A series of three to five major earthquakes (believed to have been magnitude 7.0 or larger earthquakes) occurred in the area in the two month period between Dec. 16, 1811 and Feb. 7, 1812. Several thousand additional “smaller” earthquakes occurred during the three month period from Dec. 16, 1811 to March 16, 1812. Due to the harder, colder, drier and less fractured nature of the rocks in the earth’s crust in the central United States, earthquakes in this region can shake and damage an area approximately 20 times larger than earthquakes in California and most other active seismic areas. The frequency of large earthquakes in the zone is still being debated, but the New Madrid Fault appears to be about 30 years overdue for a magnitude 6.3 quake because the last quake of this size occurred one hundred years ago at Charleston, Missouri, on Oct. 31, 1895 (a magnitude 6.7). A magnitude 6.3 quake near Lepanto, Arkansas, on Jan. 5, 1843, was the next earthquake of this
A series of three to five major earthquakes (believed to have been magnitude 7.0 or larger earthquakes) occurred in the area in the two month period between Dec. 16, 1811 and Feb. 7, 1812. Several thousand additional “smaller” earthquakes occurred during the three month period from Dec. 16, 1811 to March 16, 1812. Due to the harder, colder, drier and less fractured nature of the rocks in the earth’s crust in the central United States, earthquakes in this region can shake and damage an area approximately 20 times larger than earthquakes in California and most other active seismic areas. The frequency of large earthquakes in the zone is still being debated, but the New Madrid Fault appears to be about 30 years overdue for a magnitude 6.3 quake because the last quake of this size occurred one hundred years ago at Charleston, Missouri, on Oct. 31, 1895 (a magnitude 6.7). A magnitude 6.3 quake near Lepanto, Arkansas, on Jan. 5, 1843, was the next earthquake of this