Earthquake Swarm in Arkansas Intensifies. Memphis, Tennessee could be epicenter for the next big one

I went to check on my daughter in her class today, and the class was interrupted by the principal and another gentleman(?)

They were coming on to test-check each of the classrooms for the entire school- on earthquake procedures

When he came in, they simulated a horn and all the children and the teacher ran underneath desks and waited until he said, 'All clear"

I asked my teenage son how long had they been doing the earthquake drills since Friday, every day and every class

It's obvious that the Memphis City School system and others in the NMZ area have been told that a major quake is imminent.......

reply to post by ButterCookie


Drills in every class and every hour is concerning.
Do you know how long they will continue to have
the drills at the school?

reply to post by crazydaisy


Funny this should come up.

I have noticed this past week that there have been SEVERAL tests of our emergency broadcast system.

I used to be a 911 dispatcher here so I KNOW how often it is done. Once a week,usually late at night so as not to interrupt anything.

It has happened at least five times in the past three days that my daughter and I have seen. It has been from a different county each time. She even commented this morning that she wondering why they were doing it so much and if they thought something was going to happen. Ok....she is 11. How much more obvious does it need to be???

I got on here this morning and saw this thread: Thread on emergency broadcasts

It would seem this is happening all over the country. Now THIS scares me you guys. Yet another dot is connected.

reply to post by pls8xx


How many benchmarks do you think were set? Just thinking, around here they don't replace poles very often, usually just when one is hit by a car or something. Trees might be a little trickier. There must have been some building and road widening in the last 35 years. If there were a lot of them, even if half were left, would it be enough?

Do you still live in the area? If you called them, and said you were doing some research....Maybe even say earthquake research.... I don't know, if that would help or hurt! Maybe someone would be willing to do some digging? Couldn't hurt to try!

reply to post by ButterCookie


It seems as if the Memphis area is seriously taking note of the events in Arkansas. I will have to ask my teens if their school has had any earthquake prep activity, previous to last week they haven't had any.But I am consistently seeing the commercial for the Shake Out drill on local tv, and there have been quite a few people sign up for that. Right now I am trying to find a route to get me from my home and across the Loosahatchie river so I can get to Memphis area hospitals without crossing a disabled bridge (that's if the Mississippi river hasn't flooded me out to the Gulf of Mexico!!). I may have to head north to Covington instead, but Memphis would have a greater need so I am trying to find a route in to the city.

So I mentioned a couple of days ago that I had sent an email to the USGS asking about the signals on those Arkansas stations. I got a reply right away and had then sent several screen shots in response. It took a couple of days, but he wrote me back. Here is the whole exchange....tell me what you think.

You need to read from the bottom up to get the sequence correct.

[I just noticed that he did cc someone else with the first email]

(names removed)

Hi Tara,

The images you attached for WHAR and WLAR look like small earthquakes. I am not sure what the signal is on HHAR. Please let me know if you see it again. The noise on WLAR on 3/7 looks like somebody doing work around the station. If you are not already signed up, you may want to consider signing up for the earthquake notification service, sslearthquake.usgs.gov... a service that will alert you to earthquake activity in your area. But please keep in mind that we have limited resources and may not have time to quickly process events of magnitude less than 2.

I hope this information is helpful.

_____



On 3/8/11 2:07 PM, wrote:


______,

Thank you so much for taking the time to look into this and respond. As to whether I was referring to the P waves showing up from the 6.6 quake at about 1900 CST, no those are not what I was looking at. I apologize for not being more specific. I am quite familiar with distant P waves (although they still get me excited every once in awhile). I took some screen shots of some of the stations (which show the GEE stations and times), so I will attach those to this email. Also, this following link will take you to an Arkansas helicorder which corresponds with one of the attachments (HHAR 2nd/3rd attachments) and clearly shows the signal: (starts at about 18:35UTC)

folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu...

Also, if you go to the following link and look at the past couple of days for Hobbs and White Oak Lake:

www.geology.ar.gov...

Specifically this one:

folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu... (starting at about 15:15 UTC)

Some aquintances of mine have ran some spectograms and sound analysis on a few of these. It is by far very bizarre sounding. While there does not seem to be Harmonic tremors, (frequency is way too high) there are some harmonics of unknown origin.

