Southwest South Carolina got rocked yesterday with a 4.1 quake, an uncommon but hardly unknown event for the area still digging out and rewiring from the recent snow/ice storm that hammered the entire east coast. Charleston, SC has been the epicenter of large quakes in the past - and, guess what, likely in the future- so this recent quake is hardly a big surprise. The problem with earthquakes is that they ARE always a surprise, no real warning, just a jolting realization that the world you take for granted as stable really isn't. Central Va. got that reminder 2 1/2 years ago, Japan a big reminder about 3 years ago and if you live on the ring of fire or near any of the plate boundary "zones of shake" you too, always have that thought of potential shakiness not far below you level of consciousness.
Current geologic thought, in explanation of the shake zone near SC/GA's Savannah River, postulates that the state boundary/river is an old suture zone formed during the smashing and crashing that formed Pangaea. When the rift zone that has lead us to the Atlantic Ocean began to form and separate North America and Africa a chunk got left behind, the edge of that chunk (and therefore weak spot - and rivers find the weak spots) being the Savannah River that now separates the two states (going back to a decree creating Georgia out of the Carolinas). Old fault zones are hard to see in the deeply soil covered east but are there nonetheless, ready to slip and slide when unseen pressures build and need release: an earthquake.
Oklahoma continues to be on the daily list, almost as common as California and Alaska. I'm not sure what's going on out there, I never felt any when working in the area (although I was mostly in western OK). I'm still guessing and blaming fracking and am still guessing the oil & gas industries, blowing up the earth in the area to slurp out the fossil hydrocarbons craved by ALL Americans, are still in denial of any connection at all to the quakes; no couldn't be us...
Hope your world is not shaky, today on Earth.
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