Earthquake tests- Messing with nature

How baffling it was for scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information to purposefully cause an earthquake on the New Madrid Fault a day after a real one killed 26 children in Italy.

It was Oct. 31, and a class of preschoolers were having a Halloween party in San Giuliano di Puglia in south-central Italy. A 5.4 magnitude quake brought the roof crashing down on them and the rest of the school.

The next day, seismologists set off underground charges near Marked Tree, Ark., and Mooring, Tenn., at a cost of $70,000 to taxpayers. They wanted to figure out whether the soil in our region absorbs or conducts seismic waves.

As it turns out, soil along the fault centered in Southeast Missouri conducts seismic waves, which seismologists discovered in an impressive display of ground shaking and water geysers shooting hundreds of feet into the air.

Then on Sunday, a 7.9 magnitude quake rocked central Alaska, severely damaging the main road between Fairbanks and Anchorage. Residents were frightened but not injured.

And a 4.3 earthquake shook parts of Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota the same day. Again, no one was injured.

But a slightly more powerful quake, a 4.5 magnitude, killed at least 10 people that same Sunday in northern Pakistan. Homes were reduced to rubble.

Back to the test quake in Marked Tree.

The New Madrid Fault runs through Arkansas, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. Scientists planned to use the information gathered last week to make a "shake map," from which vulnerable areas can be identified, and install new equipment throughout the zone for better, faster earthquake notification and information.

The researchers said the data would help emergency agencies pinpoint heavily damaged areas, typically done during a helicopter fly-over.

All of that sounds beneficial. And the forced quake was only about a 2.0 magnitude.

However, considering that there are frequent small earthquakes of that magnitude in Southeast Missouri and elsewhere along the fault, what was the point of causing one at such expense? Scientists have been collecting data on those naturally occurring quakes for decades. And while there were no reports of damages or injuries from the test, wasn't that only by the grace of God? Those scientists couldn't say for certain what would happen once they began tampering with a natural force as profound as the New Madrid Fault.

With so many real earthquake-related tragedies in the world, it will take a lot explaining and data from the USGS and University of Memphis to convince taxpayers that quake tests are a worthwhile endeavor.