Quake Expert Comments on Fault’s Future

Dr. Haydar Al-Shukri, chair of the Department of Applied Science and assistant dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, discussed the possibility of another massive event along the New Madrid Fault in an article published in the Washington Post on Jan. 30. Al-Shukri, along with Dr. Hanan Mahdi, operates UALR’s Arkansas Center for Earthquake Education and Technology Transfer. Al-Shukri has used a dating technique called optically stimulated luminescence to date samples of soil showing evidence of seismic upheaval in parts of the Delta region near the New Madrid fault line.

The Post story focused on the possibility of another significant earthquake happening along the fault, and the 200th anniversary of the New Madrid Earthquake which occurred on Feb. 8, 1812.

“My goal is not to scare people,” Al-Shukri says. “I’m not saying it will come tomorrow. But it might come.”