The Raleigh, NC, News and Observer was on the case of “The Big One,” with a story February 4 about a cluster of tiny quakes in far western Tennessee. From the text of Ms. Simore Jasper’s story I cannot find a reference to any quake larger than a magnitude 3. It remains a matter of conjecture whether the residents of Dyersburg, TN, actually felt any effects of a 2.7 or were inspired by the power of suggestion. The mentioned 1.3 quake is so weak that it could not “hit” anything at the surface. Its presence would be recorded only with sensitive seismometers.

On the other hand, Dyersburg and environs are not far from Reelfoot Lake and the portion of the Mississippi River that experienced one of the strongest quakes in US history. That all happened in 1812 in a brief sequence (New Madrid earthquake) of shocks that changed the course of the river in that immediate area. For a short time the river is said to have flowed backwards, such was the upheaval. Another major quake is expected to happen along the river sometime in the undefined future between Memphis and Cape Girardeau, MO.

As far as earthquakes registering less than Mag 3.0 go, few are even perceived by humans. To imply that a 2.7 “rattled” any structure in the affected area is resorting to hyperbole. A semi-trailer truck tooling its way down a residential street within the speed limit would be far more likely to cause a transient shiver inside a residence than any of these subliminal tremors described in Ms. Jasper’s article.

A primary source of inspiration for the articles that keep popping up on the Drudge Report and elsewhere are the manufactured concerns over hydraulic fracturing. “Fracking” is a process used to produce oil and natural gas from dense shale deposits. Opponents of fossil fuels have gone to great lengths to sow the seeds of fear and distrust in the public mind. Some in the media are going along with the propaganda campaign.

In doing so reporters demonstrate their ignorance of tectonics, the science of the displacement of subsurface rock formations. No, Virginia, fracking in the Permian Basin (Texas) or the Williston Basin (ND) or the Marcellus shale of western Pennsylvania and Ohio will never trigger a major quake along the San Andreas Fault in California. The infamous web of fault zones in California is perfectly capable of doing that all by itself.

Editor’s Note: I lived in southern California for 15 years and experienced many earthquakes, from the 6.5 magnitude Sylmar quake of 1971 (when I watched a dormitory wall crack open beside me) to scores of little tremors that could be felt but did no significant damage. Anyone who’s lived in truly earthquake-prone areas knows that a 2.7 magnitude quake isn’t something anyone feels. Seismographs can detect them. People? No.—E. Calvin Beisner

Photo by Jason Blackeye on Unsplash.