Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire New Madrid Fault?

Been reading some about it lately. The book I'm in now is a fictional work, interlaced with actual accounts from pioneer folks from the area during the 1811-12 quakes. The fiction is entertaining. The factual accounts are fascinating.

When I was much younger we hunted some over in the St Francis Sunk Country. We were (at least I was) oblivious then as to what might occur in the future. Those I hunted there with are now passed on and I'll never have the chance to ask what they knew.

Anybody live on or near any prominent quake features? Reelfoot area guys?

I grew up in Western Kentucky very close to it. The first shake I felt was when I was about 6 years old. I had never heard of earthquakes before.

I thought it was the end of the world.

I live just east of St Louis in Illinois. We don't have any of the features here that you're looking for but we get rocked every time there's a 5.0 or better. I've been down to Cape Giradeau a few times (epicenter) and haven't noticed anything outside the norm. I think the Mississippi River has obliterated most of the features created during the big ones in 1811-12.

DownWind

Do you have any particular plan for the eventuality of the next major quake? Seems there is some doubt that much of ST Louis or Memphis would survive.

"Do you have any particular plan for the eventuality of the next major quake? Seems there is some doubt that much of ST Louis or Memphis would survive."

I live out in boonies and away from those tall concrete and steel structures. My plan would be to walk out in the middle of the nearby field and watch the Gateway Arch dance.

Why does it always have to be somebody's fault? Sometimes things just happen.

Years ago, I was given an antique A. M. Bowles duck call. It looks like rosewood and has a brass ring.

In researching A. M. Bowles and his work, I learned about Reelfoot lake and the 1811 Earthquake when the MS River ran backwards.

The last 7.7 quake in the Atlantic off the coast of FL is interesting. Reportedly they felt it in Miami, actually evacuated some buildings.

I have a video of a local guy showing water in his pond slowly flowing one way, then another way. Subtle but not a naturally occurring thing. Not enough motion to feel it, but something was causing that water to move back and forth. And, that's in Louisiana, quite a ways from FL. So, who knows. We're mostly into flooding and hurricanes, not quakes.. Not sure there is a connection, but for sure a curiosity.

I've read that lakes in Yellowstone are moving, water levels changing. As you know, that whole area sits over a giant caldera. Evidently there is enough activity to move the ground such that the water level is changing.

Interesting stuff.

DF

Somewhere out there is an account written by a guy named Nicholas James Roosevelt.

He's the Roosevelt that made Roosevelt Roosevelt. He got rich by backing Fulton, and then trying to enforce a monopoly on steam traffic up and down the Misssissippi. My relative, Henry Miller Shreve, got the best of him finally, but they made a bunch of money early on.

Anyhow, Roosevelt was traveling down the Mississipi when the New Madrid quakes went down. He was on a flatboat with his pregnant wife, and the account of the trip is a ripping good story. You'd have thought the world was coming to the end.


Later on, Henry Miller Shreve was responsible for surveying and platting New Madrid. While there, he hung with some d'Maisonvilles that were French fur trappers-- one of several times one of my ancestors and one of KYHillChick's ancestors crossed paths on the frontier.

DW, I once lived and worked in Belleville, and my first 'quake happened in the '67-'69 timeframe. I don't recall exactly, but I was in the Western Auto store two blocks east of the downtown fountain when it hit, I still can see the building across the street swaying. They said it was a branch of the New Madrid.

Anyway, the New Madrid has the potential to be a very violent and deadly quake site - according to some experts. As mentioned above, St Louis and Memphis would not fare well, nor any other populated area near the river. The surge could wipe out much of everything from St Louis to New Orleans.

Today, I live on the Wasatch Fault. Not near it. ON it. And it is way overdue. When it eventually goes, it's gonna be quite a ride here!

We have a few fault lines here.

The New Madrid earthquakes altered the course of the Ohio River, which is the state line between Indiana and Kentucky, putting approximately a 4 mile wide swath and 1 mile deep parcel of Indiana on the Ky side at Evansville, IN / Henderson, Ky. It remains as the IN / KY border still today.

I fished Reelfoot for about a week a few years back & having never been there I tried to prepare my self on things for the sightseeing part.

A lot of the farm land that was close was understandably flat & open, Mississippi river bottom. Grain belt looking. But the area, or a lot of it just in the vicinity of the lake was really knotted up. Domes, mounds, humps, etc. dotted the landscape. A big time upheaval for sure. A look at a Topo map of the area can explain it a heck of a lot better than I could.

They say Caddo Lake in NW La. was formed by the 1811 earthquake.

I live outside Dexter, a bit north of New Madrid. There's small quakes daily, I never feel them. Maybe I drink too much

Kidding?

Geno

No.

Really?

Fault lines in AK?

Who'd have guessed?

Funny story, when I was in Juneau there was a quake out near the end of the Aleutians, a pretty big one. Little bro down in SoCal called or emailed to ask if I'd felt it. I had to explain to him that the quake was nearly as far from me as he was down there at the south end of Cali.

I hope no big ones in your area in the near future.

Geno

I grew up in southern Kalifornia and I never felt an earthquake until I was stationed at Memphis Naval Air Station for training. That quake was strong enough to wake me up while I was sleeping. We heard on the news that the epicenter for that quake was a couple of hundred miles away, to the north.

There will be more shakes, without doubt. Also hope they're small. Thanks, geno.

We've bad two 7+ quakes in the last 4 years. That's plenty!

If I remember history correctly one of the big earthquakes around that time temporarily reverse the flow of the Mississippi River in a certain area