I hope this helps, and also to let you know that residents about 15 miles west of Beebe are still feeling ground motion and even the very micro quakes.


Tara


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2011 13:34:40 -0600
Subject: Re: EHP Website Email - Arkansas area quakes
From: _________
To: _________
CC: [email protected]


Hi Tara,
The network people here at the Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis, who look at far more seismic signals than I do, have informed be that the harmonic signals that you see are surface waves from earthquakes fairly far away, likely the M6.6 that occurred in the Solomon Islands (earthquake.usgs.gov...), assuming we’re looking at the same signals. Are the signals that you’re referring to those that are occurring around 19:00 CST in the following image?

folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu...

____

On 3/7/11 5:11 PM,


URL: earthquake.usgs.gov...
Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; GTB6.6; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; .NET4.0C; MSN Optimized;US)

Hi there. I have some questions regarding several stations that I have been monitoring on GEE in Arkansas. The stations are AG.WHAR (center of the current swarm) AG.HHAR (Hobbs) and AG.WLAR (White Oak Lake) I am concerned about the recent (past day or so) activity being picked up on HHAR and WLAR. It is bizzarre, to say the least and at times almost looking similar to Harmonic Tremors. I just noticed that the most recent quake (2.7 centered near Greenbriar) actually showed up strongest on the HHAR station to the NW than it did on WHAR. I am have been in communication with a resident living just West of Bebee (SW of the swarm) who is feeling almost constant ground movement (she has video to confirm) and feels even the most micro of quakes...reporting them felt even before it shows up on GEE. I think that having those two injection wells stopped was a great step, but not the actual problem. I can't imagine that the USGS is not aware of the current activity occuring on all of these stations, as well as what is being felt on the ground. It would seem that something potentially major is brewing and I am very alarmed at the lack of ANY media coverage or communication between the USGS and local residents. Can you in any way tell me what is going on with these stations? Are you aware of this? Thank you very much for your time and consideration,

Tara


,

reply to post by crazydaisy


Not sure on how long....but actually its just once a day, but in each classroom.

The principal was timing the students and teachers to see how ling it took for them to get into the earthquake prone position under their desks...

I understood, but it made me think of how imminent it must really be...

reply to post by westcoast


On the emergency broadcasts:

My brother text me a week ago about us having an unusual E.B. at 9am one morning, instead of the daily ones at 3:30pm...

we both wondered was was up

Originally posted by justsaying
reply to post by ButterCookie

 

It seems as if the Memphis area is seriously taking note of the events in Arkansas. I will have to ask my teens if their school has had any earthquake prep activity, previous to last week they haven't had any.But I am consistently seeing the commercial for the Shake Out drill on local tv, and there have been quite a few people sign up for that. Right now I am trying to find a route to get me from my home and across the Loosahatchie river so I can get to Memphis area hospitals without crossing a disabled bridge (that's if the Mississippi river hasn't flooded me out to the Gulf of Mexico!!). I may have to head north to Covington instead, but Memphis would have a greater need so I am trying to find a route in to the city.

I have been seeing the 'Shake-out' commercials too!!!!

It does appear that people are awakening from their slumber as of late....

reply to post by pls8xx


That's a great idea...see this is the type of "boots on the ground" approach we need to figure this thing out. Now why doesn't the USGS think like this? Amazing what narrow-sighted government can do with lots of tax dollars, make policies based on inaccurate and incomplete data?

Great idea my friend.

A thought about the EBS broadcasts and other things:

Last night, I saw one of those mobile tower command posts going down the road. And when I got to Little Rock, just north of the LEVY exit where the new landscaped bricked retaining wall is built (a few years,) the Highway and Transportation Dept. had blocked-off I-40 West outside lane (closest to the retaining wall,) and they had all the lights pointed at the retaining wall, as if they were looking at something. As I drove by, I noticed the stair-stepped pattern and it looked to me as if one of the sections was slightly raised higher than the adjacent walls. Could this have shifted from some kind of quake or ground movement?

