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[audio:https://www.kciiradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/00250-Raymond-Allen.mp3]
[audio:https://www.kciiradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/00251-Raymond-Allen.mp3]
press play to hear from IGWS Geologist Raymond Allen

A geologist with the Iowa Geological and Water Survey says Midwestern earthquakes like the one that hit Illinois this week are intensified by the rocks that the region sits on.

Raymond Allen says that’s because rocks in this region are thicker, and allow the seismic energy to be transferred more rapidly and over greater distances.

He says the infamous 1800’s earthquake in the Mississippi Valley was powerful enough to ring church bells in Boston.

Allen says that quake was estimated to be at around a magnitude 7.0. This week’s earthquake centered near Dekalb, Illinois was around a 3.8.

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