New discovery beneath the Mississippi River—large cracks forming deep in the riverbed that might signal a looming seismic threat. Scientists believe these fractures could be tied to the reawakening of the infamous New Madrid Fault, responsible for America’s most violent earthquakes in the early 1800s
New Madrid Fault Activity Suspected
Scientists have discovered large cracks in the Mississippi Riverbed, which may indicate a potential seismic threat. These fractures are believed to be connected to the reactivation of the New Madrid Fault, a fault line responsible for significant earthquakes in the early 1800s.
New Madrid Seismic Zone Overview
The New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) is a highly active earthquake area located in the eastern United States, primarily in northeastern Arkansas, southwestern Kentucky, southeastern Missouri, and northwestern Tennessee. The region has experienced thousands of small to moderate earthquakes since 1974, with a dramatic increase in earthquake rates in Oklahoma from 2014.
1811-1812 Earthquakes
The NMSZ produced a sequence of powerful earthquakes in 1811-1812, including three large earthquakes estimated to be between magnitude 7 and 8. These earthquakes caused significant damage and changed the landscape, including bank failures, landslides, and subsidence of large tracts of land.
Geology
The NMSZ is located in the Mississippi embayment, a broad trough filled with marine sedimentary rocks and river sediments. The region is underlain by Paleozoic sedimentary rocks up to 570 million years old, which are deformed by a deep valley formed during continental rifting. The NMSZ is spatially associated with the Reelfoot rift, a subsurface system of fractures and faults in the earth’s crust.
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