I also have noticed all over the state that on bridges and other crossings over rivers and creeks, the point where the road (asphalt) meets the concrete bridges are raised or lowered to such an extent that suggests some kind of ground movement up or down and if you hit it too fast, it could blow-out a tire or worse. I don't think it's related to increased traffic since it seems as if this is increasing all over the state. It does seem like things are settling all over the place more-so than usual. And that makes me prick up my ears and eyes.

Hi everyone....for those of us who are just learning about quakes and the New Madrid Fault Zone....I found this site which explains many things in non-expert language.... Really good info and also how to prepare etc.
showme.net...

Would anyone where or who can help me put a seismograph on my property? I live about 1 mile SE of Woolly Hollow, and the fault line here is between me and WHAR seismograph. I feel movement many times per day here and to my knowledge, there is no seismograph anywhere along highway 225 and it should be.

I have a hunch that alot of information could be gleaned from seismographs on the southern side of the fault along highway 225, especially up here at the east end of the "plateau." I live on a raised plateau called "Wolf's Head Ridge," at least that's what they used to call it, so I kept the name. I think there might be a small fault in my backyard going N to S and it connects to the larger fault heading E and W. Yes, this small sucker acts like a tuning fork and sitting smack-dab on top of it, sometimes makes me feel instead of a house I am in a boat.

Please help me if you can by pointing me to anyone who can put me in touch with persons or agencies who can help me get a portable internet accessible seismograph placed on my property. We have broadband up here and I can even rig-up a server if needed to make the info available to whomever might need to see it.

Time is running out people...

reply to post by westcoast

The images you attached for WHAR and WLAR ---look like---- small earthquakes.

I am ---- not sure --- what the signal is on HHAR.

Please let me know if you see it again.?????

The noise on WLAR on 3/7 ---- looks like ----- somebody doing work around the station.

If you are not already signed up, you may want to consider signing up for the earthquake notification service, sslearthquake.usgs.gov... a service that will alert you to earthquake activity in your area. ---- Your kidding me right ---

But please keep in mind that --- we have limited resources--- and -----may not have time---- to quickly process events of magnitude less than 2.

I dicected the response- You've been smoked Westcoasted.

reply to post by westcoast

In St. Louis, we are getting ready for "tornado preparedness week".
New sirens have been installed this past week-incl one right by my house. This is odd because our area is the last to get anything new. I think they are trying to cover a larger area than in the past. They are testing today.

I have noticed Em Broadcast Tests during odd hours.

The local news that most people watch has changed its time-now starts at 4 AM. One curious thing is that this local channel (Fox affiliate) seems to have news crews at the ready all the time. They break in with "breaking news" as it is happening, whether a car crash or a robbery. They have helicopters and trucks out alot. This is a very recent change, within 18 months. It makes little sense, in this economy, to have this much manpower standing by.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

The waves from the 6.5 Bali earthquake have passed through Arkansas.
Again, shortly after this event, I have seen the remote triggering. On the GEE you can see the return of the microquakes...

reply to post by trekwebmaster


I found this on the page for the Hockley TX seismograph. It specifically mentions urban environments but it might be worth asking if they could put one on your property.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

reply to post by TXTriker


I wrote a letter to Scott Ausbrook 15 mins ago asking about a seismo being placed on my property, return receipt and delivery request confirmation on the email.

I hope they sincerely do this, since my hunch is I'm sitting on top of a micro-fault and and on the section of land south of the Guy W to E fault. Thing sure do shake up here AND I have 3 acres of nothing but hay...it's time the land is used for something useful like saving lives by helping us get more information.

I'll let you know what Scott says...

PEACE!

Time at 2:40 pm CST - Arkansas - 1 Mile SE of Woolly Hollow. Very noticeable swaying motion which seemed to be from W to E. It has been very active here today and I am noticing settling noises and jiggling almost constantly.

Update: 2:48pm My dog, who sensed the last quake in Greenbrier, is acting worried. I think he might be sensing something. So heads-up folks. Watch the Seismos. Alot of moving and jiggling today up here.

4:37pm - Another strong jiggle - It's a pain to keep having to adjust the level of my monitor.

reply to post by trekwebmaster

Please keep us updated, and I pray you stay safe....is it stronger than usual?