New madrid seismac zone length full#

The previous two big quakes (not including the dawn aftershock of December 16th, which probably was reverse-faulting) were likely strike-slip earthquakes. This one caused the most disruption, and had the most fantastic effects. It likely was to the northeast, perhaps as far north as south-central Illinois. Likely close to an M7, Its epicenter is, like the dawn aftershock of December 16th, not as well known. In January, on the 23rd, the next large earthquake occurred. This was the beginning of eight weeks of constant shaking. This large aftershock, perceptible across much of the Midwest and East, is why some consider this a sequence of 4, and not 3, earthquakes. Its epicenter is not as well known, but it may have been in northwest Tennessee, on a segment of what we now call the Reelfoot Fault. An aftershock at sunrise that day likely had a magnitude similar to the first mainshock. This would have been terrifying by itself, but large aftershocks would continue through the night.

New madrid seismac zone length full#

It was the middle of the night it was cold, the air stank of regurgitated organic material from deep within the earth, and the river was nuts, agitated from the quakes and full of water expelled from the earth by the shaking. These features are still present today, and are a major key as to how we have an idea as to nature of this fault system's behavior over the last several thousand years. At Little Prairie, liquefaction destroyed the village, and liquefaction up and down the valley caused the earth to spit up sand and other organic material. The quake likely caused a sieche on the Mississippi, which ran backwards for a time. They did, however, in Charleston, South Carolina. Bells, however, did not ring in Boston-the quake likely wasn't even perceptible there. Creating an earthquake of approximately magnitude 7.2, the seismic waves rattled the entire eastern United States, causing damage at Louisville and Cincinnati, damaging New Madrid and utterly destroying villages to its southwest. The epicenter was likely in northeast Arkansas.

We know that this was the southern end of what we now call the New Madrid Seismic Zone, on a fault named the Cottonwood Grove Fault, which probably ruptured along its entire length. On the 16th of December, at 2:15 am, strain that had been building up for perhaps half a millennium gave way. A comprehensive look at this can be read here. Moment-magnitude is the preferred scale for large earthquakes for a variety of reasons. I'm universally, unless otherwise indicated, referring to 'moment-magnitude' and not the catchall 'Richter Scale'. Throughout the post I'll be using the term ' M' for magnitude. A comprehensive report published a century after the earthquakes in 1912 did make note of native legends, however. If the city-building cultures of the Southeast and Midwest US had survived, they likely could have told stories of the times the ground shook, their temples sank as foul debris erupted from the ground, rivers ran backwards, and their villages collapsed but much of them were long gone by 1800. New England was rattled by several large earthquakes in the 17th and 18th centuries (a few exceeding M6 in 16, several M5-pluses, and one centered near Montreal in 1663 exceeding M7), and news fairly quickly traveled back and forth across the Atlantic and from the Spanish colonies in South America, where earthquakes were commonplace. Now, the Americans of 1811 were not ignorant of earthquakes. Unbeknownst to them, the ground beneath their feet was about to give way. Much of the territory was sparsely populated. This would be to its benefit in 18, as the city sustained very little damage despite the violence of the quakes.

Genevieve, a city to its north, ended up moving to higher, harder ground after a flood in 1785. Designed to capture all that traffic coming down the Ohio, it never really happened. The territory reverted to France, and then was sold to the United States. It was founded in 1788, when the territory was actually Spanish thus, its name. The White House would eventually burn.Ī brilliant comet graced the skies in the autumn.īut right now, it's December of 1811, and we're in the sleepy town of New Madrid, MO. American forces defeated Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe in November while elsewhere tensions grew between the new nation and its former colonial power.

The steamship Juliana made its first steam-powered voyage between New York City and Hoboken in October. Galicia weather may.In 1811 a slave revolt rocked the Gulf Coast in January.