Not to double down on the doom and gloom or suggest the Americas are slated to descend into Mad Max-style chaos and anarchy, but the latest in a recent flurry of North American earthquakes just rumbled across one of the most dangerous earthquake zones in the United States.
That’s right, even as Hurricane Sandy, one of the largest storms in history, threatens to morph into a hybrid superstorm once it strikes the East Coast, the planet has let the middle of the country know it hasn’t forgotten them with a 3.9 magnitude earthquake.
The quake struck about six miles southwest of Parkin, Arkansas and was immediately felt across Twitter–where it naturally prompted dark humor:
sm quake in Arkansas RT @vrbowski: @pathammer are there F5 tornadoes gonna hit the midwest soon? And what bout earthquake near Chicago?
— Patrick Hammer (@pathammer) October 29, 2012
Residents of western North Carolina felt a smaller 2.9 magnitude quake about 40 minutes before the Arkansas temblor.
Residents of more quake-prone regions may laugh at alarmed responses to relatively small events in the South and Midwest. However, the Arkansas quake took place in the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which isn’t as noisy as other seismic zones, but some geologists consider it the most dangerous earthquake producer in the U.S. since it produced two of the largest quakes in recorded history 200 years ago.
