Study Says: New Madrid fault zone isn't showing great shifts

I know many of us who linger here have a great interest in the New Madrid Fault and whether it is becoming more active again, so this article should be of interest to you too.

New Madrid fault zone isn't showing great shifts, new study says

The earth under the New Madrid Seismic Zone either isn't shifting or is barely shifting at all, say three independent university analyses of global positioning system stations stuck in the ground and monitored for a decade.

So the cataclysmic shifts of past earthquakes remain unexplained, the mechanism for future earthquakes still a mystery.

The results contradict a University of Memphis study, which in June made headlines when it stated that two GPS stations on opposite sides of the Reelfoot fault had moved closer to each other at a rate that rivaled faults in California. The compression could coil up the faults for future earthquakes.

Now if you're not familiar with the earlier study that did suggest that New Madrid was active. Here it is:
Hints of quake under central USA

Now my question to you all, who do you believe? We have seen the quakes that occurring in the region, we have geysers popping up in Oklahoma, how can this new study be so certain that it is not the New Madrid fault increasing in activity? And are these studies really being done to benefit and inform the populace or the insurance companies?

and if you're wondering where the insurance bit came from, read the article and just note, Citizens Property Insurance OKs 66 percent rate hike for Broward, undoubtfully because of the this and last years hurricane season.




[edit on 12-15-2005 by worldwatcher]