DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

GEOEGE OTIS SMITH, DIBECTOB

BULLETIN 494

THE

NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE

BY

MYRON L. FULLER

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1912

CONTENTS.

Page.

Introduction.............................................................. 7

General statement...................................................... 7

Field work and acknowledgments...................................... 7

The story of the earthquake................................................. 9

Sources of information.................................................. 9

Summary of the disaster............................................... 10

Previous earthquakes in the Mississippi Valley.............................. 11

Recorded shocks....................................................... 11

Indian traditions...................................................... 12

Geologic evidence..................................................... 12

Record of the shocks....................................................... 13

Atmospheric conditions preceding first shock............................ 13

Time of the shocks..................................................... 13

Center of disturbance................................................... 14

Earlier shock...................................................... 14

Subsequent shocks................................................. 15

Area affected.......................................................... 16

General destructiveness of the shocks.................................... 17

Number and distribution of the shocks.................................. 17

Effects of the shocks outside of the New Madrid area..................... 21

Mississippi Valley.................................................. 21

Ohio Valley........................................................ 22

Louisville..................................................... 22

Cincinnati..................................................... 26

Other localities................................................. 27

Great Lakes region................................................. 28

Atlantic Coastal and Piedmont plains................................ 29

Nature of the vibrations............................................... 31

Classification of intensities............................................. 33

Periods of activity....................................................... 33

Relation of distribution of shocks to time of day.......................... 35

Relation of distribution of shocks to diurnal variations of barometric pressure. ................................................................ 36

Relation of distribution of shocks to phases of moon...................... 37

Relation of the earthquake and the weather............................. 39

Direction of vibrations................................................. 40

Effect of the earthquake on life......................................... 40

Government relief...................................................... 43

Phenomena of the earthquake............................................... 44

Atmospheric phenomena................................................. 44

Darkness......................................................... 44

Odors and vapors.................................................... 45

"Light flashes" and "glows"....................................... 46

3
4 CONTENTS.

Phenomena of the earthquake Continued. Page.

Geologic phenomena..........................:......... ..,............. 47

Fissures.......................................................... 47

Record of assuring............................................. 47

Character of the fissures........................................ 48

Types.................................................... 48

Form...................................................... 48

Arrangement.............................................. 49

Intervals................................................. 49

Direction.................................................. 49

Length................................................... 51

Depth.................................................... 51

Fillings (sand dikes)....................................... 51

Objects swallowed by fissures.............................. 52

Distribution of the fissures..................................... 52

Situation.................................................. 52

Localities.................................................. 53

Cause of fissuring............................................... 56

Bluff fissures............................................'... 56

Fissures of the sand-blow regions............................ 57

Fissures of the sand sloughs....................... ........ 57

Compound fissures........................................ 57

Faults............................................................ 58

Location....................................................... 58

Cause......................................................... 59

Landslides......................................................... 59

Chickasaw Bluffs............................................... 59

Location and character.................................... 59

Cause..................................................... 61

Warping.......................................................... 62

Uplifts and doming............................................ 62

The records............................................... 62

Tiptonville dome......................................... 63

Blytheville dome.......................................... 63

Little River dome.......................................... 64

Other domes............................................... 64

Cause of uplifts and doming................................. 64

Depression "sunk lands"...................................... 64

Types.................................................... 65

Form and trend............................................ 66

Amount of subsidence..................................... 67

Distribution.............................................. 68

Cause of sinking........................................... 74

Extrusion............................................................ 76

Records.......................................................... 76

Character of ejected material....................................... 76

Temperature of ejected water...................................... 77

Escape of gas and water after the earthquake........................ 78

Resulting features................................................. 79

Sand blows.................................................... 79

Nature................................................... 79

Situation............'...................................... 80

Distribution.............................................. 80
CONTENTS. 5

Phenomena of the earthquake Continued. 

Extrusion Continued.

Resulting features Continued. Page.

Sand sloughs.................................................... 83

Nature................................................... 83

Situation.................................................. 83

Distribution.............................................. 84

Sand scatters................................................. 85

Cause of extrusion.................................................. 85

Undermining......................................................... 87

Fault trenches..................................................... 87

Sand sloughs....................................................... 87

Sinks............................................................. 87

Hydrologic phenomena................................................ 89

Agitation of water surfaces......................................... 89

Effect on navigation................................................ 92

Caving of banks............................................... 92

Disappearance of islands....................................... 93

Snags and sawyers. ........................-..-.. --- ----- - - 94

Floating wreckage............................................. 94

Changes in springs.................................................. 95

Action of the earthquake on forests..................................... 95

Splitting of trees................................................... 95

Destruction of forests by waves and caving banks..................... 96

Overthrow of forests by landslides.................................. 96

General prostration of forests by vibrations........................... 97

Dead trees.............................................. ......... 98

Uplifted trees..................................................... 98

Submerged forests................................................. 98

Area of destruction................................................. 98

Effect on artificial structures............................................ 99

New Madrid region................................................. 99

Distant localities......................:............................ 100

Other physical phenomena............................................. 1.01

Noises................................. 1.......................... 101

Origin and cause of the New Madrid earthquakes............................. 102

Popular beliefs......................................................... 102

Evidence of origin...................................................... 103

Location of centrum................................................... 104

Ultimate cause......................................................... 105

Significance of doming................................................. 105

Cause of uplift and doming.............................................. 106

Contemporaneous disturbances............................................. 109

Possibilities of future disturbances.......................................... 109

Bibliography of New Madrid earthquake.................................... Ill
ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page. 

