Science

It happened almost without anyone noticing, but there was a weird earthquake Wednesday night right in the heart of Illinois. Why?

I was born and raised in Missouri so I'm familiar with earthquakes along the New Madrid Fault. I also lived in California 30 years ago where earthquakes are a daily occurrence. But, why in the world was there an earthquake big enough to be felt right across the Iowa border today? I am mystified.

There's been a sudden uptick of seismic activity in southern Missouri with over 42 New Madrid quakes being recorded in just the past 30 days.

There's been a sudden uptick of earthquakes along the New Madrid Fault in Missouri with at least 9 new quakes being recorded in just the past few days.

University of Missouri scientists just invented something that will help quantum computing using the fourth dimension.

If you consider yourself a sky watcher, you'll want to prepare for some epic viewing over Missouri and Illinois as 4 rare supermoons back-to-back-to-back-to-back will happen starting early in July.

I wish I had been there so I could have waved at it when it drove by. There's photographic evidence that the Google car was in Missouri during the great total solar eclipse of 2017 and that evidence comes from Google itself.

There are a lot of predictable things in Missouri, but earthquakes are unfortunately not one of them. It's worth noting that the New Madrid Fault Zone has been shaking a bit more than normal lately with more than a dozen quakes being recorded in the past 7 days.

The greatest concern along the New Madrid Fault is potential loss of life, but there's a financial cost to consider, too. A new estimate says the danger has doubled for states like Missouri and Illinois and all those along the New Madrid Fault Zone.

The New Madrid Fault area along Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and Tennessee is a wildly unpredictable seismic area. It can be completely quiet for days then suddenly show activity. That happened over the past week as a mini-swarm of 9 quakes have been recorded.