Intensity graph for the New Madrid fault
With all the coverage of the 7.0 magnitude quake in Haiti, interest has shifted to the USA. Could it happen here?
Cover of Volume 3, DISCOVER! America's Great River Road
Ironically, the New Madrid Fault is a major active fault line that runs approximately from Memphis, Tennessee, to St. Louis, Missouri. On Dec. 16, 1811, this area was hit with an estimated 8.6 magnitude quake on the modern-day Richter scale. A second quake on January 23, 1812 is estimated to have been an 8.4. A THIRD shock on February 7, 1812, is estimated to have been the strongest jolt ever to hit the North American continent at somewhere near 8.7 to 8.9.
We pulled some illuminating facts from Volume 3 of DISCOVER! America’s Great River Road… What would an 8.7 magnitude earthquake feel like?
It released energy equal to 150,000,000 tons of TNT. In comparison, the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII equaled 35,000 to 40,000 tons of TNT!!
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