EARTHQUAKES IN THE CENTRAL UNITED STATES, 1699-2010 By Richard L. Dart and Christina M. Volpi 2010 U.S. Geological Survey General Information Product 115 ABSTRACT This publication is an update of an earlier printed U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geologic Investigation I-2812 by Wheeler and others (2003), titled Earthquakes in the Central United States--1699-2002. Like the original poster, the center of the updated poster is a map showing the pattern of earthquake locations in the most seismically active part of the central United States Arrayed around the map are short explanatory texts and graphics, which describe the distribution of historical earthquakes and the effects of the most notable of them. The updated poster contains additional, post 2002, earthquake data. These are 38 earthquakes covering the time interval from January 2003 to June 2010, including the Mount Carmel, Illinois, earthquake of 2008. The USGS Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE) was the source of these additional data. Like the I-2812 poster, this poster was prepared for a nontechnical audience and designed to inform the general public as to the widespread occurrence of felt and damaging earthquakes in the Central United States. Accordingly, the poster should not be used to assess earthquake hazard in small areas or at individual locations. DISCLAIMERS This database, identified as GIP115, has been approved for release and publication by the Director of the USGS. Although this database has been subjected to rigorous review and is substantially complete, the USGS reserves the right to revise the data pursuant to further analysis and review. Furthermore, it is released on condition that neither the USGS nor the United States Government may be held liable for any damages resulting from its authorized or unauthorized use. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey, no warranty, expressed or implies is made regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system, or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute such warranty. The U.S. Geological Survey shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. Any use of trade, product or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey. Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public domain, it also contains copyrighted material as noted in the text. Permission to reproduce copyrighted items for other than personal use must be secured from the copyright owner. This poster was prepared for a nontechnical audience and designed to inform the general public as to the widespread occurrence of felt and damaging earthquakes in the Central United States. Accordingly, the poster should not be used to assess earthquake hazard in small areas or at individual locations. CONTENTS: 00README.txt GIP115.pdf GIP115_metadata.txt GIP115_data.zip Updatecatalog.txt PDE2003-2010.dbf PDE2003-2010.prj PDE2003-2010.sbn PDE2003-2010.sbx PDE2003-2010.shp PDE2003-2010.shx textonly.doc -- A 508-compliant file containing the text portion of the map NOTE: This earthquake catalog (Updatecatalog.txt) is an update to the catalog used in the I-2812 (Wheeler and others, 2003) poster. USGS Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE) was the source of the update data. These data cover the time interval from January 2003 to June 2010. The eight columns of the earthquake catalog refer to: (1) year, (2) month, (3) day, (4) hour, minute, and second in Universal (2) Coordinated Time, (5) longitude in decimal degrees west, (6) latitude in (3) decimal degrees north, (7) magnitude (8), and depth in kilometers. Reference cited: Wheeler, R.L., Omdahl, E.M., Dart, R.L., Wilkerson, G.D., and Bradford, R.H., 2003, Earthquakes in the central United States--1699-2002: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series I-2812, 1 sheet, scale 1:1,125,000. INSTRUCTIONS AND DOCUMENTATION FOR U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GIP 115 To access the data: The database can be downloaded via the Web from http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/115/. The main product is a Portable Document Format (.pdf) map. The map requires Adobe Acrobat for viewing. Acrobat software runs on a variety of systems, and is available for download free of charge from Adobe at: http://www.adobe.com.