Monday, October 30, 2017

New Madrid says Boo! in 1895

 New Madrid says boo in 1895


On October 30. 1895 the New Madrid seismic zone experienced the a  strong earthquake of magnitude 6.6. It was the strongest earthquake since the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. The quake was felt all across the Central and Eastern United States and was noted by many newspapers of the time.
Here is a sample of what was reported from the Reelfoot Lake area:
 Source Crittenden County Press, November 7, 1895 Page 1, Column 4.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

West Tennessee Seismic Safety Commission Meeting May 24

As a courtesy to our friends at the commission here is a public notice of their meeting at Reelfoot Lake on May 24, 2017. The meeting will be held  at the existing Reelfoot Lake Visitors Center.  The meeting time will be at 10:00 am with the agenda being posted later.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Magnitude 3.6 Earthquake in Western Kentucky

The New Madrid seismic zone had an magnitude 3.6 earthquake shortly before noon today. It was felt in West Kentucky, Southeast Missouri and Western Tennessee.  For more information Kentucky Earthquake.  As a note posts have been infrequent on lighter earthquakes as the notices on them are on the CERI facebook page. Sorry for any iconvenience this may cause.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

A magnitude 2.8 earthquake near Dyersburg, Tennessee

For once we had an earthquake during the weekday.  A few moments ago there was a magnitude 2.8 earthquake near Dyersburg, Tennessee.  The quake showed on the "Did You Feel It?" map for the quake. If you feel it respond to the website and add to the felt map. This data is important as it shows the effect of the earthquake upon human activity and as data to help calibrate earthquake site response.  We sometimes get phone calls here at CERI reporting quakes when the best repository for the information is on the website where the data can be correlated.  For more information on the quake visitDyersburg earthquake.

Note: since the first post it has been upgraded to a magnitude 2.8. thanks to Holly Withers our  Research Associate who does analysis on seismic data  for the information.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

The Great Quake

On this day 205 years ago at approximatly 2:30 in the morning the last of the great New Madrid earthquakes occurred.  It was the strongest of the 3 and was felt across the eastern North American continent in the area that embraced the United States as it was constituted then.  The quake generated also in words one of the best eywitness accounts by New Madrid native, Eliza Bryan  she wrote of the earthquake:
"...on the 7th about 4 o'clock, A. M., a concussion took place so much more violent that those which had preceded it, that it was denominated the hard shock.  The awful darkenss of the atmosphere, which was formerly saturated with the sulphurious vapor, and the violence of the tempestuous thundering noise that acconpanied it, together with all the other phenomena mentioned as attending the former ones, formed a scene, the description of which would require the most sublimely fanciful imagination..."

Her description went on in some detail about the quake and described the other earthquake of the New Madrid sequence as had been experienced by its namesake town.   For more information visit New Madrid Compendium.

Monday, January 23, 2017

The Second Great Quake, and some weekend shaking

On this day 205 years ago the second great New Madrid earthquake occurred.  This one was perceived at a distance to be a distinct earthquake. Closer to the New Madrid area observers probably had a harder time discerning it among the aftershocks of the December 16th earthquake.  Due to this eyewitness accounts of this quake are more sparse than for the first quake in December.  If the earthquakes had ceased with this one it would have been notable. But due to the later February 7th earthquake this event tends to get lost in the shuffle of quakes and their aftershocks.

As a note in modern seismicity we had a couple of earthquakes in extreme Western Kentucky this weekend.  The first one occurred Saturday near Wickliffe,  Kentucky with a magnitude of 2.7.  A second one occurred on Sunday near Bardwell, Kentucky with a magnitude of 2.5   So earthquakes new and old are of interest in the New Madrid seismic zone.  For more information on the January 23, 1812 earthquake visitNew Madrid Compendium.  For the weekend earthquakes visit for the Saturday quake Wickliffe, Kentucky earthquake, and for the Sunday quake visit Bardwell, Kentucky earthquake