PLATE I. Map of earthquake features of the New Madrid district. ............. 8

II. A, View of one side of fault trench or "fissure" near banks of St. 

Francis River, Ark.; B, Landslide trench and ridge resulting from 

the New Madrid earthquake, Chickasaw Bluffs, Tenn. ........... 12

III. Earthquake fissure filled with intruded sand, Charleston, Mo. ...... 52

IV. A, Trees tilted by New Madrid earthquake, Chickasaw Bluffs, Tenn. ; 

B, Trunks of cypress trees killed by submergence resulting from 

New Madrid earthquake, Lake St. Francis, Ark. .................. 60

V. A, Water weeds of shallower lakes of the sunk lands, Varney River, 

Mo. ; B, River-swamp type of sunk lands formed by New Madrid 

earthquake, Varney River, Mo. .................................. 64

VI. A, Young growth along edges of sunk lands, Varney River, Mo.; B,

Channel of Varney River, Mo. .................................. 70

VII. A, Stumps of timber killed by submergence caused by the New 

Madrid earthquake, Reelfoot Lake, Tenn.; B, Elevated cypress 

near south end of Reelfoot Lake, Tenn. . ........................ 72

VIII. A, Sand containing lignite particles from deep well at Memphis, 

Tenn.; B, Sand craterlets formed near San Francisco in the earthquake of 1906, showing the original appearance of sand blows of 

the type illustrated in Plate IX. . ................................ 76

I.. A, Present appearance of sand blow of craterlet type in the Arkansas 

area of disturbance; B, Coalescent or linear blows obstructing 

drainage in the Arkansas district. ................................ 80

X. A, Stumps of trees killed by deposits of sand; B, Trees with double

sets of roots at south end of Reelfoot Lake, Tenn .................. 84

FIGURE 1. Map showing the extent of earthquake disturbances in the New

Madrid area in 1811-12. ....................................... 8

2. Diagram showing earthquake activity by weeks .................. 34

3. Diagram showing earthquake activity by intensities. ............. 35

4. Diagram showing earthquake activity by hours of the day. ....... 36

5. Diagram showing the relation of shocks to phases of the moon. .... 38

6. Diagram showing trench or "fissure" formed by settling of fault

blocks. ...................................................... 48

7. Sketch map showing earthquake features southwest of Lake St.

Francis. ..................................................... 50

8. Plan of earthquake fissure at Beech well, near Campbell, Mo. ..... 54

9. Longitudinal section along stream crossing sunk lands. ............ 65

10. Form of channels in sunk-land district along St. Francis River. ... 66

11. Forms of bayou channels and bayou lakes near Mississippi River. . 67

12. Map of Reelfoot Lake and its submerged drainage channels. ....... 69

13. Section showing cypress killed by submergence and young growth

springing up in the less deeply submerged areas. . .............. 71

14. Section across submerged channel of Reelfoot Lake. ......>........ 74

15. Diagram showing normal movements of ground water, such as give

rise to small springs along streams. ............................ 78

16. Profiles of sand blows and prairie mounds. ........................ 79

17. Sketch showing changes in the channel of Mississippi River at New

Madrid after the earthquake of 1811-12. ........................ 93

18. Diagram illustrating possible cause of doming in the New Madrid

area................................................... ....... 108

6
THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

By MYRON L. FULLER.

INTRODUCTION.

GENERAL STATEMENT.

The succession of shocks designated collectively the New Madrid 

earthquake occurred in an area of the central Mississippi Valley 

including southeastern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, and western

Kentucky and Tennessee. (See PL I and fig. 1.) Beginning December 

16, 1811, and lasting more than a year, these shocks have not been 

surpassed or even equaled for number, continuance of disturbance, 

area affected, and severity by the more recent and better-known 

shocks at Charleston and San Francisco. As the region was almost 

unsettled at that time relatively little attention was paid to the phenomenon, the published accounts being few in number and incomplete in details. For these reasons, although scientific literature in 

this country and in Europe has given it a place among the great 

earthquakes of the world, the memory of it has lapsed from the public 

mind. 

Shaler,1 writing of the earthquake in 1869, said:

The occurrence of such a shock in a region like the Mississippi Valley, on the borders of a great river, is probably unprecedented in the history of earthquakes. * * * 

Many of the events of that convulsion were without a parallel.

Scientifically this earthquake may be regarded as a type, exhibiting in unusual detail the geologic effects of great disturbances upon 

unconsolidated deposits. For this reason its phenomena have an 

importance which, in the absence of any previous systematic discussion, warrants detailed consideration.

FIELD WORK AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

The writer's attention was first called to the region by Prof. E. M. 

Shepard, who had become interested in it because of the relation 

between artesian conditions and certain effects of the earthquake, 

which had become apparent during an investigation of underground 

waters. In the fall of 1904 Prof. Shepard and the writer traversed

» Shaler, N. S., Earthquakes of the western United States: Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 1809, pp. 549-559.

7
8 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE'.

in a dugout the sunk lands along Varney River, near Kennett, Mo., 

and later made a trip on horseback up the old De Soto trail and along 

St. Francis River. The second trip was made under the guidance

Area of principal disturbance,; Area of minor disturbance, .Point at which both . Point at which only 

characterized by general characterized by local vibrations and sounds vibrations were recorded 

warping.ejections, fissunng Assuring, caving of stream were recorded 

£nd_§evere landslides banks, etc.

Recorded direction 

of vibrations

.FIGTTBE 1. Map showing the extent of earthquake disturbances in the New Madrid area In 1811-12. 

