As the old redneck said, “That don’t make no sense.”
It does if you think about it.
When an eclipse happens, even and annular eclipse, the Sun and Moon are inline with Earth so that gravitational pulls and stresses are additive. Pulling and tugging at the faults, not just the New Madrid Fault, but ALL of them all over the Earth.
It’s been over 200 years since the last ‘Big One’ on the New Madrid Fault and it’s associated smaller faults. Entire cities and towns have been created all over the midwest. Farms and highways have cleared billions of tons of trees and hills. The weight distribution has changed drastically since the early 1800’s.
Even the San Andreas could give way.....................