Living on The New Madrid Fault

I lived on it all my life, except for the last 4 1/2 yrs. I remember only one time as a child feeling everything in the house shake, and my parents not saying anything of what it was. Jerry Lee Lewis was on tv banging his piano and belting out "A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," and that it was, everything in the house. We didn't have a clue because media communications were more limited back then. I grew up there never knowing, until 1990.

My firstborn was born at the end of November, and Iben Browning decided to make my 20 yr old, first time mom, post partum nerves go over the edge by making a prediction. He predicted a 50-50 chance of a major early December earthquake on the New Madrid based on peak gravitational pull on the earth's crust from the moon and planets. My first thought was how I was going to protect my very newborn baby, which terrified my fragile state. It was a relief when the time came and went without incident, but I now knew I lived in an earthquake zone, and it's amazing how the mind can protect your sanity-lol "Aaah-if it happens in Dyersburg an hour way that's a long way away-NOT! Mr. Madrid never left my thoughts again, but he also wasn't very prominent either.

Until he shook my bed one day telling me it was time to get my lazy butt up! I thought it was my husband at first, but he wasn't there, and then I was freaked out-"was it an intruder hiding at the foot of my bed?!" Relief, when I lazily, realized it was only Mr. Madrid as I drifted back into slumber land, freaking later when I heard the news reports of an earthquake-lol ONLY! MR. MADRID-what were you thinking!?

April 18, 2008 Mr. Madrid decides to rumble and shake to wake up Southern Illinois at 5.2 on the Richter scale making the news rounds. As I have been paying attention because my beloved family still lives there many are surprised that an earthquake happened here in the midwest section, and I have been surprised as well that many are surprised about yesterday's events happening in this section of our country. Not many know of Mr. Madrid. I've met him so let me tell you some about him.

Mr Madrid is a bad ass. A very bad one. Worse than an intruder at the end of my bed. He produced the strongest earthqauke on record in the lower 48. Actually there were 3. It happened in Dec. 16, 1811 thru Feb. 7, 1812. An infamouse series of quakes that measured 8.1, 8.0, and 7.8 A lady from Colorado stated she was about to move to the area, and she wanted to stay away from the shaking by staying in Colorado. Well, I hate to inform her, but if she lived in Colorado in 1811-1812 she would have been shaking, or at least moving or feeling. These quakes were so stong that they were felt in most of the country as far away as Boston, and damage was reported as far away as Charleston, SC, and Washington, DC.

These earthquakes are what formed Reelfoot Lake through liquefication of the ground-large areas sank into the earth, and the Mighty MissIssippi River flowed backwards due to the shifts filling the lake, fissures opened and closed causing river tsunamis, and their were permanent geological changes of the riverbed due to all of the above along with landslides.

Church bells rang in Boston, MA., and the quake was also felt in NYC.

The strongest of Mr. Madrid's quakes was 10 times, now that's something, 10 times more intense than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, say scientist.

The Top 10
Here are the Top 10 U.S. earthquakes for all 50 states, according to the USGS:
1. Prince William Sound, Alaska 1964, 9.2

2. Andreanof Islands, Alaska 1957, 9.1

3. Rat Islands, Alaska 1965, 8.7

4. East of Shumagin Islands, Alaska 1938, 8.2

5. New Madrid, Missouri 1811, 8.1

6. Yakutat Bay, Alaska 1899, 8.0

7. Andreanof Islands, Alaska 1986, 8.0

8. New Madrid, Missouri 1812, 8.0

9. Near Cape Yakataga, Alaska 1899, 7.9

10. Fort Tejon, California 1857, 7.9

Top 10 for the lower 48 according to USGS:
1. Cascadia subduction zone 1700, 9.0
2. New Madrid, Missouri 1811, 8.1
3. New Madrid, Missouri 1812, 8.0
4. Fort Tejon, Ca 1857, 7.9
5. San Francisco, Ca 1906, 7.8
6. Imperial Valley, Ca 1892, 7.8
7. New Madrid, Missouri, 1812, 7.8
8. Owens Valley, Ca 1872, 7.4
9. Landers, Ca 1992, 7.3

10. Hebgen Lake, Montana 1959, 7.3

Mr. Madrid is felt over a more larger area, and the damage is more widespread east of the rockies due to geology, and also the differences in fault lines. The San Andreas fault is visible. Mr. Madrid cannot be seen. The San Andreas fault is 2 major plates and an earthquake happens when these collide. Mr. Madrid's plates push upward like what happened on the ocean floor in Southeast Asia. The quakes in and around the New Madrid fault are like tapping in the middle of a drum, and the quakes in California are like hitting on the edge of a drum the way the faults are, and that's why there is so much more dispersal of energy from the quakes, and more widepsread damage east of the Rockies from the New Madrid. The New Madrid fault isn't straight persay, but runs in several different directions deep beneath the surface.

I hope one day earthquakes can be more closely monitored/tracked as a thunderstorm, hurricane storm, or tornado storm.