For additional records of the direction of vibrations see table, page 41.

of Mr. C. B. Baily, city engineer of Wynne, Ark., who from timber 

explorations had become familiar with the earthquake features in the 

still almost untouched forests north of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain &
U.S.GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

GEORGE OT IS SMITH, D IRECTOR BULLETIN 49^ PLATE i

EARTHQUAKE FEATURES

O IT1 r f HE

NEW MADRID DISTRICT

1JST PARTS OF'

MISSOUlll,,-\IiKANSAS, ILLIN 01S , KENTUCKY, AND TKNNESSEE

BY

MYRON L. FULLER 

-i oo es

BASE FROM MAP OF THE ALLUVIAL VALLEY OFMISSISSIPPI RIVER

BY MISSISSI PPI RIVER OOMM ISSION , 1887 

Sc.eUe

LEGEND

.Areas of "aaixd. sca-tters"
SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 9

Southern Railway between Memphis and Wynne. In the following 

year the writer, in connection with studies of underground water, 

covered most of the region reached by railroads in Arkansas and 

Missouri and made a wagon trip, again in company with Prof. Shepard, 

around Reelfoot Lake, in Tennessee. A short account embodying 

Prof. Shepard's observations appeared in 1905,1 and a number of 

preliminary notes and popular papers by the writer have been published in magazines.2

In the present report an attempt is made to present a systematic 

record of some of the phenomena of this great earthquake, including both the contemporaneous and the present aspect of the resulting 

features.

THE STORY OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

The story of the earthquake is told in two ways in the quaint, 

picturesque, and graphic accounts of contemporaries, and in the 

equally striking geographic and geologic records, which even now may 

be clearly read at many points in the region. For the sake of brevity 

only a single general account compiled from the early descriptions will 

be presented, but in the bibliography (pp. 111-115) references to 

original publications containing detailed narratives are given. In 

the discussion of the physiographic phenomena many references to 

reports of the old writers will also be found.

The contemporary accounts are doubtless exaggerated, for calm 

observation and accurate recording of an earthquake is impossible 

if the shocks are severe and dangerous. It is interesting to note, 

however, that, except a few features, such as the flashes of light 

(doubtless resulting from the general belief in the volcanic origin of 

the disturbance), most of the reported phenomena have been verified 

by the recent investigations. Fortunately a number of scientists 

or men of education were in or near the region during the period of 

disturbance and have given vivid pictures of their experiences. 

John Bradbury, a noted English botanist, was on a flatboat on the 

Mississippi only a few miles below New Madrid at the time of the 

shock; Audubon, our own naturalist, was traveling in Kentucky; 

Capt. Roosevelt was taking down the river the first steamer to navigate western waters; L. Bringier, a well-known engineer and surveyor, 

was in the midst of the disturbance; Maj. Long's expedition was 

passing through the region on its way from Pittsburgh to the Rocky 

Mountains. Daniel Drake, at Cincinnati, and Jared Brooks, at

 J i The New Madrid earthquake: Jour. Geology, vol. 13, pp.' 45-C2.

2 Causes and periods of earthquakes in the New Madrid area, Missouri and Arkansas: Science, new ser., 

vol. 21,1905, pp. 349-350; Comparative intensities of the New Madrid, Charleston, and San Francisco earth; 

quakes: Idem, vol. 23,1905, pp. 917-918; Our greatest earthquakes: Pop. Sci. Monthly, July, 1906, pp. 76-86- 

Earthquakes and the forest: Forestry and Irrigation, vol. 12,1906, pp. 261-267.
10 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

Louisville, kept careful records of the shocks, and S. L. Mitchill, 

geologist and Congressman, collected records from all parts of the 

country. While the resulting phenomena were still fresh the region 

was visited by our own geographer, Timothy Flint, and by Sir Charles 

Lyell, the great English geologist.

LyelFs visit was particularly fortunate, for he has given us a graphic 

description of the conditions 35 years after the disturbance, when 

the vegetation had not yet hidden the evidences of the movement. 

This description, with later observations on the geologic features, 

many of which are very pronounced, furnishes data of the greatest 

value and substantiates in almost every particular the early accounts.

SUMMARY OP THE DISASTER.

The evening of December 15, 1811, in the New Madrid area was 

clear and quiet, with no unusual conditions which could be regarded 

as portending the catastrophe soon to take place. A little after 2 

o'clock on the morning of December 16, the inhabitants of the region 

were suddenly awakened by the groaning, creaking, and cracking of 

the timbers of the houses or cabins in which they were sleeping, by 

the rattle of furniture thrown down, and by the crash of falling chimneys. In fear and trembling they hurriedly groped their way from 

their houses to escape the falling debris, and remained shivering in 

the winter air until morning, the repeated shocks at intervals during 

the night keeping them from returning to their weakened or tottering 

dwellings. Daylight brought little improvement to their situation, 

for early in the morning another shock, preceded by a low rumbling 

and fully as severe as the first, was experienced. The ground rose 

and fell as earth waves, like the long, low swell of the sea, passed 

across its surface, tilting the trees until their branches interlocked

and opening the soil in deep cracks as the surface was bent. Landslides swept down the steeper bluffs and hillsides; considerable areas 

were uplifted, and still larger areas sunk and became covered with 

water emerging from below through fissures or little "craterlets" 

or accumulating from the obstruction of the surface drainage. On 

the Mississippi great waves were created, which overwhelmed many 

boats and washed others high upon the shore, the return current 

breaking off thousands of trees and carrying them out into the river. 

High banks caved and were precipitated into the river, sand bars 

and points of islands gave way, and whole islands disappeared.

During December 16 and 17 shocks continued at short intervals 

but gradually diminished in intensity. They occurred at longer 

intervals until January 23, when there was another shock, similar 

in intensity and destructiveness to the first. This shock was followed by about two weeks of quiescence, but on February 7 there 

were several alarming and destructive shocks, the last equaling or
PREVIOUS EARTHQUAKES IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 11

surpassing any previous disturbance, and for several days the earth 

was in a nearly constant tremor.

