The New Madrid Earthquakes of 1811-12

An enduring part of the Tecumseh legend was that, during an 1811 visit to the Upper Creek town of Tuckabatchie, where he found Creek leaders unwilling to join him, Tecumseh promised that when he returned to Detroit he would stamp his foot and the earth would tremble as never before.  Having already seen the great comet that they believed predicted his coming, the Creeks counted the days between when Tecumseh left Tuckabatchee and when they calculated that he should arrive in Detroit.  Sure enough, on December 16, 1811, a 7.4 intraplate quake with an epicenter in northeast Arkansas struck the region and was felt throughout much of the United States. 

The question remains how Tecumseh was able to predict this seismic event.  While a comet can easily be predicted with the aid of a good almanac, and Tecumseh would have had access to friendly White traders or others who could have helped him to use one, scientists still can't predict with pinpoint accuracy when an earthquake would occur.  Did he even make the prophecy?  He was also supposed to have predicted the death of a President in office every twenty years, though that myth has often been debunked.  If Tecumseh did make the remark, was he even speaking about an earthquake?  Could Tecumseh have been speaking metaphorically about starting the pan-Indian uprising to which he was trying to recruit the Creeks and others?  There are arguments pro and con and I won't attempt to settle them here.  Today's post focuses on the historical events of the largest intraplate quake(s) to hit the contiguous United States.  Many people, both Native and White, took these quakes as a sign of something, though some weren't sure what.

December 16, 1811, a magnitude 7.5-7.9 quake with an epicenter in Northeastern Arkansas struck at around 2:15 a.m. local time.  This initial quake was widely felt in what is now the Memphis area and the town of Little Prairie, a town near present-day Caruthersville, Missouri, was damaged when water from the Mississippi River shifted, creating soil liquefaction underneath the structures.  Otherwise, there was little damage to structures.

 December 16, 1811, a magnitude 7.4 aftershock again centered in Northeastern Arkansas struck at about 8:15 in the morning.  Like the initial quake, it did little damage, though eyewitnesses reported natural phenomena that caused them a great deal of terror.

January 23, 1812, a magnitude 7.3 to 7.6 quake with an epicenter in the Missouri Bootheel struck at around 9:00 a.m.  This one involved the New Madrid fault and may have placed stress on a neighboring fault known as he Reelfoot Fault.  It was characterized by major ground disruption including fissures, warping, landslides and caving and rerouting of stream beds.

February 7, 1812, at 3:45 a.m., a 7.5-8.0 magnitude quake with an epicenter near New Madrid, Missouri destroyed that town and damaged homes as far away as St. Louis.  As this quake involved the Reelfoot Fault, it created disruption the flow of the Mississippi, causing temporary waterfalls and a portion of the River to flow backwards, creating Reelfoot Lake and obstructing streams in Lake County, Tennessee.  This quake was felt throughout much of the Eastern United States.

What impressed eyewitnesses was the sudden, violent shaking of these quakes, perhaps due to the fact that they were mid-plate quakes, the most violent and dangerous kind.  Though structural damage was minimal except in specific areas, trees falling in other areas added to the apocalyptic nature of the event.  Aftershocks, which often caused stream banks to collapse, added to the terror.  In the town of New Madrid itself, the December quake released a sulphur-smelling gas from the ground, which made it difficult for people and animals to breathe.  The crack of falling trees and agitation of the Mississippi River added to the chaos.  These quakes and the prophecy which supposedly foretold them would become part of American folklore down to this day.