wonder if that's what Sand People get from walking too much."

Seriously, though, the flooding has been interesting to me, simply because I live in Evansville, IN. For those who haven't heard of it (and you'll be forgiven ) it's as far south as you can go in Indiana and still stay within the state; we're right on the Ohio. With all the water we've gotten, it wouldn't take anything severe of a 'quake to make life interesting.

Hadn't thought about that until now.

[Drew Dowdell]

I've never even heard of a sand boil! Got pics?

[Paolino]

I've actually heard the term "sand volcano" and also used as a precursor to seismic activity. I saw it on a special on the Science Channel and they were talking about quakes inside the US where they usually don't get them. Apparently even low-rated quakes are more severe than much higher ones out in California; something to do with the type of shaking and plate.

Well, good luck.

[G. David Felt]

I've never even heard of a sand boil! Got pics?

Here ya go Olds, hopefully this will help you.

Wikipedia definition of Sand Boils with Pics!

Local News Story on Sand Boils and Levee Breach

USGS Site on Sand Boils with Pics!

I wish all those members living in the midwest the best of luck with the rain, the river and all other forms of Natural Disaster.

[Drew Dowdell]

oh, they're a lot smaller than I had imagined.

[G. David Felt]

Yea but only take a few over a wide area to get things to settle down and become unstable or to become buried.

[daves87rs]

Very interesting, that is for sure....

[loki]

Birds point is w/i an hour of me... our local tv station was covering it quite alot.... bigger news than UBL's assassination.

here's the modot site for road closers over the state.. bottom right area is where it's flooded http://maps.modot.mo.gov/timi/ ,or maybe you could tell by all the red...

here's the river stage graph for close to me

[G. David Felt]

Birds point is w/i an hour of me... our local tv station was covering it quite alot.... bigger news than UBL's assassination.

here's the modot site for road closers over the state.. bottom right area is where it's flooded http://maps.modot.mo.gov/timi/ ,or maybe you could tell by all the red...

here's the river stage graph for close to me

WOW, That is allot of water closed roads and road issues due to water. Good Luck!

[the_yellow_dart]

Is the Missouri flooding too? My mother's currently visiting relatives in New Haven... hope she's not having any issues.

[G. David Felt]

Is the Missouri flooding too? My mother's currently visiting relatives in New Haven... hope she's not having any issues.

From the News, weather channel, yes the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi are all flooding depending on where you are at. Very interesting times we live in.

Good luck to your mom.

[Croc]

I've actually heard the term "sand volcano" and also used as a precursor to seismic activity. I saw it on a special on the Science Channel and they were talking about quakes inside the US where they usually don't get them. Apparently even low-rated quakes are more severe than much higher ones out in California; something to do with the type of shaking and plate.

Well, good luck.

Uhhhhh...I think the "more severe than much higher ones in California" has more to do with building codes that don't account for seismic activity because it's far less frequent. Yes, there are different types of faults, and yes, there are some that are "worse" than others, but we have them all in California, so anything "worse" would be more of a function of population size and unprepared localities.