March 28, 2005
By RAINER SABIN, Associated Press Writer
Yahoo News

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Two earthquake experts say the quake that produced the deadly tsunami in the Indian Ocean in December should remind residents of the central United States that they live in an area where a devastating quake could occur.

Haydar Al-Shukri, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Harley Benz, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist, cite a 4.2-magnitude earthquake last month at Caraway in northeast Arkansas as another piece of evidence of activity along the New Madrid fault line.

"We have the USGS and others in the area that have been worried about and monitoring the New Madrid System for a long time," said Benz, who runs the National Earthquake Information Center for the USGS. "We know it has produced large earthquakes in the past."

Benz was referring to three massive earthquakes in southeast Missouri in 1811 and 1812 that are now assigned magnitudes of more than 8.0. The New Madrid fault system that produced them extends 150 miles southward from Cairo, Ill. into northeast Arkansas and includes parts of Kentucky.

"The area over which you can have damage is much larger than in tectonic reactive areas like California," Benz said. "The impact of an earthquake like that can be quite different."

Al-Shukri said that, while there have not been any damaging earthquakes in the region since the turn of the 20th century, residents in the Midwest and the South need to be aware of the risks.

Benz was in Little Rock on Friday to discuss the lessons learned from the tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia on Dec. 26. He said the lack of precautionary measures in some of that region's countries made the tsunami's impact much greater.

Al-Shukri said media attention focused on the tsunami could help other areas in the world prepare for earthquakes, including the central United States.

"Every large magnitude earthquake that you see in the media generates some interest and action," said Al-Shukri, the director of the Arkansas Earthquake Center at UALR. "Public education is a very integral part of the whole thing."

Benz said that, while there is no way to predict an actual earthquake, there are ways to monitor tendencies and draw conclusions from them.

"We are trying to assess their habits," he said. "We are trying to understand the systems better so we can assess the probability of future earthquakes, which is different from being able to predict them."

Al-Shukri said the earthquake at Caraway should be viewed as a cautionary indicator.

"It's a warning," he said. "It's telling us that there is all this activity and is continuously moving. When you see a fault that is continuously moving, this zone has the potential for generating larger-magnitude earthquakes."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050328/ap_on_sc/quakes_arkansas&cid=624&ncid=2337