Qualla: New Madrid Seismic Zone https://qualla.com/new-madrid-fault en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/8/2/new-madrid-fault-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: New Madrid Seismic Zone https://qualla.com/new-madrid-fault New Madrid Seismic Zone: Introduction https://qualla.com/new-madrid-fault/ Photo credit USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig, Public domain. On December 16, 1811, at approximately 2:15 AM, the ground in the Mississippi River Valley began to shake. The earthquake was so powerful that it rang church bells in Boston, 1,000 miles away. Chimneys fell in Cincinnati. The shaking continued for months - two more massive earthquakes struck in January and February 1812. The Mississippi River ran backward. Sand blows erupted across the landscape. The town of New Madrid, Missouri, was destroyed. Reelfoot Lake, in what is now Tennessee, was created when the river flowed backward into a depression. These were the most powerful earthquakes in recorded North American history, estimated between magnitude 7.5 and 8.0. The New Madrid Seismic Zone remains active. When the next major earthquake comes - and seismologists agree it will - the heavily populated modern Mississippi Valley will face devastation that 1812's sparse frontier population never imagined.

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Image: USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig | Public domain

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/8/2/new-madrid-fault-wk/dn82-new-madrid-seismic-zone-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full New Madrid Seismic Zone: The Great Earthquakes https://qualla.com/new-madrid-fault/ Photo credit USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig, Public domain. The first earthquake struck at 2:15 AM on December 16, 1811. Residents of New Madrid awoke to their houses collapsing. The ground rolled in visible waves. Great cracks opened in the earth, swallowing horses and cattle. Sand and water shot into the air from fissures called sand bl...

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Image: USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig | Public domain

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/8/2/new-madrid-fault-wk/dn82-new-madrid-seismic-zone-the-great-earthquakes.mp3 0:06 2 full New Madrid Seismic Zone: The Devastation https://qualla.com/new-madrid-fault/ Photo credit USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig, Public domain. The sparsely populated frontier absorbed the destruction relatively easily. New Madrid was destroyed but had only about 1,000 residents. The entire region had perhaps 30,000 settlers. Deaths were relatively few - maybe several hundred, though records are poor. But the physical tr...

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Image: USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig | Public domain

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/8/2/new-madrid-fault-wk/dn82-new-madrid-seismic-zone-the-devastation.mp3 0:06 3 full New Madrid Seismic Zone: The Mystery https://qualla.com/new-madrid-fault/ Photo credit USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig, Public domain. Why does the New Madrid Seismic Zone produce earthquakes at all? Most seismic zones occur at plate boundaries, where tectonic plates collide or slide past each other. New Madrid is in the middle of the North American plate, far from any boundary. The leading theory is that the zo...

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Image: USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig | Public domain

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/8/2/new-madrid-fault-wk/dn82-new-madrid-seismic-zone-the-mystery.mp3 0:06 4 full New Madrid Seismic Zone: The Future https://qualla.com/new-madrid-fault/ Photo credit USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig, Public domain. When the next major New Madrid earthquake occurs, the consequences will be catastrophic. The 1811-1812 earthquakes affected a frontier with few buildings and sparse population. Today, Memphis, St. Louis, and dozens of smaller cities lie within the zone. The Mississippi River is c...

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Image: USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig | Public domain

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/8/2/new-madrid-fault-wk/dn82-new-madrid-seismic-zone-the-future.mp3 0:06 5 full New Madrid Seismic Zone: Visiting the Zone https://qualla.com/new-madrid-fault/ Photo credit USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig, Public domain. The New Madrid Seismic Zone stretches across southeastern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, western Tennessee, and western Kentucky. The town of New Madrid, Missouri, has a small museum about the earthquakes and the region's history. Reelfoot Lake State Park in Tennessee preserves...

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Image: USGS/Joan Gomberg and Eugene Schweig | Public domain

]]> Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/8/2/new-madrid-fault-wk/dn82-new-madrid-seismic-zone-visiting-the-zone.mp3 0:06 6 full