New Madrid Seismic Zone

New Madrid Seismic Zone

400 terrified residents in the town of New Madrid, Missouri were abruptly awakened by violent shaking and a tremendous roar. It was December 16, 1811, and a powerful earthquake had just struck. This was the first of three large (magnitude 7.5 - 8.0) earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks to rock the region that winter. Survivors reported that the earthquakes caused cracks to open in the earth's surface, the ground to roll in visible waves, and large areas of land to sink or rise. The crew of the New Orleans (the first steamboat on the Mississippi, which was on her maiden voyage) reported mooring to an island only to awake in the morning and find that the island had disappeared below the waters of the Mississippi River. Damage was reported as far away as Charleston, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C. These dramatic accounts clearly show that destructive earthquakes do not h

New Madrid Seismic Zone