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World » Magnitude 3.7 - ILLINOIS

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Magnitude 3.7 - ILLINOIS

2008 April 25 17:31:00 UTC

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Earthquake Details

Magnitude

3.7

Date-Time

Friday, April 25, 2008 at 17:31:00 UTC

Friday, April 25, 2008 at 12:31:00 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location

38.450°N, 87.870°W

Depth

13.2 km (8.2 miles) set by location program

Region

ILLINOIS

Distances

8 km (5 miles) NNE (25°) from Bellmont, IL

10 km (6 miles) WNW (294°) from Mount Carmel, IL

11 km (7 miles) E (88°) from Bone Gap, IL

60 km (37 miles) NNW (332°) from Evansville, IN

207 km (129 miles) E (95°) from St. Louis,
MO

Location
Uncertainty

Error estimate not available

Parameters

NST= 59, Nph= 59, Dmin=37.3 km, Rmss=0 sec, Gp= 25°,
M-type=moment
magnitude (Mw), Version=A

Source

Center for Earthquake Research and Information, Memphis, Tennessee,
USA

Event
ID

us2008rgbr

This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Did
you feel it? Report shaking and damage at your location. You can
also view a map displaying accumulated data from your report and others.

Earthquake Summary

Tectonic Summary

EARTHQUAKES IN THE ILLINOIS BASIN - OZARK DOME REGION

This large region borders the much more seismically active New Madrid seismic
zone on the seismic zone's north and west. The Illinois basin - Ozark dome
region covers parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas and
stretches from Indianapolis and St. Louis to Memphis. Moderately frequent
earthquakes occur at irregular intervals throughout the region. The largest
historical earthquake in the region (magnitude 5.4) damaged southern Illinois in
1968. Moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the region each decade
or two, and smaller earthquakes are felt about once or twice a year. In
addition, geologists have found evidence of eight or more prehistoric
earthquakes over the last 25,000 years that were much larger than any observed
historically in the region.

Earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S., although less frequent than in
the western U.S., are typically felt over a much broader region. East of the
Rockies, an earthquake can be felt over an area as much as ten times larger than
a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast. A magnitude 4.0 eastern U.S.
earthquake typically can be felt at many places as far as 100 km (60 mi) from
where it occurred, and it infrequently causes damage near its source. A
magnitude 5.5 eastern U.S. earthquake usually can be felt as far as 500 km (300
mi) from where it occurred, and sometimes causes damage as far away as 40 km (25
mi).

FAULTS
Earthquakes everywhere occur on faults within bedrock,
usually miles deep. Most bedrock in the Illinois basin – Ozark dome region was
formed as several generations of mountains rose and were eroded down again over
the last billion or so years.

At well-studied plate boundaries like the San Andreas fault system in
California, often scientists can determine the name of the specific fault that
is responsible for an earthquake. In contrast, east of the Rocky Mountains this
is rarely the case. The Illinois basin - Ozark dome region is far from the
nearest plate boundaries, which are in the center of the Atlantic Ocean, in the
Caribbean Sea, and in the Gulf of California. The region is laced with known
faults but numerous smaller or deeply buried faults remain undetected. Even the
known faults are poorly located at earthquake depths. Accordingly, few
earthquakes in the region can be linked to named faults. It is difficult to
determine if a known fault is still active and could slip and cause an
earthquake. As in most other areas east of the Rockies, the best guide to
earthquake hazards in the Illinois basin – Ozark dome region is the earthquakes
themselves.

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Page Last Modified: April 25, 2008 18:51:20 UTC