The US Geological Society confirmed a magnitude 2.5 earthquake occurred at about 11 AM this morning in Centerton - approximately twenty miles north of Springdale.According to Haydar Al-Shukri, director of the Arkansas Earthquake Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, a previously unknown fault in eastern Arkansas could trigger a magnitude 7 earthquake with an epicenter near a major natural gas pipeline. This fault, likely created in the last 5,000 years, has sparked at least one magnitude 7 earthquake in its history.
The fault is separate from the New Madrid fault responsible for a series of quakes in 1811-12 that caused the Mississippi River to flow backward.
Al-Shukri predicts this fault "...is going to be a major disaster."