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The New Madrid Earthquake: Geography and Geology of the Southeast Missouri Lowlands - Paperback | Diverse Reads

The New Madrid Earthquake: Geography and Geology of the Southeast Missouri Lowlands

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The New Madrid Earthquake was among the great earthquakes of known history, affecting the topography more than any other earthquake on the North American continent. Judging from their effects, they were of a magnitude of 8.0 or higher on the Richter Scale. They were felt over the entire United States outside of the Pacific coast. Large areas sank into the earth, new lakes were formed, the course of the Mississippi River was changed, and forests were destroyed over an area of 150,000 acres. Many houses at New Madrid were thrown down. "Houses, gardens, and fields were swallowed up" one source notes. But fatalities and damage were low, because the area was sparsely settled then.

Survivors reported that the earthquake caused cracks to open in the earth's surface, the ground to roll invisible waves, and large areas of land to sink or rise. The crew of the New Orleans (the first steamboat on the Mississippi, which was on her maiden voyage) reported mooring to an island only to awake in the morning and find that the island had disappeared below the waters of the Mississippi River. Damage was reported as far away as Charleston, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C.

Scientists estimate that the probability of a magnitude 6 to 7 earthquake occurring in this seismic zone within the next 50 years is higher than 90%. Such an earthquake could hit the Mississippi Valley at any time.

ISBN-13: 9780898752106

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: University Press of the Pacific

Publication Date: 03-01-2001

Pages: 184

Product Dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.05(h) x 0.45(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction 7
General statement 7
Field work and acknowledgments 7
The story of the earthquake 9
Sources of information 9
Summary of the disaster 10
Previous earthquakes in the Mississippi Valley 11
Recorded shocks 11
Indian traditions 12
Geologic evidence 12
Record of the shocks 13
Atmospheric conditions preceding first shock 13
Time of the shocks 13
Center of disturbance 14
Earlier shock 14
Subsequent shocks 15
Area affected 16
General destructiveness of the shocks 17
Number and distribution of the shocks 17
Effects of the shocks outside of the New Madrid area 21
Mississippi Valley 21
Ohio Valley 22
Louisville 22
Cincinnati 26
Other localities 27
Great Lakes region 28
Atlantic Coastal and Piedmont plains 29
Nature of the vibrations 31
Classification of intensities 33
Periods of activity 33
Relation of distribution of shocks to time of day 35
Relation of distribution of shocks to diurnal variations of barometric pressure 36
Relation of distribution of shocks to phases of moon 37
Relation of the earthquake and the weather 39
Direction of vibrations 40
Effect of the earthquake on life 40
Government relief 43
Phenomena of the earthquake 44
Atmospheric phenomena 44
Darkness 44
Odors and vapors 45
"Light flashes" and "glows" 46
Geologic phenomena 47
Fissures 47
Record of fissuring 47
Character of the fissures 48
Types 48
Form 48
Arrangement 49
Intervals 49
Direction 49
Length 51
Depth 51
Fillings (sand dikes) 51
Objects swallowed by fissures 52
Distribution of the fissures 52
Situation 52
Localities 53
Cause of fissuring 56
Bluff fissures 56
Fissures of the sand-blow regions 57
Fissures of the sand sloughs 57
Compound fissures 57
Faults 58
Location 58
Cause 59
Landslides 59
Chickasaw Bluffs 59
Location and character 59
Cause 61
Warping 62
Uplifts and doming 62
The records 62
Tiptonville dome 63
Blytheville dome 63
Little River dome 64
Other domes 64
Cause of uplifts and doming 64
Depression--"sunk lands" 64
Types 65
Form and trend 66
Amount of subsidence 67
Distribution 68
Cause of sinking 74
Extrusion 76
Records 76
Character of ejected material 76
Temperature of ejected water 77
Escape of gas and water after the carthquake 78
Resulting features 79
Sand blows 79
Nature 79
Situation 80
Distribution 80
Sand sloughs 83
Nature 83
Situation 83
Distribution 84
Sand scatters 85
Cause of extrusion 85
Undermining 87
Fault trenches 87
Sand sloughs 87
Sinks 87
Hydrologic phenomena 89
Agitation of water surfaces 89
Effect on navigation 92
Caving of banks 92
Disappearance of islands 93
Snags and sawyers 94
Floating wreckage 94
Changes in springs 95
Action of the earthquake on forests 95
Splitting of trees 95
Destruction of forests by waves and caving banks 96
Overthrow of forests by landslides 96
General prostration of forests by vibrations 97
Dead trees 98
Uplifted trees 98
Submerged forests 98
Area of destruction 98
Effect on artificial structures 99
New Madrid region 99
Distant localities 100
Other physical phenomena 101
Noises 101
Origin and cause of the New Madrid earthquakes 102
Popular beliefs 102
Evidence of origin 103
Location of centrum 104
Ultimate cause 105
Significance of doming 105
Cause of uplift and doming 106
Contemporaneous disturbances 109
Possibilities of future disturbances 109
Bibliography of New Madrid earthquake 111