For fully a year from this date small shocks occurred at intervals 

of a few days, but as there were no other destructive shocks the people 

gradually became accustomed to the vibrations and gave little or no 

further attention to them.

PREVIOUS EARTHQUAKES IN THE MISSISSIPPI

VALLEY.

That the shock known as the New Madrid earthquake was not the 

first felt in the region is shown by written records, by Indian traditions, and by geologic evidence.

Recorded shocks. Of the shocks felt by the early settlers the best 

summary is supplied by Drake. Speaking of the series of 1811-12 

he says: 1

The shocks of this protracted series are not all which this country has sustained 

, since it has been the abode of civilized man. We have certain accounts of five others.

The first was in the year 1776. Mr. John Heckewelder, then a missionary of the 

United Brethren, on the Muskingum River, in this State, has politely favored me 

with a memorandum concerning it. He does not recollect the month, but it was in 

the summer, and about 8 o'clock a. m. Its duration was two or three minutes. The 

southwest side of the house was raised with such violence that the furniture of the 

room was nearly overturned. It was accompanied with a subterranean rumbling 

noise. Early in the morning the weather was fair, but previous to the shock it began 

to thicken in the southwest. The cattle were frightened by the shake, and the Indians 

continued, after it, to apprehend some great disaster, of which they conceived this to 

be the precursor.

The second shock was in the year 1791 or 1792. I am unable to ascertain the precise 

time, but think it occurred in the month of April or May, about 7 o'clock in the 

morning. The weather was fair and mild. The jar was sufficient to agitate the furniture of the house. A rumbling noise in the earth, which seemed to pass from west to 

east, preceded the shake. It was, I believe, generally felt through the northern and 

northeastern parts of Kentucky, but whether beyond them I have not been able to 

learn.

The third shock occurred, as I am informed by George Turner, Esq., about 3 o'clock 

a. m. January 8, 1795, at Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory. It was also, I believe, felt 

in some parts of Kentucky. Its duration he estimates at a minute and a half. Its 

direction was nearly west and east. A subterranean noise attended, resembling that 

of many carriages driven rapidly over a pavement.

A fourth shock was experienced, we are informed by Prof. Barton, 2 at the Falls of 

Niagara, about 6 o'clock on the morning of the 26th of December, 1796. It appeared to 

come from the northwest and did not last more than two seconds, but was sensibly 

felt for 50 miles around the Falls.

The fifth and only additional shock of which I have been furnished with any certain 

accounts, occurred in the southern neighborhood of Lake Michigan, at 10 minutes 

past 2 o'clock p. m. on the 20th of August, 1804. At Fort Dearborn, on the bank of 

the lake, it was severe. From the report of Capt. William Whistler, it must have 

been a stronger throe than any experienced at this place. It was succeeded by a

» Drake, Daniel, Natural and statistical view or picture of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 1815, pp. 243-244. 

* Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 1.
12 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

short hurricane from the lake. At Fort Wayne, lying considerably to the east-southeast, it was less violent. John Johnston, Esq., my informant, remarks that the day 

at that place was clear and warm, without any unusual appearance. The general 

course of the earthquake was undoubtedly that of a line passing through those two 

forts.

Indian traditions. Lyell records 1 that the Indians of the Mississippi Valley had a tradition of a great earthquake which had 

previously devastated the same region, but he concluded from the 

absence of old sink holes and of dead trees that no convulsion of 

similar magnitude could have occurred for many centuries previous 

to 1811. As shown in the following paragraphs he was mistaken 

in regard to the absence of such indications of previous shocks, for 

although it appears to be true that no fallen timber remained, there 

are many conspicuous and unquestionable geologic evidences of 

earlier disturbances.

Geologic evidence. The geologic evidence of shocks long antedating that of 1811 is very conclusive, as has elsewhere been pointed 

out by the writer. 2 Cracks as large as any of those of the last great' 

disturbance have been seen with trees fully 200 years old grown on 

their bottoms and slopes (PI. II, A) indicating early shocks of an 

intensity equal to if not greater than that of the last. Nor is the action apparently altogether recent, for post-Lafayette but pre-Iowan 

faults (antedating the deposition of the loess), and apparently being. 

either a cause or accompaniment of earthquakes, have been observed 

by the writer in Crowley Ridge, and Glenn has described 3 sandstone 

dikes filling old earthquake cracks in the Porters Creek formation of 

the Eocene Tertiary.

Other geologic evidence leading to the same conclusion is seen in 

the Tiptonville, Blytheville, and Little River domes and in the occurrence of certain sand sloughs. The Tiptonville dome is known to 

have antedated, in part at least, the shocks of 1811, as several writers 

mention that previous to this earthquake the land at New Madrid 

was never overflowed. This would not have been the case if it had 

been a part of the undisturbed flood plain. The erosion of the 

Blytheville and Little River domes since their uplift has been considerable (p. 64) and took place almost entirely before the 1811 

shocks. If these domes are classed as earthquake features, as apparently they should be, from the description of the additional uplift 

of the Tiptonville dome which took place in 1811, it follows that the 

original disturbance must have long antedated the New Madrid earthquake. South of Lake St. Francis, as described elsewhere (p. 84),

1 Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States of North America, London, 1849, p. 238.

2 Causes and periods of earthquakes in the New Madrid area, Missouri and Arkansas: Science, new ser. 

vol. 21,1905, pp. 349-350. Our greatest earthquakes: Pop. Sci. Monthly, July, 1906, p. 86.

