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New Madrid Compendium
Here you will find listings of over 600 references that are related to the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812.
The Science of New Madrid
For scientific information on these events, the article described in the abstract below, "The Enigma of the New Madrid Earthquakes" by Arch Johnston and Buddy Schweig, is available for download in PDF format. This article was published in the Annual Review of Earth Planet Science in 1996.
Center for Earthquake Research and Information
Download the "The Enigma of the New Madrid Earthquakes."
**********************
Good site on the New Madrid Fault; following are some of the topics:
Index - Description of the largest quakes ever recorded in North America, 1811-12, and a real time map of Midwestern quakes.
Liquefaction with many Google earth aerial photos. Sandy soil loses its friction, becomes mush with water + force.
Civil War action - big battle in the bottom of the NM river loop. Newspaper accounts & maps.
FoxNews Jan 2010 update of NM Seismic Zone following a Haiti aftershock. 6 min video
Hidden Fury (click to watch) - a 1993, 27-min video production, now on the web in mpg format. Available from Bullfrog films. Very well produced. Good info, easy to follow, except several experts would now assert the NM 1811-12 quakes were high 7 magnitude, not 8.
Origins - Why here, in the middle of a tectonic plate?
Topography - Dinosaurs, glaciers, earthquakes, volcanoes, rerouting of major rivers. Quakes played a part.
Old River beds - The Ohio River had a previous path through Southern Illinois. | Ever heard of the Teays River? | Warm shallow seas, earthquakes and glacier melt affected local soils.
* Mississippi Embayment - A warm, shallow Gulf of Mexico extended to Southern Illinois.
* Dinosaur - Southeast Missouri dinosaurs were trapped in an earthquake fault west of Cape Girardeau. Volcanoes nearby. Rainforest in central Illinois.
* The big Southeast Missouri Swamp - prior to early 20th century. Explorers Marquette & Joliet said this was the mosquitoes' home.
* Olmsted fault connects New Madrid & Wabash Valley S Indiana faults.
Jack Reed's theory. Reed is a retired geologist who studied oil formations in the Gulf of Mexico. Oversimplified, his theory says a crack in the North American tectonic plate runs from Louisiana through New Madrid to the St. Lawrence Seaway. Seismic activity in the western Gulf of Mexico would directly affect the New Madrid area.
The Farallon plate swallowed beneath western North America 70 million years ago -- Some say it is still causing the Mississippi valley bumps and grinds.
* Farallon "hit and run" formed the Rockies?
* diagrams
* 600M years in a nutshell
Dec. 1811- Feb. 1812
"My kingdom for a horse"
River ran backward - after Mother Nature suddenly dropped a couple of dams across the nation's largest waterway.
* Eyewitnesses - made notes of 1811-12 quakes
* Mississippi ran backward - from Enigma paper
* Centennial history - several notes from eyewitnesses we hadn't seen elsewhere. Note halfway through this piece that many people gathered on Tywappity hill, 30 miles north and 7 miles inland from the river... to seek safety from the shakes. We strongly suspect the hill is now at Lake Tywappity, at the SE edge of Chaffee, MO.
* First steamboat really shaken - river rerouted, island disappears
1* 811-12 quakes especially shook lowlands from near Niagra Falls to the Carolinas and lower Georgia.
* Little Prairie residents had no warning, waded eight miles. Geysers higher than trees.
Take a self-tour of the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
More here: http://showme.net/~fkeller/quake/sitemap.htm
*************************
(good reference articles at the link)
Archeological and pedological evidence for large prehistoric earthquakes in the New Madrid seismic zone, central United States
Abstract
Prehistoric liquefaction features have been identified by careful observation of their structural and stratigraphic relations to Native American occupation horizons and their subtle soil characteristics. The ages of these liquefaction features have been estimated from radiocarbon dating of wood associated with the features and Native American artifacts found within bounding occupation horizons.
At three sites near Blytheville, Arkansas, in the central part of the New Madrid seismic zone, one sand-blow crater formed between A.D. 800 and 1400, two sand-blow deposits formed between A.D. 800 and 1670, and three, possibly four, sand dikes formed since 4035 B.C. Where not found in association with Native American occupation horizons and artifacts, prehistoric liquefaction features can be difficult to distinguish from features that formed during the great New Madrid earthquakes of A.D. 1811 and 1812.
This raises the possibility that prehistoric liquefaction features may have been misinterpreted during previous studies in the area. Nevertheless, a paleoearthquake chronology is beginning to emerge for the New Madrid seismic zone. Our findings are consistent with paleoseismological studies in the northern part of the seismic zone and suggest a recurrence interval of hundreds of years for earthquakes large enough to induce liquefaction in this region (M ≥ 6.4).
By mapping the age distribution of liquefaction features, a more accurate assessment of the long-term earthquake potential of the region will be possible.
Martitia P. Tuttle1 and Eugene S. Schweig2
Author Affiliations
1. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964, and Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
2. U.S. Geological Survey and Center for Earthquake Research and Information, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee 38152
******************
Links to eyewitness accounts (some are in the other big reports I already linked to):
~20 accounts from newspapers, personal letters, etc.
Another list of eyewitness accounts
A few more
**********************
Additional Links:
(Mentioned in this study is the Great Comet of 1811)
Shocks to the Natural Order: Euroamerican Understandings of the New Madrid Earthquakes
(Speculation on a possible link between the Great Comet of 1811 and the quakes(
1811-12 New Madrid Earthquakes, A NEO Connection?
