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.