49 Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma Earthquakes in Just One Week?

It's been one of the most active weeks seismically speaking in the Midwest of 2023. Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and even parts of Tennessee have seen at least 49 earthquakes in just the past 7 days.

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I saw a mini-swarm of quakes along the New Madrid Fault near the Missouri/Arkansas border this morning and also noticed a ton of activity in Oklahoma which made me curious. I wondered exactly how many earthquakes there had been in the four state region over the past week. This is what the USGS shows.

These were not just tiny quakes either. The largest was a 3.6 and many were above the 2.0 magnitude range.

Could the recent major solar flares be causing an uptick of earthquakes?

I had a member of my audience reach out recently after I spoke about a quake and they mentioned the perception that solar flares could be responsible for earthquakes. The USGS claims this isn't the case. According to them, "it has never been demonstrated that there is a causal relationship between space weather and earthquakes. Indeed, over the course of the Sun's 11-year variable cycle, the occurrence of flares and magnetic storms waxes and wanes", but earthquakes occur without any such 11-year variability." Not everyone agrees with the USGS conclusion.

I have no idea if the big bump of Midwestern earthquakes has anything to do with the big solar flares that have impacted Earth recently. All I know is that 49 earthquakes in our part of America is a lot for just one week.