Abstract
The series of earthquakes that occurred in Meade County, Kentucky, in January and March of 1990, are the first events in an otherwise aseismic area. First motions recorded for the three largest events in January suggest a predominantly strike-slip mechanism with a pressure axis of trend = 275° and plunge = 14° , and a tension axis of trend = 178° and plunge = 31°. A comparison between the mechanisms for the Meade county events and those shown in Taylor et al. (1989) for the southeastern Illinois area, indicates a continuity in the regional deviatoric stress from southeastern Illinois into north-central Kentucky. This finding conflicts with that previously suggested by Ault et al. (1985) who proposed that the two areas were in regions of differing stress regimes.
