A swarm of earthquakes hit a massive 150-foot-long fault line in the Midwest that scientists fear is overdue for a mega-quake.
This little-known New Madrid sits in America’s Heartland, passing through Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois.
The US Geological Survey detected eight quakes from December 6 to 11.
Missouri experienced seven that hit Howardville, Matthews, Martson Hayward and Cooter, and Ridgely, Tennessee experienced one.
The largest quakes were a magnitude 3.0 and 2.6 that struck near Howardville, and the rest measured roughly magnitude 2.
Any earthquake less than magnitude 2.5 generally isn’t felt, but the shaking can be detected by a seismograph.
Scientists have warned that the fault line can generate a magnitude 7 or higher in the next 50 years.
The chances of a quake that size is around about 40 percent, but ‘every year that goes by, the likelihood becomes greater,’ said Robbie Myers, an emergency coordinator with the Missouri Department of Safety.
The last powerful seismic activity occurred between 1811 and 1812 when three quakes hit that were ‘estimated to be between magnitude 7 and 8,’ according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Though this week’s earthquake swarm is not necessarily a sign that the New Madrid fault is about to produce a larger quake, experts have said people living around it should always be prepared for a major seismic event.
A magnitude 8 quake in this region could kill thousands, destroy bridges over the Mississippi River, buckle major highways such as Interstate 55 and cause oil and gas pipelines to break, Myers previously told DailyMail.com.
Sudden Swarm of Quakes near Missouri’s New Madrid Fault
After a period of relative quiet, there’s a sudden swarm of quakes that have been recorded along the New Madrid Fault on Missouri’s border.
If you pay attention to earthquakes, you likely saw that there were almost no measurable quakes along the New Madrid Fault for days. Now, the USGS is reporting a sudden mini-swarm of a half dozen quakes in the past day alone.
I want to be clear that there is no reason for alarm as all of the quakes so far have been relatively tiny with the largest only measuring 2.5 on the Richter Scale.
Earthquakes happen along the New Madrid Fault all the time. As we shared recently, there have been more than 175 New Madrid area quakes halfway through 2023 alone. But, we pay attention especially to swarms as experts now estimate a major quake could cause more than a billion dollars in damage which is double what was previously thought. The concern is that a swarm could signal a bigger quake about to happen, but earthquake science is still a field where there’s no way to accurately anticipate or predict a big event. Perhaps someday there will be.
Mathew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Important Takeaways:
New Madrid shaking sudden swarm of 14 in Seven days
There are a lot of predictable things in Missouri, but earthquakes are unfortunately not one of them. It’s worth noting that the New Madrid Fault Zone has been shaking a bit more than normal lately with more than a dozen quakes being recorded in the past 7 days.
14 in one week is plenty and there were several over the past 7 days which were strong enough to be felt. The most recent just happened this afternoon measuring registering a 2.8 and being reported felt by dozens in southern Missouri.
Mini-swarms like the one over the past week in Missouri are no cause for alarm, but it’s another reminder to pay attention as experts recently doubled their estimates of the damage a major New Madrid earthquake would do.
A minor earthquake struck the New Madrid fault Tuesday, the second quake on the fault line in the last two weeks.
The magnitude 2.7 quake struck around 8:46 p.m. Tuesday about 5 miles from the town of New Madrid, Missouri. The Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis said the quake was 5.9 miles deep.
Residents in northwest Tennessee, southeast Missouri and western Kentucky all reported slight shaking from the quake.
It’s the second minor quake along the New Madrid Fault in two weeks. A magnitude 3.5 quake struck near Memphis, Tennessee on August 25th.
The New Madrid fault line is twenty times larger than the San Andreas fault line in California.
One Missouri official is calling on residents to check to make sure they have earthquake coverage as part of their homeowners insurance. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the probability of a 7.5 or greater quake in the next 50 years at 7-10%, with the possibility of a quake stronger than 6.0 at 25-40%.
Residents of western Tennessee were given a jolt to their Wednesday morning commutes when a small earthquake struck around 8:26 a.m.
The magnitude 3.5 quake was centered about 16 miles northwest of Covington, TN or about 50 miles north of Memphis.
“I was just sitting down and I was inside of a building and it was just shaking, so I thought it was construction or something,” Covington resident Kiana Burnett told WMC-TV.
Local officials say there were no reports of damage and that inspections of bridges are taking place for safety reasons, not because they actually believe any bridge was damaged by the quake.
“What it means for the local person is if you were in Covington and weren’t in a car or something, or was just sitting somewhere, you probably felt an earthquake this morning, and that’s about all it means,” Dr. Mitch Withers of the University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information told WMC.
The quake struck along the New Madrid Fault, a massive fault line that is 20 times larger than the famed San Andreas fault in California. Withers did remind reporters that just because this quake did not cause large damage, the fault line can cause massive damage from significant earthquakes.
The U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck Wednesday night along the New Madrid Fault near Steele, Missouri.
The quake was reportedly felt in more than six states.
No major damage was reported in the region. Several businesses reported items being shaken off shelves and homeowners reported pictures had fallen off walls.
Several police departments in the region confirmed their computer monitors began shaking during the quake.
The New Madrid fault is the most seismically active zone east of the Rocky Mountains. The New Madrid Fault reaches from St. Louis to Memphis.
Residents in the southeastern part of Missouri were shaken after an earthquake occurred along the New Madrid Fault Line shortly before 11 p.m. CT.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the earthquake was at 4.0 magnitude and had occurred approximately 11 miles before the surface of the Earth.
Not only did nearby residents feel the quake but reports from KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau, Missouri stated that residents living as far as Carbondale, Illinois were able to feel the quake.
No damages or injuries have been reported.
The New Madrid Fault Line stretches along the Mississippi River from near St. Louis to Memphis, Tennessee. According to the USGS, the New Madrid Fault is “the most seismically active in North America east of the Rockies.” They also report that earthquakes in the eastern and central part of the United States “can be felt over an area as much as ten times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast.”
Seeking the Lord for a word for the new year is always a very serious pursuit and this year is even more crucial as we see the “red lights of prophecy” flashing all around us and God’s plan unfolding at breakneck speed. The Lord began to speak to me while we were in Israel, and the word that I give to you I sincerely pray will resonate with your spirit and cause you to be more prepared for these times we see looming on the horizon. Remember that in the midst of all the turmoil there is a promise of His Return and that is cause for great rejoicing! Continue reading →
That was phrase used by U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough in a study published in the journal Science saying the major fault in the middle of the United States is still open to a major earthquake.
The New Madrid Fault Zone covers parts of seven states: Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
The study was in response to studies claiming the fault was dying down and that any seismic actions were aftershocks or results of the major 1811-1812 earthquakes that devastated the central Mississippi River valley. The fault is considered to be less understood than other major faults because unlike those faults, it is located in the middle of a continent away from plate edges.
Hough and a USGS geophysicist analyzed past quakes in the New Madrid region and through computer modeling determined they are not related to the big quakes 200 years ago.
The USGS estimates a 7 to 10 percent chance of a 7.0 or greater earthquake in the region within the next 50 years.
