3.7 mag Earthquake centered 95 mi south of San Antonio this morning

[JLWM8609]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5679744.html

[houstonmacbro]

I wonder if we'll get anything here in Houston. I think small earthquakes here would add a certain charm to our already weird and whacky environmental issues.

[Trae]

As long as they aren't big.

[Original Timmy Chan's]

Anybody remember the one south of Alpine back in 1995? It was a 5.7 magnitude, 2nd strongest ever in Texas. It knocked the tip off of Cathedral Mountain.

[JLWM8609]

Anybody remember the one south of Alpine back in 1995? It was a 5.7 magnitude, 2nd strongest ever in Texas. It knocked the tip off of Cathedral Mountain.

Yep, what I remember so much about that one was they interviewed a guy on TV and he said he thought it was a roach making a lot of noise in some papers or something. Someone in the room replied "that must've been a big roach!"

[Subdude]

I wonder if we'll get anything here in Houston. I think small earthquakes here would add a certain charm to our already weird and whacky environmental issues.

I thought the Houston area was very geologically stable. Of course, I thought that about San Antonio as well. But doesn't the composition of the gumbo soil in Houston make noticeable tremors unlikely?

[TheNiche]

I thought the Houston area was very geologically stable. Of course, I thought that about San Antonio as well. But doesn't the composition of the gumbo soil in Houston make noticeable tremors unlikely?

Houston is not at all stable. Although we don't have any slip faults like California, which produce the big quakes, we have plenty of other kinds of fault systems. I've even heard Houston referred to by geologists that Houston is the most tectonically active major city in the United States.

Here's where faults appear as escarpments at the surface, typically less than two-feet in elevation differences. This is plenty enough to kill a foundation, but only so much that damage to sidewalks and streets is typically dismissed as poor maintenance on the part of the City.

This is how our fault systems work beneath the surface. It is a tremendously complex system, but one that you'd never suspect (without being a petroleum geologist).

[CDeb]

Do a web search for "Houston faults" and you can find a few pictures of scarps in the Houston area.

[wxman]

First off, it is HIGHLY unlikely that an earthquake strong enough to be felt here would ever take place. Houston is built on silt and clay. Earthquakes are caused by pressure build up between to converging/diverging or plates. Earthquakes, as pointed out can and do occur away from that, most by volcanism. Back to my point, being that Houston is built on clay and silt, there could never be enough pressure build up for them to suddenly slip and fault. The clay and silt would shift and break well before pressure got remotely high. I remember back in 1985 when the Mexico City earthquake took place, it was said that the buildings downtown were swaying. Some even reported feeling it. Other major earthquakes that have taken place close to here are the 1811-1812 earthquake that took place at New Madrid, MO. It was felt across 2/3 of the U.S. Church bells in NYC and Boston rang because of it. Also not too long ago there was a 6. something in the gulf about 150 miles south of the panhandle. That kind of freaked me out a little bit.

[JLWM8609]

The Sam Houston Tollway overpass at Ella Blvd. was built in a special way to span a fault.

The Long Point fault also runs directly under the I-10/BW8 interchange.