Written by Sarah Kyle
On Sunday, Feb. 27, a 4.7 magnitude earthquake originating from Greenbrier, Ark., became the largest to hit Arkansas in 35 years. The quake was one of more than 800 quakes originating from the Guy-Greenbrier area (approximately40miles north of Little Rock) since September.Senior Blake Riggle said he was at a friend’s house in Conway watching the Oscars when the earthquake hit, shaking the building for about three seconds.”Nothing fell off of the walls, but since it was my first time in an earthquake, I was pretty freaked out,” Riggle said. “After the quake was over it felt like the apartment was swaying. It was easily one of the more interesting natural happenings I have ever been in.”Harding science professor David Cole said that while some have pointed to the area’s frequent oil drilling as a cause, direct causation is impossible to prove.”There are a lot of faults in this area; most are not very large and are buried beneaththesurface,”Cole said. “Some think that deep well injection of waste may be lubricating the faults and allowing them to slip more readily. I believe there is an on-going project examining that possibility, but the results are not ready yet.”Cole said a similar earth- quake “swarm” has hit Enola, Ark., since early 1982.”As with the current swarm in the Guy area, most were small earthquakes,” Cole said. “To my knowledge, no correlation has been established with the Enola swarm and any human activity.”In an earthquake, seismic waves or vibrations are sent from the origin, or epicenter, of the quake.”When the wave passes through the ground beneath us, that is what we feel and interpret as coming from an earthquake,” Cole said. “It is analogous to, but not exactly like, being in a boat when a wave in the water passes under the boat.”In light of recent seismic activity surrounding the New Madrid Fault, which runs through portions of Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas, Director of Public Safety Craig Russell said that the University Emergency Management Committee had decided before Sunday’s quake to give the university’s annual disaster drill an earthquake scenario.While most experts do not believe the fault will generate a dangerous quake after the recent tremors, Russell said the disaster drill will be an important facet of familiarizing students with earthquake safety procedures in future seismic activity.”From what I have read and heard, additional earthquakes are certainly possible, but predicting when the next earthquake will come or how powerful it will be is not possible,” Russell said. “Because of this, we concen- trate on what to do during and immediately following an earthquake.”Safety tips include staying inside a building until shaking stops, dropping to the ground and taking cover under a desk, table or interior doorway to protect one’s body from falling debris and staying away from glass, windows, outside doors and walls, and falling debris.According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a majority of earthquake-related injuries happen when people try to move within a building or leave a building while the ground is still shaking.More safety tips can be found atwww.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake.Russell said Harding has detailed plans for safety administration should an earthquake or other natural disaster hit. The earthquake disaster drill is scheduled for the end of March.
