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The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They once reached elevations similar to those of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains before experiencing natural erosion. The Appalachian chain is a barrier to east–west travel, as it forms a series of alternating ridgelines and valleys oriented in opposition to most highways and railroads running east–west.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. To the west of the Blue Ridge, between it and the bulk of the Appalachians, lies the Great Appalachian Valley, bordered on the west by the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian range.
The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the fluvial sediments of the Mississippi River Delta to its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois. The current sedimentary area was formed in the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic by the filling with sediment of a pre-existing basin. An explanation for the embayment's formation was put forward by Van Arsdale and Cox in 2007: movement of the earth's crust brought this region over a volcanic "hotspot" in the Earth's mantle causing an upthrust of magma which formed the Appalachian-Ouachita range. Subsequent erosion caused a deep trough that was flooded by the Gulf of Mexico and eventually filled with sediment from the Mississippi River.
The 2003 Alabama earthquake took place on April 29 at 3:59 A.M. Central Daylight Time eight miles (13 km) east-northeast of Fort Payne, Alabama. The number of people who felt this quake was exceptionally high as the earthquake could be felt in 11 states across the East Coast and as far north as southern Indiana. The earthquake was strongly felt throughout metropolitan Atlanta. The Georgia Building Authority was called out to inspect the historic Georgia State Capitol in downtown Atlanta and other state-owned buildings but found no problems. However, this is not out of the ordinary as earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains can be felt several times the area felt on West Coast earthquakes. The earthquake was given a magnitude 4.6 on the moment magnitude scale by the USGS and reports of the duration of the shaking range from 10 seconds to as long as 45 seconds. It is tied with a 1973 earthquake near Knoxville, Tennessee as the strongest earthquake ever to occur in the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone, which is the second most active seismic zone east of the Rocky Mountains, with the New Madrid Seismic Zone the most active.
The Explorer Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located about 241 km (150 mi) west of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It lies at the northern extremity of the Pacific spreading axis. To its east is the Explorer Plate, which together with the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate to its south, is what remains of the once-vast Farallon Plate which has been largely subducted under the North American Plate. The Explorer Ridge consists of one major segment, the Southern Explorer Ridge, and several smaller segments. It runs northward from the Sovanco Fracture Zone to the Queen Charlotte Triple Junction, a point where it meets the Queen Charlotte Fault and the northern Cascadia subduction zone.
The Virginia Seismic Zone in the U.S. state of Virginia covers about 8,000 square kilometers (3,100 sq mi) in the Piedmont province. Earthquakes in the state are irregular and rarely reach over 4.5 in magnitude.
The Timiskaming Graben is a 400 km (250 mi) long and 50 km (31 mi) wide depression straddling the Ontario–Quebec border in Eastern Canada. It is a northwesterly extension of the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben, a failed arm of the Saint Lawrence rift system which is related to the opening of the Iapetus Ocean.
The U.S. state of Tennessee is geographically diverse, with varying terrains and several distinct physiographic regions. Its landforms range from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the eastern part of the state to flat and fertile plains along the Mississippi River. The state is geographically, legally, culturally, and economically divided into three Grand Divisions: East Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, and West Tennessee.
The geology of Alabama is marked by abundant geologic resources and a variety of geologic structures from folded mountains in the north to sandy beaches along the Gulf of Mexico coast. Alabama spans three continental geologic provinces as defined by the United States Geological Survey, the Atlantic Plain, Appalachian Highlands, and Interior Plains. The Geological Survey of Alabama breaks these provinces down into more specific physiographic provinces.
The Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone (ETSZ), also known as the East Tennessee Seismic Zone and the Southern Appalachian Seismic Zone, is a geographic band stretching from northeastern Alabama to southwestern Virginia that is subject to frequent small earthquakes. The ETSZ is one of the most active earthquake zones in the eastern United States.
The West Branch Pleasant River is a 36.1-mile-long (58.1 km) tributary of the Piscataquis River in Piscataquis County, Maine. From a location north of Fourth West Branch Pond in Shawtown, the river runs about 18 miles (29 km) counterclockwise around the White Cap Mountain massif, then about 18 miles (29 km) southeast to its confluence with the East Branch of the Pleasant River in Brownville.
The Bathurst Mining Camp is a mining district in northeast New Brunswick, Canada, centred in the Nepisiguit River valley, and near to Bathurst. The camp hosts 45 known volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits typical of the Appalachian Mountains. Some of the ore is smelted at the Belledune facility of Xstrata. Although the primary commodity is zinc, the massive-sulphide ore body produces lead, zinc, copper, silver, gold, bismuth, antimony and cadmium.
The Ramapo Fault zone is a system of faults between the northern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont areas to the east. Spanning more than 185 miles (298 km) in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, it is perhaps the best known fault zone in the Mid-Atlantic region, and some small earthquakes have been known to occur in its vicinity. Recently, public knowledge about the fault has increased, especially after the 1970s, when the fault's proximity to the Indian Point nuclear plant in New York was noted.
The Western Quebec Seismic Zone is a seismically active area in the Ottawa Valley in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. The zone stretches from Montreal to Témiscaming and from Cornwall up along the Laurentian Mountains.
The 1916 Irondale earthquake struck in the north–central region of the U.S. state of Alabama on October 18. The strongest earthquake in state history, it registered an estimated Richter scale magnitude of 5.1 and resulted in minor damage. Damage was limited to Shelby and Jefferson counties and reached its maximum severity near the epicenter in the city of Irondale, including cracked windows, fallen chimneys, and dried-up wells. While there were no fatalities, the earthquake spawned widespread panic, prompting alarmed workers to evacuate tall buildings.
The Charlevoix Seismic Zone is a seismically active area in the Charlevoix region of northeastern Quebec, Canada. It is also known as the Charlevoix-Kamouraska Seismic Zone because earthquakes occur in Kamouraska County where the land expression of the seismic zone is separated by the Saint Lawrence River. Much seismic activity takes place under the river.
Although the eastern United States is not as seismically active as regions near plate boundaries, large and damaging earthquakes do occur there. Furthermore, when these rare eastern U.S. earthquakes occur, the areas affected by them are much larger than for western U.S. earthquakes of the same magnitude. Thus, earthquakes represent at least a moderate hazard to East Coast cities, including New York City and adjacent areas of very high population density. A 2003 report notes that Brooklyn has the largest number of unreinforced brick buildings, and also notes that much of the NYC waterfront is reclaimed wetland posing soil liquefaction risks in areas like the JFK airport, Chinatown and the Upper East Side. A 2008 study from Columbia University found that the New York area was at "substantially greater" risk of a 6 or 7 magnitude earthquake than was previously thought.
The geology of North America is a subject of regional geology and covers the North American continent, the third-largest in the world. Geologic units and processes are investigated on a large scale to reach a synthesized picture of the geological development of the continent.
The 2020 Sparta earthquake was a relatively uncommon intraplate earthquake that occurred near the small town of Sparta, North Carolina, on August 9, 2020 at 8:07 am local time. The earthquake had a moment magnitude of 5.1, and a shallow depth of 7.6 kilometers (4.7 mi). Shaking was reported throughout the Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern United States. It was the strongest earthquake recorded in North Carolina in 104 years, the second-strongest in the state's history, and the largest to strike the East Coast since the 2011 Virginia earthquake.
References
- ↑ "Earthquake zones in Eastern Canada". Natural Resources Canada. October 13, 2009. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
- ↑ "GO 568 Appalachian Mountains". academic.emporia.edu. Archived from the original on May 18, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
Coordinates: 45°N70°W / 45°N 70°W
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