Hot Spring County Earthquake

Federal officials say a 2.7-magnitude earthquake struck Saturday night near the community of Magnet Cove in Hot Spring County.

[Brian]

I felt it although I thought it was a bomb!!!

[LORANE]

IT shook my house..sounded like a bomb.

[Veronica]

I think it was a sonic boom. Earthquakes don't make a noise.

[Dawn]

We thought something at a plant exploded or something...it was pretty freaky! Being from California, and moving here...I was not expecting an earthquake! ;)

[Bill]

On Fri Jan 21 a second quake hit Malver AR. area. My Daughters house was shaken very hard and a sound like an explosion accompanied it. This is the second quake in a few weeks which in our area is unusual and also BIG NEWS to us yet it is given very little coverage. A few words sayng a small quake hit Malvern AR. seems an understatement. Not even a mention that this is the second one! Also is it not strange that a quake is accompanied by a "Sound like a bomb"? Can't some comments and possible explanations from experts be found to add some information to this news article? I've seen local football games get much more coverage than this, why is it being downplayed?

[Ben]

A lot of gas wells are being drilled in E. central Arkansas that are being drilled horizontally as much as 5000', several thousand feet below the ground, Then the rock is fractured under high pressure with sand and liquid to enhance production.

Has it occurred to anyone that this activity could be involved in any way with the earth quakes.

[Tabatha]

I feel that if it was people drilling for gas....and if that is the cause of the earth viberation we have felt..then some specialist need to do some clarification to what we have experianced here in the malvern area. Not to mention the news has already stated that the last two earth viberations where for a fact "earthquakes" and then a third possiable earthquake hit the malvern area again at 6pm with the same earth viberations as witnessed before.

[Ben]

Tabatha; I am not saying the drilling causes the quakes but that sufficient fracturing induced in a number of wells could have weakened the rock at depth allowing it to move or shift which causes earthquakes.

[Nacho Man]

Ben wrote:

Has it occurred to anyone that this activity could be involved in any way with the earth quakes.

It would be the same as thinking a mosquito landing on your arm could break it.

While fracturing the rock, at shallow depth, can cause extremely minor surface deformation (billionths of a degree), the scale of even the largest frac is magnitudes below what would be needed to even start considering them to cause quakes.

[CPA]

Did anyone have any structural damage to homes or buildings? If so, in what areas?

[Bill]

There has been five earthquakes in Central Arkansas this month. Scientist are setting up seismographs in the Magnet Cove area in hopes of determining the cause. Magnet Cove (just east of Malvern) was once a crater that had magma force its way toward the surface. Although scientist think there was not a volcanic eruption, the crater is rimed with igneous rocks (rock from deep within the earth's core.)
By this weekend, seismologists hope to install three measurement devices to gather data about future temblors in the area. That information could show whether the rumbles come from heat-related geological changes or from an undiscovered fault — which could mean a risk of substantial earthquakes in the future.
"The potential for generating a high-magnitude earthquake is real," said Haydar Al-Shukri, director of the Arkansas Earthquake Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock
It's called Hot Spings for a reason.
To read the entire article see:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081128/ap_on_re_...

[Bill]

I've done a lot of research since I last posted and found a map (from the USGS Geologic Information about Arkansas) showing all the epicenters in Ark. and it definately shows the Magnet cove area with a red dot as being one of the areas KNOWN to be a high if not definate risk of future activity. It also shows that this area is not new to quakes with many being on record. Why the News services are playing it down and not doing the same research I did is a mystery to me. I found an eye witness account from the distant past of a quake in Arkansas "where the ground made a thunderous sound" so I find that the "Boom" heard receintly is also not unheard of. I'm an avid hunter walking the woods for miles around the Magnet Cove area (I live in the area, my location was incorrect with my last post for some reason)and have found several clear Quartz Crystal deposits and also Smokey Quartz deposits with smaller images inside the quartz called "Phantoms" where eruptions caused a layer of ash to be embeded in the forming quartz so the area is definately a place of ancient activity. I also found that FEMA has stated that very little preperations have been made for the "big quake" that is coming to Arkansas, which may be the reason the news services are downplaying it. Anyone interested should check out the past earthquakes Arkansas has experienced starting around 1800, it is awsome and the big one to come is going to be even bigger! Start your search with the New Madrid Seismic Zone which is a quake area know to have a quake coming which will be about 10 times larger than any experianced in recient history anywhere in the continental USA!

[Nacho Man]

There has indeed been a lot of things written about the New Madrid area. After the west coast and Alaska it is the most likely to have a large quake. I think, however, that as a taxpayer, I'd rather keep our limited FEMA resources (as questionable as they are), tageted at rescue and recovery of the California coast.

It would be very hard to be a FEMA employee... just waiting... and waiting.