Earthquake Hunting in the Heart of Nuclear Country
Submitted
by
dusty
dusty writes "Researchers are putting fresh impetus on finding the underlying cause of earthquakes in the East Tennessee Seismic Zone
as new Nuclear Regulatory Commission applicants come into the system wanting to build new nuclear plants. The 'Tennessee Valley' stretches from Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and of course most of Tennessee, and seismically is the second most active region in the Eastern United States
. The Tennessee Valley is also prime nuclear territory, as until recently seismicity studies have been few and far between. The problem with studying how and if large quakes can happen in the area is limited to extensive tree cover, large amounts of yearly precipitation that erodes surface features in relatively short geologic time frames.
The ETSZ is listed as a zone of moderate seismic risk , however the data for drawing such conclusions is scant, and based more on written and felt quakes through history. The most commonly cited mechanism is the reactivation of extremely ancient basement faults . The problem is no one really knows what has reactivated the faults, and just how many or how few large quakes have occurred over the last 5,000 or 10,000 years. Nuclear plants were sited here because the region is rich with cooling tower water from the many rivers, and was thought to be geologically stable. Several larger quakes have occurred over the last few years, including a 4.9 in Alabama, as well as innumerable smaller ones . As more nuclear plants for the region are proposed, it is clear that more knowledge is needed as to whether larger earthquakes have occurred in the recent past, and whether another large one might be building for the day when even more nuclear plants are sited here."
The ETSZ is listed as a zone of moderate seismic risk , however the data for drawing such conclusions is scant, and based more on written and felt quakes through history. The most commonly cited mechanism is the reactivation of extremely ancient basement faults . The problem is no one really knows what has reactivated the faults, and just how many or how few large quakes have occurred over the last 5,000 or 10,000 years. Nuclear plants were sited here because the region is rich with cooling tower water from the many rivers, and was thought to be geologically stable. Several larger quakes have occurred over the last few years, including a 4.9 in Alabama, as well as innumerable smaller ones . As more nuclear plants for the region are proposed, it is clear that more knowledge is needed as to whether larger earthquakes have occurred in the recent past, and whether another large one might be building for the day when even more nuclear plants are sited here."
