Today a magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, causing residents of the Gulf Coast to feel tremors. It didn’t cause tsunami warnings, but it is a bit unsettling for a quake this strong to occur relatively close to the New Madrid fault.

Earthquakes often trigger other earthquakes in relatively short spaces of time, because the Earth’s tectonic plates share edges with each other. In fact, another relatively strong earthquake–5.2–occurred in February of this year in the same general area. The Gulf of Mexico is on the same tectonic plate as the New Madrid fault–the North American Plate. The recent seismic activity in the Gulf is somewhat disturbing.