3 Glenn, L. C., Underground waters of Tennessee and Kentucky west of Tennessee River: Water-Supply 

Paper U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 164,1906, pp. 30-31.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 494 PLATE

A. VIEW OF ONE SIDE OF FAULT TRENCH OR "FISSURE" NEAR BANKS OF ST. FRANCIS

RIVER, ARK

It. LANDSLIDE TRENCH AND RIDGE RESULTING FROM THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE, 

CHICKASAW BLUFFS, TENN,
TIME OF THE SHOCKS. 13

several sloughs exist, which have all the characteristics of sunk lands 

except the dead timber, and are apparently true earthquake features. 

The absence of dead timber, such as characterizes the areas which 

sunk in 1811, however, points to a considerably earlier origin.

RECORD OF THE SHOCKS.

ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS PRECEDING FIRST SHOCK.

There is apparently no possible relation between earthquake 

shocks and weather, but it is not impossible that the variations in 

barometric pressure accompanying cyclonic movements of the atmosphere may occasionally be a factor. No barometric records are 

available for the time of the first New Madrid shock, and the atmospheric pressure can only be inferred from the weather conditions. 

The best information available is that afforded by the accounts of 

S. L. Mitchill, 1 C. L. Latrobe,2 Danisl Drake,3 and John Hayward. 4 

From their descriptions it appears that nothing occurred in any way 

suggestive to scientific minds of unusual conditions, although it is 

fairly well established that immediately before the earthquake unusual warmth and a thick oppressive atmosphere with occasional rain 

and unseasonable thunder showers prevailed over a wide area of 

country. Near the immediate point of origin of the shocks, however, 

the weather seems to have been clear.

The records of the shock as preserved in contemporary literature 

are meager, but the writer has been able to obtain, chiefly from the 

compilation of Jared Brooks,5 a list of some 250 shocks which took 

place in the six months following the one on December 16, 1811. 

The chief items of interest are given below.

TIME OF THE SHOCKS.

The exact time of the earthquake shocks must apparently remain 

in doubt, for, so far as is known, not a single exact determination 

was made. No seismographs were in existence, and as all of the 

principal shocks occurred in the middle of the night, when the consultation of reliable chronometers was impracticable, nothing was 

available but personal clocks or watches. These were all supposed 

to be set by local time, but as the longitude of few of the places had 

been accurately determined, and in most localities no special attempt 

to fix the true sun time had been made, the times given in the table 

must be considered as only approximately correct.

1 A detailed narrative of the earthquakes which occurred on the 16th day of December, 1811: Trans. Lit. 

and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 1,1815, pp. 281-307.

2 The rambler in North America, 2d ed., vol. 1, London, 1836, p. 107.

" Natural and statistical view or picture of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 1815, pp. 239-242.

< Natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee, etc., Nashville, 1823, p. 124.

6 McMurtrie, H., Sketches of Louisville and its environs, Louisville, 1819, Appendix,
14 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

The reported times of the three principal shocks are given in the 

folio whig table. Something of the general rate of transmission may 

be determined from them, but the data are too inaccurate to warrant 

an attempt to construct coseismal lines.

Reported times of principal shocks.

Locality.

Chillicothe, Ohio .........................................................

Edenton, N. C ...........................................................

Frankfort, Ky ...........................................................

Little Prairie, Mo ........................................................

Pittsburgh, Pa ...........................................................

Washington, D. C ........................................................

Shock of 

Dec. 16.o

a. m.

2.00

2.15

2.20

3.00

2.35

2.00

2.15

3.00

2.00

9 <;n

Shock of 

Jan. 23.6

a. m. 

9.44

9.15

9.15

8.50

8.40

8.50

9.30

Shock of 

Feb. 7.c

a. m.

'} on

4.00

3.30

3.40

3.30

3.15

4.00

3.55

3.00

4 no

o Referred to meridian of Richmond. 

6 Referred to meridian of New York.

e Referred to meridian of Philadelphia.

CENTER OF DISTURBANCE.

Two lines of evidence are available for determining the position of 

the center of disturbance: (1) The completeness of the destruction 

of buildings and the extent of geologic and physiographic changes, 

and (2) the recorded direction of movements.

Earlier shock. In the first shock by far the greatest destruction 

occurred in the heavily-shaded area on figure 1, with minor damage 

in the lightly-shaded areas along the rivers. The directions of vibration in the outlying towns, which are fairly accordant, also point 

to an origin in the heavily-shaded area or in the vicinity of New 

Madrid. In view of the fact that the waves at New Madrid and 

along the Mississippi were from the west, it seems certain that the 

centrum was west of the river.

Shaler, on the basis of statements attributed to the Indians that 

"hi the region between the Mississippi and the great plains forests 

were overthrown, rocks split asunder," etc., placed the "seismic 

vertex of the New Madrid shocks much to the west of the Mississippi." *

As a matter of fact it is probable that the ' 'great plains " referred to 

are the extensive prairies just west of Crowley Ridge. At any rate, 

it is now apparent that the effects of the shocks were much less in 

the region west of the ridge than in the area between the ridge and 

the Mississippi.

1 Shaler, N. S., Earthquakes of the western United States: Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 1869, pp. 551,552.
CENTER OF DISTURBANCE. 15

The shock is believed to have proceeded from a northeast-southwest 

fault, as shown in Plate I, located approximately 15 miles west of 

the river. This is a few miles farther west than the point given by 

the contemporary writers, namely, either New Madrid or Little 

Prairie (now Caruthersville) a few miles below, at which point the 

destruction was most complete. At that time the effects of the shock 

in the unsettled regions back from the river, in which the new position 

has been determined, were little known.

