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Volume 18How do earthquakes occur in the middle of a continent?
Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage
Elizabeth Mrazek Nobles asks How do earthquakes occur in the middle of a continent? I get subduction zones, but a random fault line in Illinois.. I don’t quite get.
That is a very good question, Elizabeth. What you are describing are known as Intraplate earthquakes. They are much more rare than earthquakes on the edges of tectonic plates.
The most famous is the New Madrid Seismic Zone which is in southern Missouri and northwestern Tennessee.
It is believed that it might come from an ancient fault that existed back when all the continental plates were merged together to form the supercontinents of Pangea. These ancient faults slowly fill up with liquids and can cause an earthquake.
The truth is, geologists aren’t totally sure what causes them because they are so rare and difficult to study.
Based on available episode transcripts. Answers are attributed to their original episodes and may contain transcription errors or later-outdated information. Some older volumes have missing source material.