Here you will find listings of over 600 references that are related to the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812.
The Science of New Madrid
For scientific information on these events, the article described in the abstract below, "The Enigma of the New Madrid Earthquakes" by Arch Johnston and Buddy Schweig, is available for download in PDF format. This article was published in the Annual Review of Earth Planet Science in 1996.
Center for Earthquake Research and Information
Download the "The Enigma of the New Madrid Earthquakes."
**********************
Good site on the New Madrid Fault; following are some of the topics:
Index - Description of the largest quakes ever recorded in North America, 1811-12, and a real time map of Midwestern quakes.
Liquefaction with many Google earth aerial photos. Sandy soil loses its friction, becomes mush with water + force.
Civil War action - big battle in the bottom of the NM river loop. Newspaper accounts & maps.
FoxNews Jan 2010 update of NM Seismic Zone following a Haiti aftershock. 6 min video
Hidden Fury (click to watch) - a 1993, 27-min video production, now on the web in mpg format. Available from Bullfrog films. Very well produced. Good info, easy to follow, except several experts would now assert the NM 1811-12 quakes were high 7 magnitude, not 8.
Origins - Why here, in the middle of a tectonic plate?
Topography - Dinosaurs, glaciers, earthquakes, volcanoes, rerouting of major rivers. Quakes played a part.
Old River beds - The Ohio River had a previous path through Southern Illinois. | Ever heard of the Teays River? | Warm shallow seas, earthquakes and glacier melt affected local soils.
* Mississippi Embayment - A warm, shallow Gulf of Mexico extended to Southern Illinois.
* Dinosaur - Southeast Missouri dinosaurs were trapped in an earthquake fault west of Cape Girardeau. Volcanoes nearby. Rainforest in central Illinois.
* The big Southeast Missouri Swamp - prior to early 20th century. Explorers Marquette & Joliet said this was the mosquitoes' home.
* Olmsted fault connects New Madrid & Wabash Valley S Indiana faults.
Jack Reed's theory. Reed is a retired geologist who studied oil formations in the Gulf of Mexico. Oversimplified, his theory says a crack in the North American tectonic plate runs from Louisiana through New Madrid to the St. Lawrence Seaway. Seismic activity in the western Gulf of Mexico would directly affect the New Madrid area.
The Farallon plate swallowed beneath western North America 70 million years ago -- Some say it is still causing the Mississippi valley bumps and grinds.
* Farallon "hit and run" formed the Rockies?
* diagrams
* 600M years in a nutshell
Dec. 1811- Feb. 1812
"My kingdom for a horse"
River ran backward - after Mother Nature suddenly dropped a couple of dams across the nation's largest waterway.
* Eyewitnesses - made notes of 1811-12 quakes
* Mississippi ran backward - from Enigma paper
* Centennial history - several notes from eyewitnesses we hadn't seen elsewhere. Note halfway through this piece that many people gathered on Tywappity hill, 30 miles north and 7 miles inland from the river... to seek safety from the shakes. We strongly suspect the hill is now at Lake Tywappity, at the SE edge of Chaffee, MO.
* First steamboat really shaken - river rerouted, island disappears
1* 811-12 quakes especially shook lowlands from near Niagra Falls to the Carolinas and lower Georgia.
* Little Prairie residents had no warning, waded eight miles. Geysers higher than trees.
Take a self-tour of the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
More here: http://showme.net/~fkeller/quake/sitemap.htm
*************************
(good reference articles at the link)
Archeological and pedological evidence for large prehistoric earthquakes in the New Madrid seismic zone, central United States
Abstract
Prehistoric liquefaction features have been identified by careful observation of their structural and stratigraphic relations to Native American occupation horizons and their subtle soil characteristics. The ages of these liquefaction features have been estimated from radiocarbon dating of wood associated with the features and Native American artifacts found within bounding occupation horizons.
At three sites near Blytheville, Arkansas, in the central part of the New Madrid seismic zone, one sand-blow crater formed between A.D. 800 and 1400, two sand-blow deposits formed between A.D. 800 and 1670, and three, possibly four, sand dikes formed since 4035 B.C. Where not found in association with Native American occupation horizons and artifacts, prehistoric liquefaction features can be difficult to distinguish from features that formed during the great New Madrid earthquakes of A.D. 1811 and 1812.
This raises the possibility that prehistoric liquefaction features may have been misinterpreted during previous studies in the area. Nevertheless, a paleoearthquake chronology is beginning to emerge for the New Madrid seismic zone. Our findings are consistent with paleoseismological studies in the northern part of the seismic zone and suggest a recurrence interval of hundreds of years for earthquakes large enough to induce liquefaction in this region (M ≥ 6.4).
By mapping the age distribution of liquefaction features, a more accurate assessment of the long-term earthquake potential of the region will be possible.
Martitia P. Tuttle1 and Eugene S. Schweig2
Author Affiliations
1. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964, and Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
2. U.S. Geological Survey and Center for Earthquake Research and Information, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee 38152
******************
Links to eyewitness accounts (some are in the other big reports I already linked to):
~20 accounts from newspapers, personal letters, etc.
Another list of eyewitness accounts
A few more
**********************
Additional Links:
(Mentioned in this study is the Great Comet of 1811)
Shocks to the Natural Order: Euroamerican Understandings of the New Madrid Earthquakes
(Speculation on a possible link between the Great Comet of 1811 and the quakes(
1811-12 New Madrid Earthquakes, A NEO Connection?