For those wondering about the Guy area; please note, I am not a
geologist. This is from an email to my family andsome Earth
Science teachers:
We made a campground called Mean Green Toad last night. Mean Green
Toad campground was due east of Bee Branch and south of Guy, AR.
It was so far out in the country that they warned us about leaving
the wild "critters" alone; I believe that includes deer, coons,
squirrels and maybe an occasional bear and wild pig.... Guy, AR is
the center of the earthquake swarm for the last year that takes
one's attention away from the New Madrid system. There were three
little ones while we were in the area ... but not big enough to
feel... and I really didn't expect to feel any (the frequency and
intensity had dropped this week ... I didn't even unhitch the 5th
wheel from the truck so I was sitting on springs. My goal was to
look over the terrain. A guy on the PSN said when he was stationed
in the area it was as flat...at least around Harrison... well,
that's far from the truth. The airport sets on a leveled off hill.
I noticed numerous pipelines and even oil drilling going. It is
off-season now. The campground (over 200 sites and at least 59%
full) was predominately inhabited by oil industry workers; either
in exploration or distribution. The mountains are tall and the
escarpments (or in my mind faults) very steep some maybe 500 ft.
It took me (fifth wheel and all) 3 1/2 hours to go about a 100
miles and I used a 1/2 tank of gas. I never had that much trouble
going through the mountains around Knoxville, Gatlinburg or
Chattanooga in eastern TN., but I might add even though we were on
four lane highways the whole way, the roads in the Smokies are
more modern.
The activity in western Arkansas is different fromeastern
Arkansas. The eastern activity (shows reduced activity (at this
time) and is almost always deeper and certainly associated with
the New Madrid system.
This activity around Guy is much shallower. The area is obviously
limestone.
See: http://folkworm..memphis.edu/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.html
and by Arkansas geologists in Arkansas:
http://www.geology.ar.gov/geohazards/earthquakes.htm
http://www.millennium-ark.net/NEWS/10_Earth_Changes/101012.ARK.EQ.swarm.html
There were several interesting articles in regional local news as
well as the end of the world is coming explanation:
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1223769/pg1
http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2010/10/earthquake-swarm-in-arkansas.html
The impression I came away with is this. There seems to be a lot of
fracturing of the limestone beds in this area. Limesstone is notoriously
porous.There are a lot of lakes too; some large and many what I would
call "farm ponds". If, as some sources say, there is injection of fluids
into the ground and oil ...maybe even gas taken out... this might cause
movement along faults allowing the lake water to get into the faults and
causing lubrication. There is also the issue of relief; what caused the
strong relief to begin with? I thought this are was a shallow sea for a
long period with volcanic activity but the "hills" are not as eroded as
I would expect.
For
those wondering about the Guy area; please note, I am not a
geologist. This is
from an email to my family and some
Earth Science teachers:
We
made a campground called Mean Green Toad last night. Mean Green
Toad campground
was due east of Bee Branch and south of Guy, AR. It was so far
out in the
country that they warned us about leaving the wild "critters"
alone;
I believe that includes deer, coons, squirrels and maybe an
occasional bear and
wild pig.... Guy, AR
is the center of the earthquake swarm for the last year that
takes one’s
attention away from the New Madrid
system. There were three little ones while we were in the area
... but not big
enough to feel... and I really didn't expect to feel any (the
frequency and
intensity had dropped this week ... I didn't even unhitch the
5th wheel
from the truck so I was sitting on springs. My goal was to look
over the
terrain. A guy on the PSN said when he was stationed in the area
it was as
flat…at least around Harrison… well, that's
far from the truth. The airport sets on a leveled off hill. I
noticed numerous
pipelines and even oil drilling going. It is off-season now. The
campground
(over 200 sites and at least 59% full) was predominately
inhabited by oil
industry workers; either in exploration or distribution. The
mountains are tall
and the escarpments (or in my mind faults) very steep some maybe
500 ft. It
took me (fifth wheel and all) 3 1/2 hours to go about a 100
miles and I used a
1/2 tank of gas. I never had that much trouble going through the
mountains
around Knoxville, Gatlinburg or Chattanooga in eastern TN., but
I might add
even though we were on four lane highways the whole way, the
roads in the
Smokies are more modern.
The
activity in western Arkansas is different
from eastern Arkansas. The eastern
activity (shows
reduced activity (at this time) and is almost always deeper and
certainly
associated with the New Madrid
system.
This
activity around Guy is much shallower. The area is obviously
limestone.
See:
http://folkworm..memphis.edu/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.html
and by Arkansas geologists in
Arkansas:
http://www.geology.ar.gov/geohazards/earthquakes.htm
http://www.millennium-ark.net/NEWS/10_Earth_Changes/101012.ARK.EQ.swarm.html
There were several
interesting articles in regional local news as well as the end
of the world is
coming explanation:
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1223769/pg1
http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2010/10/earthquake-swarm-in-arkansas.html
The impression I came away with is this. There
seems to be a
lot of fracturing of the limestone beds in this area. Limesstone
is notoriously
porous. There are a lot of lakes too;
some large and many what I would call “farm ponds”. If, as some
sources say,
there is injection of fluids into the ground and oil …maybe even
gas taken out…
this might cause movement along faults allowing the lake water to
get into the
faults and causing lubrication. There is also the issue of relief;
what caused
the strong relief to begin with? I thought this are was a shallow
sea for a
long period with volcanic activity but the “hills” are not as
eroded as I would
expect.