Posted on 09/28/2009 6:21:58 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Sept. 25, 2009) — More than 200 National Guard officials and representatives of civilian agencies from eight states attended the New Madrid Seismic Zone Workshop sponsored by the Missouri National Guard. The event’s purpose was to coordinate the National Guard response to a catastrophic earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Missouri adjutant general, Brig. Gen. Steven L. Danner, said the reason for the workshop — which drew participants from Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, and Arkansas — was preparedness. “We want the citizens to have the knowledge that the National Guards of each of these states is prepared to act resolutely to assist them,” Danner said. Since a large-scale earthquake would quickly overwhelm the response capabilities of any one state, the conference aimed to help participants identify and solve gaps in their capabilities, said Col. Mark A. McCarter, head of strategic plans, policy, joint training and exercises for the Missouri National Guard. For example, while one state might need additional troops, another might need additional helicopters or communications equipment. The idea, said McCarter, is to fill those gaps with assets from other states or from the Department of Defense.
(Excerpt) Read more at pulaskicountydaily.com ...
12/16/1811 2am violent shock accompanied by awful noise and a complete saturation of the of the atmosphere with sulphurous vapor, causing total darkness. Trees cracked and fell and the Mississippi current was retrograde for a few minutes. Lighter shocks occurred until sunrise, at which time one still more violent than the first too place. The earth shook to such a degree that no one was able to stand or walk. At this juncture, the earth was observed to e rolling in waves of a few feet in height with a visible depression between. Soon the swells were seen to burst, throwing upward large volumes of water, sand and charcoal with a sulphurous odor. When these swells burst, large fissures were formed running north and south, parallel for miles. One person died. (very few inhamitents in Missouri in 1811).
One family on a bend of the Pemiscot River, had a well and a smokehouse a ways from their home. After the second hard shock subsided the wife went to the well for water and the smoke house for breakfast mean, but could not find them. Upon further search, they were both found on the opposite side of the river.
There were several lighter shocks each day from that day until 1/22/1812.
1/23/1812 another as violent as the severeest former ones accompanied by the same phenomena occurred. A woman died a few days after a log of a cabin fell on her.
From this time until 2/4/1812, the earth was in a continual agitation, visibly waving as a gentle sea. On that day there was another shock, enarly as hard as the preceding ones; next day four sch, and on 2/7/1812 about 4 am a concussion took place so much more violent than those which had preceeded it that it was denominated the “hard shock.” There was awful darkness of the atmosphere which, as formerly, was saturated with sulphurous vapor and the violence of the noise. At first the Mississippi seemed to recede from its banks, and its water gathered up like a mountain, leaving, for a moment, many boats which were on their way to New Orleans, on the bare sand, in which the poor sailors made their escape from them. It then rising 15-20 ft. perpendicularly, and expanding, as it were, at the same moment the bank overflowed with a retrograde current rapid as a torrent. The boars, which before had been left on the sand, were now torn from their moorings, and suddenly driven up a creek nearly a quarter jile. The river, falling immediately as rapidly as it had risen, receded within its banks again with such violence that it took with it whole groves of young cottonwoods which were broken off with such regularity that persons who had not witnessed it had difficulty believing thatit had not been the work of art. A great many fish were left on the bank. The river was strewn with wrecked boats, in one of which a lady and 6 children were lost.
The earth was horribly torn to pieces, the surface of hundreds of acres was covered over of various depths by the sand which issued from the fissures made in great numbers all over the country. In some places a substance resembling impure stone coal was thrown up with the sand. The site of this town was settled down at least 15 ft. and not more than 1/2 a mile below the town, back from the river, numerous large ponds or lakes which covered a great part of the country dried up, the beds of which are now elevated above their banks of an elevation of 15-20 ft above their original. Reelfoot Lake was found on the opposite side of the Mississippi in Indian country, upwards of 100 miles in lengh and from 1-6 miles in width of a depth from 10-50 ft.
Folks lived 12-18 mo after the first shocks in little light camps made of boards or tents for fear their houses would fall in. New Madrid was largely depopulated. The destruction of previously good land left many persons homeless and landless.
—From History of Southeast Missouri
Supposedly, church bells rang on the East Coast
As of 3/22/1816 small shocks continued to be felt. It was seldom more than a week without feeling one and sometimes 3-4 a day. In the winter of 1815 there were two much hard ones.
I have often wondered if the New Madrid fault system was related to the New Harmony/Wabash Valley fault system in SE Illinois. There appears to be more study of the Wabash fault because it involves exploration of coal and oil by many drillers over many decades.
How are you Kim?
I’ve never head of the harmony/wabash fault system. Has it ever had an earthquake?
Sure isn’t. I thought you lived closer to kc.... for some reason. I guess it was the lee’s summit protest that made me think that. Doing okay here, how are you doing?
The Ridge I live on will probably slide right out from under me.
AAack! That’s interesting.. I pray that if something does happen, activity in the underlying ground will give everyone a warning sign.
Did you go to the lee’s summit protest or iz i gettin you cornfused with someone else?
You are sure well versed in the topic. How many miles between it and the madrid?
A lot of geography which we assume to be permanent is actually in a state of delayed change.
You got mail
Back atcha.. :)
That is really interesting.. I had no idea. In the part of western missouri where I was raised...we had a few tremors. As a kid, it was ‘scary’ feeling the tremors, and watching items nearby ‘shake’.
I missed that one. I dont know if we know enough about how the earth moves around to make such a declaration. But, I only spent four semesters with Fossil Fred, so I will bow to their expertise.
I see no reasonable justification in fact for either assertion.
Now, now, old "helicopter Ben" is almost right. The recession is indeed almost over. The Depression is about to begin.....
You’re probably right about that.
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