Texas Earthquakes?

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I just got off the phone with someone residing in Austin.
She seemed like she was pretty much oblivious to the fact that Texas does indeed have earthquakes. Apparently she and her other coworkers think Texas is somehow immune to earthquakes and they just happen elsewhere.

I seen some show on TV relating to weather patterns by state.
Texas has the most prolific weather patterns, just because it is a BIG state. Earthquakes, Floods, Fires, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, etc. The most extreme weather than any other state.

Anybody who still does not believe Earthquakes happen in Texas can read the following.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/stat...

I just hope others that live in Austin are not as oblivious to that fact.

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I've heard it too. There's a major fault line that runs through central Texas. They're not common, though. Source(s): I live just up I 35 in Waco

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I live in Wisconsin and we don't have earthquakes. We are only 1 of 2 states in the US that don't have earthquakes. The other state is Michigan or Minnesota I forget which one. Some states have earthquakes more often and more serve then other states depending on their location to the fault plates but, all 48 out of 50 states have them.
It's all a matter of perspective:

I lived in Texas until I was 22, and the only thing I ever felt was an aftershock. So obviously, earthquakes can happen in Texas, but they are few and far between, and typically fairly mild. We don't, however, have earthquake drills. We do have tornado drills, because tornadoes are more likely to happen in our area. Austin isn't really a mecca for earthquakes or tornadoes...but either could happen given the right circumstances.

Although the information is a little dated, it's based on historical records of earthquakes in Texas: http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projec...

Keep in mind that Texas is much larger than most states (well, all, except Alaska), and like you said it does have a wide array of weather patterns, but if you put that many square miles (268,581) together in one place any where in the world, chances are that you will get a large differential in weather patterns.

"As the crow flies," the distance is actually 801 miles N-S and 773 miles E-W across Texas, but since it's hard to find straight line distances, I've gathered this for you comparison:

Just to give you an idea: From Texline, TX to Brownsville, TX it is 918 miles (driving); from Miami, FL to Nashville, TN it's 911 miles (driving); from New Orleans, LA to Chicago IL it's 925 miles (driving).

Now, is anyone going to argue that the weather in New Orleans is anything similar to the weather in Chicago?

Lastly, in the 20th century there were "over 100" recorded earthquakes strong enough to be felt. So, to be fair, let's say there were 200 earthquakes over the course of the century.

(200/268,581sq miles in TX) x 4,224 sq miles in Austin = approximately 3.145 earthquakes strong enough to be felt in Austin over the course of the 20th century. Not exactly something that would make World News Tonight, or even the local evening news. It's even less likely that this is common knowledge to everyone who lives in Austin.

Like I said, it's all a matter of perspective.
http://www.texasalmanac.com/environment/...
http://maps.google.com
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projec...
http://recenter.tamu.edu/mreports/austin...
Yes, earthquakes are possible in Texas. After all, we have the world famous Balcones fault line. However, Texas does not sit above an active area for earthquakes. The plates that Texas sits on have not shifted in thousands of years and show no signs of shifting for many years to come.

To say that we are immune from earthquakes would be rather stupid, but it's pretty common practice to say that it's pretty safe for the time being, which is true.
The size of the earthquakes in Texas are pretty insubstantial. We'll have them and not realize it because we can't feel it. It doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but it does make it pretty unimportant, especially compared to the greater risk of more frequent and damaging natural disasters.