More Than a Dozen New Madrid Quakes Past Few Days, Some Felt
It's no reason for alarm, but there has been a sudden uptick in quakes along the New Madrid Fault this week with several over the past few days that were felt.
The USGS Earthquake map shows 13 measurable earthquakes in the New Madrid Seismic Zone since September 2, 2022. These quakes included eight above 2 in magnitude.
Again, this is no reason for alarm, but does show a rather sudden increase of activity. The Wikipedia page for the New Madrid Seismic Zone explains the reason why the USGS keeps an eye on this seismically active area due to the fact that it's possible "widespread and catastrophic" damage across Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and particularly Tennessee, where a 7.7 magnitude quake would cause damage to tens of thousands of structures".
Another interesting possibility that would be better news for our part of Missouri and Illinois is there are some scientists that believe the quakes we see today might still be just aftershocks carrying over from the historic quakes from 1811 and 1812. That was the result of a study by Northwestern University and University of Missouri scientists. Their study was published in the publication Nature according to Wikipedia.
The common consensus is that we'll see another major quake along the New Madrid Fault sometime in the next 30 to 50 years. Could be tomorrow or maybe decades down the road, but someday it's possible those of us that live along the New Madrid Fault will have a very bad day. Let's hope this uptick in minor quakes isn't a precursor for that possible event.