photo #602056

"Quake Watchers,A new breakout of hot spots (heat signatures) is now occurring in the New Madrid seismic zone in the boot heel of Missouri and northeastern Arkansas. Over the past 6 hours, a massive number of hot spots are appearing on infrared satellite imagery across this region..My interpretation of the recent hot spot breakouts (including the previous breakout a few weeks ago) is that these are indicating tectonic plate movement and incoming seismic pressure from the west. Since this morning's round of above normal magnitude quakes in Nevada, Idaho, and Texas, the next area in the usual progression to be hit is the New Madrid, and that is exactly what we are now seeing. We've seen a couple of small quakes strike near Maynard, Arkansas and northwest of Little Rock....If you have downloaded a free copy of Google Earth (not the same as Google Maps) and have added the GOES 16 satellite fire detection app, you'll see the huge number of hot spots (heat signatures) light up the region over the last few hours.You can zoom in and click each hot spot to read the high temperatures. [You'll have to convert from degrees Kelvin to Fahrenheit.] I believe this much heat to be plate friction and/or possible magma temperatures, because they cannot be surface temperatures, otherwise we would see fires at every location..Wildfires produce smoke on the imagery and can be checked on the visible bands, but these hot spots do not have smoke associated with them. They are occurring mostly in farm fields, not forested areas. They flicker on and off far too quickly to be any sort of fire. They are not technical glitches or garbled data, they are heat signatures concentrated in the New Madrid region.I continue to monitor this region closely and let you know if there are sudden or significant changes, which is the purpose of this ALERT. Even though I have issued no specific WARNING currently for the New Madrid, I am continuing to WATCH and telling people in the region to be on ALERT! Whatever this phenomenon is, it isn't normal!Keeping you informed!The Watchman"