Abstract:
The U.S. Department of Energy's plan to place a nuclear waste dump in western North Carolina was halted when Kitty Bonsike with the League of Conservation Voters told them of an earthquake in the Hot Springs and Spring Creek area of Madison County. U.S. Geological Survey officials looked in their records and found two earthquakes in western North Carolina in 1928. The quakes were seventeen days apart and both measured 7 on the MacCarley scale, 3.75 on the Richter scale. Scientists are measuring the temperature of nearby hot springs and mineral springs hoping to gain further evidence of geographical instability in the area.