Subsequent shocks. The few recorded directions of the shock of 

December 17 seem on the whole to favor a centrum in the same 

area. The shock of January 23 was instrumental^ recorded as from 

the south-southeast at Cincinnati. It was, however, one of the most 

violent of the series at New Madrid, doing much damage, but the 

country to the east, where, on the basis of Cincinnati determinations, 

the centrum should have been, was little affected. It is therefore 

probable that the shock originated, as the earlier ones had, in the 

New Madrid area, the abnormal direction at Cincinnati being 

explained, perhaps, by local causes.

Of the three "great shocks" of February 7 at Cincinnati, the first 

two were from the southwest or south-southwest that is, from the 

direction of New Madrid the subsequent shock being from the southsoutheast. Like the shock on January 23, this one may have been 

affected in direction by local causes, perhaps by a reflected motion 

from the Appalachian mountain mass. It is not impossible, however, that new centers of disturbance were formed during this and 

other of the later shocks, for though the disturbances at New Madrid 

were little greater than the earlier shocks they were decidedly stronger 

in the outlying eastward districts, the distances to which the vibrations extended being considerably greater. From these or similar 

evidences Shaler concluded that, although during the first part of 

the series of shocks the center of the disturbance was west of New 

Madrid, "the point of greatest frequency gradually moved eastward 

until it was near the mouth of the Wabash River in the Ohio Valley. 

Here, over a region about 20 miles in diameter, a succession of shocks 

occurred for more than two years, during which time only a few 

days passed without bringing a distinct movement. Most of the oscillations were of such a slight character as not to be felt outside of 

this narrow district." l

There is, however, no evidence of great disturbances in the shape of 

faults, sand-blows, sunk lands, or domes., except in the New Madrid 

area. On the whole it seems probable, therefore, that ah* the 

severe shocks originated in the original area of disturbance, but it is 

not impossible that some of the smaller shocks may have had other 

foci, the vibrations originating in local readjustments due to the disi Shaler, N. S., Earthquakes of the western United States: Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 1869, p. 556.
16 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

turbance of the equilibrium by the New Madrid shocks, either through 

the settling of the loose sediments of the valleys or minor slipping 

along fault planes in the harder rocks. The vertical shocks at Detroit 

and Cincinnati on May 8 may thus represent local readjustments 

following the severe general disturbance of the day before. At the 

United States Saline, 111., shocks were felt almost daily for two years, 

but in general they were seldom felt at Shawneetown, only 12 miles 

away. Some of the more severe shocks, however, were felt at this 

town as well as at Kaskaskia and along Wabash River.1 It should be 

emphasized, however, that although the shocks mentioned may be of 

local origin it is not improbable that they were the result of the disturbance of local geologic conditions by the New Madrid vibrations.

AREA AFFECTED.

The area affected by the New Madrid earthquake may be subdivided into an area of marked earth disturbances, an area of slight 

earth disturbances, and an area of tremors only. In the first is 

included the territory characterized by pronounced earthquake phenomena, such as domes and sunk lands, fissures, sinks, sand blows, 

large landslides, etc. This district includes the New Madrid region, 

originally considered a relatively small area, including the villages of 

New Madrid and Little Prairie (Caruthersville). It is now known, 

however, to be somewhat larger, extending from a point west of 

Cairo on the north to the latitude of Memphis on the south, a distance of more than 100 miles, and from Crowley Ridge on the west to 

Chickasaw Bluffs on the east, a distance of over 50 miles. The total 

area characterized by disturbances of the type mentioned is from 

30,000 to 50,000 square miles.

In the area of slight earth disturbances will be included districts 

in which such minor features as the caving of banks, etc., took place. 

We have records in the narratives of Latrobe 2 and others of the 

occurrence of such phenomena along the Mississippi and Ohio, while 

Bradbury 3 records similar disturbances as far down the Mississippi 

as the mouth of the St. Francis, near Helena. The disappearance of 

island 94 near Vicksburg has been described by August Warner.4 In 

fact, there is little doubt that such phenomena as caving were prominent northward nearly to Herculaneum, northeastward to a point 

beyond the Wabash, and southward at least to the mouth -of the 

Arkansas. Although no records from the White River region have 

been seen, it was probably included in the area of slight disturbance, 

and it is so shown in figure 1. It is also possible that the lower 

Arkansas was affected to some extent.

1 Drake, Daniel, Natural and statistical view or picture of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 1815, p. 238. 

8 Latrobe, C. J. The rambler in North America, 2d edition, vol. 1, London, 1836. 

'Bradbury, John, Early western travels, Cleveland, 1904, vol. 5, pp. 204-210. 

4 Warner, August, quoted in Am. Geologist, vol. 30, p. 83.
NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE SHOCKS. 17

The area of tremors was naturally far more extensive. On the 

north they are reported to have been felt in "Upper Canada," on the 

northwest they are reported to have been felt by the Indians in. the 

region of the upper portions of the Missouri country, 1 and in the 

region between the headwaters of the Arkansas and the Missouri, 

a distance of more than 500 miles from New Madrid. South westward 

the shocks were felt in the Ked River settlements and on the Washita 

River, an equal distance from the center of disturbance. To the 

south the shock was felt at New Orleans, also 500 miles distant; to 

the northeast at Detroit, 600 miles away; and to the east at Washington, over 700 miles, and at Boston, 1,100 miles distant. A total 

area of over 1,000,000 square miles, or half that of the entire United 

States, was so disturbed that the vibrations could be felt without 

the aid of instruments.

GENERAL DE STRUCT! VENESS OF THE SHOCKS.

