An Elk County Earthquake

[W. Gray]

The strongest earthquake ever to hit the Elk County area was also the strongest to hit the United States--until 1964. The earthquake hitting Elk County was three times stronger than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake according to U.S. Geological Survey figures.

In 1811, the Elk County area was in Louisiana and would soon become part of Missouri. In December, an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 hit at New Madrid, Missouri, along the banks of the Mississippi. By comparison, the San Francisco earthquake registered 7.8 and the Nagasaki atom bomb, 5.0. The New Madrid earthquake shook an area many times larger than that of the San Francisco earthquake. The USGS computes and assigns values to earthquakes occurring before conception of the Richter scale.

The future Elk County was only 370 miles from the epicenter and the trembling earth terrified the Osage who were required to move into Kanzas three years earlier. The Osage believed the Great Spirit was angry at the human race and was destroying the world. As the first quake hit, the earth under the Mississippi River in the boot heal area heaved causing the river to run backwards. One witness said the wave coming upriver was larger than any he had seen on the ocean. Another said the wave was thirty feet high. As the earth settled back and the river corrected its flow, the river gouged a new channel around New Madrid.

People in Mexico, Canada, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. felt the earth move. Milledgeville, Georgia, farther from the epicenter than the Elk County area, experienced church bells ringing. Build up along the Mississippi in 1811 was more than what one might think and there was significant property damage and several fatalities. Two more New Madrid quakes in January 1812 hit 7.8 and 8.0.

The 1964 Alaska earthquake measured 9.2 making it eleven times stronger than the New Madrid 1811 earthquake.

The week prior to August 23, 2007, the USGS registered 825 earthquakes in thirteen states; two of those were in the New Madrid area registering around 1.0.

Because of two hundred years growth, predictions are the next big one in New Madrid will inflict tremendous damage.

[kdfrawg]

From a previous existence as a safety engineer, I happened to know all of that. There's a lot of good information about it on the Web, too. But a lot of people would have no reason to have ever heard of it. Thanks for taking the time to share it, Waldo.

[Rudy Taylor]

Waldo, if you don't mind, I'll use this info in a news story for the Flint Hills Express.

Fascinating!

[W. Gray]

Great, thanks.