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Moderate quake shakes Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky
EVANSVILLE, Indiana (CNN) -- A moderate earthquake shook a wide area around southern Indiana on Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage. Although it was widely felt, the earthquake was centered in a rural area and its potential for damage was low, according to Arch Johnston, director of the Earthquake Center at the University of Memphis. The Memphis center and the USGS said they measured a moderate quake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 at 12:37 CDT. Preliminary data put the center nine miles northwest of Evansville. The center of the earthquake was about three miles beneath the surface, the USGS said. Johnston said the quake was felt in Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee, as well as in Arkansas, Illinois and other areas. He called it the biggest quake in the central United States so far this year.
The USGS's Diane Noserale said the earthquake occurred in the Wabash Valley area, a zone that has a history of seismic activity. "It's not unheard of, but I'd call it newsworthy," Noserale said. "It could do a little bit of damage, but we have no specific reports of that so far." Johnston said the quake was on the northern arm of the New Madrid fault zone. The New Madrid system caused four catastrophic earthquakes -- estimated at magnitude 7.0 or greater -- in the Midwest in the years 1811 and 1812, and quakes of over 6.0 in 1843 and 1895. Seven other tremors of 5.0 or beyond have happened in the fault system since then. The New Madrid system straddles the Mississippi River, with faults in northeast Arkansas, through southeast Missouri, western Tennessee, western Kentucky and into southern Illinois. |
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