The severity of the shocks was such as to ruin the country in the 

central area of disturbance for years. After the earthquake had 

moderated, according to Flint, 2 the country 

exhibited a melancholy aspect of chasms, of sand covering the earth, of trees thrown 

down, or lying at an angle of 45°, or split in the middle. The earthquakes still recurred 

at short intervals, so that the people had no confidence to rebuild good houses, or 

chimneys of brick.

The people of Little Prairie (Caruthersville), who suffered most 

had their settlement which consisted of a hundred families and which was located 

in a wide and very deep and fertile bottom broken up. When I passed it, and stopped 

to contemplate the traces of the catastrophe which remained after seven years, the 

crevices where the earth had burst were sufficiently manifest, and the whole region 

was covered with sand to the depth of 2 or. 3 feet. The surface was red with oxided 

pyrites of iron, and the sand blows, as they were called, were abundantly mixed with 

thia kind of earth, and with pieces of pit coal. But two families remained of the whole 

settlement. * * * When I resided there, this district, formerly so level, rich, and 

beautiful, had the most melancholy of all aspect of decay, the tokens of former cultivation and habitancy, which were now mementos of desolation and desertion. Large 

and beautiful orchards, left uninclosed, houses uninhabited, deep chasms in the earth, 

obvious at frequent intervals such was the face of the country, although the people 

had for years become so accustomed to frequent and small shocks, which did no essential 

injury, that the lands were gradually.rising again in value, and New Madrid was slowly 

rebuilding, with frail buildings, adapted to the apprehensions of the people.

NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE SHOCKS.

The number and distribution of the principal shocks can be best 

presented by means of a table such as is given below. It should be 

borne in mind that numerous as the recorded shocks are, they are

i James, Edwin, Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Philadelphia, 1823, 

vol. 1, p. 272. 

« Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last ten years, Boston, 1826, pp. 225, 227.

9800° Bull. 494 12 2
18 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

but a small part of the number that would have been recorded if there 

had been any seismographs in the zone of disturbance. Unfortunately, however, no instruments existed in the region except some 

homemade apparatus at Cincinnati, and only those shocks strong 

enough to be felt or to affect objects visibly are in general noted.

Record of the shocks of the New Madrid earthquake. 1

Authority.

Mitchill....

Locality.

Madrid and 

mouth of St. 

Francis River. 

....do.............

....do............. 

.....do.............

.....do.............

.....do............. 

.....do.............

.....do.............

.....do............. 

.....do.............

.....do............. 

.....do.............

.....do............. 

.....do.............

.....do.............

.....do............. 

.....do.............

.....do............. 

.....do.............

.....do............

.....do.............

.....do............. 

.....do............. 

.....do............. 

.....do.............

.....do............. 

.....do.............

.....do.............

.....do............. 

.....do............. 

Richmond ........

.....do............. 

.....do............. 

Norfolk and Portsmouth. Va. 

.....do............. 

Raleigh, N. C.....

Georgetown, S. C .

.....do.............

Columbia, S. C-...

.....do............. 

.....do............. 

.....do............

Laurens and Newberry, S. C. 

Charleston^. C...

.....do.............

Date.

Dec. 16,1811

.....do........

.....do........ 

.....do.........

.....do........

.....do........ 

.....do........

Dec. 17.1811

.....do........ 

.....do........

.....do........ 

Dec. 18.1811

.....do:....... 

.....do........

.....do........

.....do........ 

Dec. 19,1811

/Dec.l9,(18?), 

t 1811. 

Dec. 20,1811

Dec. 21,1811

Jan. 23,1812

(Jan. 23,1812 

\ to

I Feb. 4, 1812 

Feb. 4, 1812 

Feb. 5. 1812 

Feb. 7, 1812 

Dec. 16,1811

.....do........ 

June 7, 1812

Feb. 7,1812

Dec. 16,1811

.....do........ 

.....do........ 

.....do........

.....do........ 

.....do........ 

.....do........

.....do........ 

.....do........

.....do........

.....do........

Dec. 18,1811

Dec. 16,1811

......do........ 

.....do........ 

Dec. 17,1811

.....do........ 

Dec. 16,3811

.....do........

Hour.

2.30 or after.......

Intervals of 6 to 10 

minutes during 

night; 27 shocks 

before daylight.

After breakfast.... 

11 a. m............

7 a. m. ............

7.30 p. m..........

6a. m...... .......

9p. m...... ....... 

11.................

[5p.m.

}» -- ---

7a. m.. ...........

6 a. m..........». 

8a.m............ 

3a.m............

6a.m............. 

8a. m. ............ 

3 a. m. ...........

8a.m.............

3 to 8 a. m .......

2.30 a. m .........

8a.m............ 

10 a. m........... 

12.15p.m........

12.15p.m........

8a.m............

Remarks.

Violent; boat nearly upset; trees

fell; banks caved. 

Terrible, but not equal to first.

Slight compared with first and second.

Very severe; nearly thrown down.

Man nearly thrown into river. 

Violent; trees shaken; banks fell;

river agitated.

Severe and of long duration.

Violent and of long duration; trees

thrown into river. 

Slight.

Do.

Not very violent, but lasted nearly a

minute. 

As violent as worst of preceding.

Shocks frequent.

Nearly as severe as any. 

4 shocks, severe. 

Known as hard shock.

As severe as first.

Big shock.

Considerable motion to furniture.

Strong enough to shake windows

and furniture. 

Do. 

Light. 

Shook houses and furniture and 

rang bells. 

Do. 

Do. 

Stopped clocks, rattled doors, 

swung hanging objects. 

Do.

Severe; upset tub of water, etc.

Slight.

