Earthquakes In My Area

Technology

Earthquakes and the science that solves the mystery. These are four seismograms from Arizona Geology's e-magazine. They help determine the size of the waves and the distance earthquakes come from; this information combined with other scientific data can help determine what the Earth's internal structure looks like, along with its other mysteries.

Welcome to Greenlee County, Arizona

Earthquakes in my area are not something I ever really felt to be a concern. Greenlee County has only had few small scale earthquakes in recent history. One was July 2, 2014. The quake hit just outside of Duncan, Arizona. The shocks could be felt 40 minutes away in Clifton. This charming building, in Clifton, Arizona withstood the test of time for a hundred years through multiple uses, the floods from 1903, 1906, and 1983, and even previous earthquakes, but it finally met it's end. The building stood through the earthquake tremors from Duncan, but the aftershocks were too much. The building was torn down and this part of Clifton's history is gone.

Unfortunately, this small town has many buildings of this age; in need of renovation and upgrades, it is possible that they too will meet this kind of disastrous end. Many of the old buildings were never required to meet building codes. Houses on the hills look like ramshackle hodgepodge shacks. This is bad news and could cause injury and death if a larger earthquake were to happen.

Google Maps

Google map shows us what the plates boundaries are around Arizona. As you can see, there is one convergent plat below that runs across the bottom, however, there isn't any recent activity along that boundary.

The Google map of recent earthquake activity shows that quakes happen in the area, but not along that fault. There is a Quaternary Fault that lies along here that runs along southern Arizona that may be the reason for historical quake activity.

Conclusion:

This is all fascinating stuff. I feel like I learned a lot. Would I move? No. I don't feel threatened by the things I've discovered. The chances of anything happening are moderate. And, because I don't live in an antique home in need of repair, I feel the risks are minimal. The surrounding area doesn't have a history of large, damaging quakes. Perhaps if it did, I would think twice.