Friday, January 31, 2014

A Couple of Earthquakes

This week the New Madrid seismic zone was a little busier . We had two small earthquakes one at the lower end of the zone then another at the end of the week near New Madrid.  Both were small but could have been felt by people near the epicenter.  The first one occurred on Tuesday at 5:55 pm near Cherry Valley Arkansas. The magnitude was 2.6 and the depth was 2 miles.  For further information visit the data page at Arkansas Earthquake.  The second earthquake occurred on Friday at 6:12 am and was located 7 miles south-southwest of New Madrid, Missouri. The magnitude was 2.5 and the depth was 5.9 miles. For further information visit the data page Missouri Earthquake.
Read and enjoy!

Monday, January 27, 2014

A Weekend Earthquake


During the weekend while the area was thawing out briefly from the current series of cold snaps, an earthquake occurred in Western Kentucky.  The magnitude was 2.6 and it occurred at 6:35 pm, the location was a few miles west southwest of Paducah, Kentucky.  For more information visit the CERI data page at Kentucky Earthquake . 

Other information links are:
West Kentucky Star
WPSD TV Paducah Kentucky
Note the above links take you off the blog and the content generated is not from CERI but outside sources.

Read and enjoy!

Thursday, January 23, 2014

The Second Great Quake

Today marks 202 years since the second of the great New Madrid earthquakes occurred.  The second quake was not as memorable as the December 16, 1811 and the February 7, 1812 earthquakes.  It was sort of the middle child of all the events and was outshone by its siblings.  Here is an account of the earthquake as it was experienced at Coshockton, Ohio.

Coshockton, Ohio, Jan. 23d, 1812.
MR. EDITOR-This morning, at seventeen minutes past eight o'clock, a severe shake of a earthquake was felt in this place. It lasted nearly a minute; it shook so as to nearly half empty a bucket, standing on the floor, full of water; and the river being frozen over, it caused the ice to crack considerably. A stone chimney in the house of col. Williams in this place, seven by five feet square, solid and well built, was so severely shaken as to cause it to crack in several places; and one or perhaps more brick chimneys in this place have been considerably injured by the shock. I have been informed that several houses in the neighborhood of this place were so shook that much of the chinkin dropt out; and the commotions of the trees and bushes was so great as to cause persons I the woods to observe the phenomenon. The shock was succeeded by a thick haze, and several people were affected with giddiness, although the air was quite serene at the time of the shock. The course of the above shock was from S.W. to N.E. nearly.

A. JOHNSTON.


New Madrid Compendium Item Number 37, Boston Independent Chronicle, February 27, 1812, Page 1, Column 1.

The irony of this article is that is is written by an A. Johnston. However 
this gentleman has no relation to our esteemed Director Emeritus Arch Johnston.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

A Cold Earthquake

--> Recently here weather had become quite frigid with the temperatures plunging  to record low levels. In the Memphis area the thermometer dropped into the single digits for a couple of evenings and made it quite uncomfortable for all concerned.  In 1811-1812 the weather was equally cold with winter storms raging across the country, especially in the Northeastern United States .  The temperature there plunged so low that it caused a phenomenon related to the cold called a cryoseism.  This is an earthquake  caused by the cold not by normal geological activity.  This phenomenon happened at Salem, Massachusetts.  Below  is the report of that event with other weather phenomena in the region.  


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Source New Madrid Compendium Number 163,  “Cold Weather”,  Boston Independent Chronicle, February 6, 1812, Page 3, Column 1.