By: Earle Farrell
Wednesday, 15 Sep 2010, 4:49 PM CDT
MARION, Ark. - Most people in the Mid-South know all about the New Madrid fault line, but what you may not know is researchers at the University of Memphis have found yet another fault near Marion, Arkansas. Beatrice Magnani with the University of Memphis Earthquake Center and her crew of graduate students are busy mapping out a newly discovered fault line. This team of researchers from the University of Memphis is stringing miles of wire along a line that they think is just above the fault. They put out sensors which record the vibrations bouncing back from deep underground.
Down at the other end is another truck that is recording the data. Once all this information is gathered it will be combined to give an image of what it looks like below the surface of the earth. So the question is, could this fault line produce another earthquake anytime soon?
"We don't know," said Magnani. "What I know is that the length of the fault is 30 miles and if this fault activates all at the same time it could produce 6.9, 7.0 magnitude, which would be devastating to the area."
National Geographic Television will air a special on all this research sometime next year.
Source: www.myfoxmemphis.com