Lesson 8: Earthquakes

Earthquakes in Utah

Below is a map of Earthquakes in Utah over the past 2 weeks.  As you can see there's less than 30 hits.  The table next to the map shows the magnitude and the depth of the quake.  All the quakes in Utah over the past 2 weeks have been less than 2.0 magnitude and on average more than 3 miles deep.

After seeing the Earthquakes for just 2 weeks I was interested in what 1 year would look like.  The picture below shows all the hits for 1 year (June 5, 2017 - June 5, 2016), 933 earthquakes. I researched back a few years and noticed on average about 1,000 Earthquakes per year.   Again all the hits were less than 2.5 magnitude.  I wasn't too surprised by the number of earthquakes.  However, I was surprised at how small they are. This makes me wonder if having a lot of little quakes keeps the big one from happening, or if the tiny quakes are priming the pump, and setting the stage for the big earthquake that is predicted for the area?

 Since we read about liquefaction in our reading, I thought it would be fun to add this map showing the liquefaction of the Salt Lake Valley.  At first I was a little surprised that the eastern side of the valley shows a very low potential.  The soil on that side is very sandy, but also elevated, so this would keep it from having the water it needs for liquefaction. 

 Finally, the map below is of the Western United States.  The one thing that caught me off guard when I was looking at all of the earthquake hits in the United States is the cluster in the Oklahoma area.  I would be nervous living that area.  With very few faults, what would be creating so many earthquakes in that area?