Rare Kentucky earthquake

[Emily]

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/se111012a#summary
M4.3 - 13km W of Whitesburg, Kentucky 2012-11-10 17:08:14 UTC


http://www.wtvq.com/content/localnews/story/UK-Seismologist-Breaks-Down-Earthquakes-Impact-On/dTN4f_J6xkG6edWNTnUcTA.cspx

UK Seismologist Breaks Down Earthquakes Impact On Kentucky
[snip]
Carpenter said this quake has been thousands of years in the making as a result of mountain building.

?This earthquake occurred in what's called the eastern Tennessee seismic zone,? he said. ?That zone is the product of old mountain building with remnant faults and those processes."..

Retired geophysics engineer:

http://ontario-geofish.blogspot.com/

This is along a NE trend, so it is definitely on a mega-thrust.

...Are they imaging the basement?

I am pushing that the latest Kentucky quakes are a result of deep injection. Either they are high-volume injecting directly into the mega-thrust, or their massive injection into the Cambrian is finally leaking. I fully expect some bigger quakes before they shut down.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37407341/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/san-andreas-like-fault-found-eastern-us/#.UKDLjmfhfLE

By Larry O'Hanlon
updated 5/28/2010 8:00:41 PM ET

For 30 years geologists have been puzzled by a remarkably straight magnetic line that runs between New York and Alabama along the Appalachians.

A more recent aerial magnetic survey of the Alabama end of the line suggests that it's probably a 500-million-year-old San Andreas-style fault that appears to have slipped 137 miles to the right in the distant past.

If so, it's no surprise that the most dangerous part of the eastern Tennessee seismic zone is right next to part of this magnetic line and has the second-highest earthquake frequency in the eastern United States...

 

[Emily]

Re: Rare Letcher County, KY earthquake

Re: Rare Letcher County, KY earthquake

http://www.wkyt.com/wymt/home/headlines/Courthouse-cracks-under-earthquakes-pressure-178473081.html

Posted: Sat 6:57 PM, Nov 10, 2012 Reporter: Rebekah Pewitt Email
Updated: Sat 9:12 PM, Nov 10, 2012
Courthouse cracks under earthquake's pressure

http://www.wkyt.com/wymt/home/headl...earthquake-in-Eastern-Kentucky-178430061.html
Posted: Sat 2:43 PM, Nov 10, 2012
Updated: Sun 7:28 PM, Nov 11, 2012
Some damage being reported following historic earthquake in Eastern Kentucky


Here's a Kentucky Geological Survey map of Letcher County. It says that the the latest activity on the faults in the county occurred millions of years ago, so this weekend's earthquake was the first seismic activity there in recorded history.
http://kgs.uky.edu/kgsweb/olops/pub/kgs/mc183_12.pdf

 

[Emily]

Re: Rare Kentucky earthquake

http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/state/officials-checking-ky-dam-after-earthquake/article_e0ab14c9-5162-5df7-9b64-01f41badbb2e.html

Officials checking Ky. dam after earthquake
Posted: Monday, November 26, 2012 11:23 am | Updated: 4:02 pm, Mon Nov 26, 2012.

Officials in eastern Kentucky are conducting tests on a dam to see if a recent 4.3 magnitude earthquake centered near Blackey enlarged the flow of a small stream at the bottom of the structure...