Houses rocked; plaster fell; dogs

barked; heavy shock followed by 

3 light ones. 

2 shocks. 

Light.

Cracked chimneys:

clocks stopped; well water roiled; 

buildings shaken. 

Do.

Except at Louisville, for which see more detailed table, pp. 22-26.
NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE SHOCKS. 

Record of the shocks of the New Madrid earthquake Continued.

19

Authority.

Mltchill ...

Drake......

Locality.

.....do............. 

.....do.............

Natchez, Miss.....

.....do............. 

.....do.............

.....do.............

.....do.............

Vincennes, Ind.... 

Red Bank, Ind.... .....do............. St. Louis, Mo.....

.....do............. 

.....do............ .....do............

.....do............ 

.....do............ 

Lebanon, Ohio....

.Ilenderson County, Ky. 

Detroit, Mich.....

.....do............ 

.....do............

Carthage, Tenn... 

.....do............

Washington, D.C.

Nottingham. Ind.. 

Richmond, Va....

Louisville, and 

Frankfort, Ky. 

Chillico the, Ohio..

Charleston, S.C...

Detroit, Mich..... 

.....do............

.....do............ 

.....do............ 

.....do............ 

.....do............

ty, Ky.

.....do............

Middlebury, Vt...

St. Genevieve, Mo. 

U.S. Saline, 111...

Date.

Dec. 16, 1811

.....do........

.....do........ 

Dec. 17,1811

Dec. 16,1811 

.....do........

Dec. 17,1811 

(Dec. 18,1811 

< to

iDec. 30,1811 

Dec. 16,1811

Dec. 16,1811

Dec. 16,1811 

.....do........

.....do........

.....do........ 

.....do........

.....do........

.....do........

.....do........ 

.....do....... 

.....do.......

.....do....... 

.....do....... 

.....do....... 

.....do.......

.....do.......

Dec. 17,1811 

Dec. 16,1811

.....do....... 

.....do.......

Dec. 16- Jan. 1 

Jan. 1,1812 

Dec. 16,1811

.....do.......

.....do.......

.....do.......

.....do.......

.....do....... 

.....do.......

Jan. 23,1812

.....do.......

Feb. 3,1812 Feb. 7,1812

.....do....... 

.....do....... 

.....do.......

Feb. 8, 1812

Feb. 7, 1812

Feb. 8,1812

Dec. 23,1811 Feb. 7, 1812

Feb. 16,1812

Dec. 14,1812

Dec. 16,1811

Hour.

8.15 a. in..........

8a. m............. 

12 noon ...........

2.10a.m..........

........

2 a. m... ..........

Early morning. . . . 

2 to 3 a. m ........

2a. m.. ...........

2a.m............. 

2.30a.m..........

2.47 a. m .......... 

3.34 a. m..........

8 a. m. ............ 

11.30 a. m......... 

2 a. m. ............

2a.m.............

3 a. m. ............ 

Daylight..........

"3.30 a. m (?)-.---'.

9.20 a. m.......... 

9.30 a. m..........

4.15p.m..........

7.30p.m.......... 

9.55p.m.......... 

llp.m...........

Remarks.

Light.

make walking difficult; another 

soon after. 

Slight. 

Do.

Clocks stopped; objects fell; walls 

cracked; river agitated; trees 

waved.

thrown down. 

4 shocks.

niture shaken.

Three slight shocks.

Moved furniture.

Severe shock. 

Violent; chimney wrecked. 

Do.

down. Do. 

As heavy as first.

I'eople left houses.

Overturned nearly all chimneys.

buildings wrecked. 

broken. 

Shocks daily. 

Bricks thrown from chimney.

Weak.

Doubtful.

Do.

Similar to that of Dec. 16.

1 minute; buildings shook. 

Books nearly thrown from shelves; 

people stopped eating. 

Felt.

Do.

Do.

Small.

that of Dec. 16. 

Small. 

Do. 

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

500 shocks.

furniture; broke tops from chimneys.
20 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

Record of the shocks of the New Madrid e&rthquake Continued.

Authority.

Drake.....

Locality.

.....do............

.....do............ 

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............ 

.....do............

.....do............. 

.....do............

.....do............ 

.....do............ 

.....do............

.....do............ 

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............ 

.....do............

.....do............ 

.....do............

.....do..-..-.-....

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

.....do............

Date.

Dec. 16,1811

.....do.......

.....do....... 

.....do.......

Dec. 17,1811

Dec. 18,1811

Dec. 31,1811

'Jan. 3,1812

Jan. 23,1812

Jan. 27,1812 

Feb. 4,1812

Feb. 5-6, 1812 

Feb. 7, 1812

Feb. 8,1812 

.....do....... 

.....do.......

.....do....... 

.....do.......

Feb. 10,1812

Feb. 11,1812

.....do....... 

Feb. 13,1812

.....do....... 

Feb. 16,1812

Feb. 17,1812

Feb. 20,181^

Feb. 21,1812

Feb. 22,1812

Mar. 3,1812 Mar. 5, 1812

Mar. 10,1812

Mar. 11,1812

Apr. 30,1812

May 4, 1812

May 10,1812

June 25,1812

June 26,1812

Sept. 15, 1812

Dec. 22,1812

Mar. 6,1813

Dec. 12,1813

Hour.

7.20a.m..........

7.30 a. m.......... 

10 to 11 a. in......

U 43 a m

9a.m............ 

8.45 a. in..........

All day........... 

3.45 p. m..........

All day........... 

8p. m.. .......... 

8.30 p. m... ........

10.40 p. m......... 

Night.............

6a.m............

2p.m............ 

10 a. m (?)........

Q Af\ n TV*

(?)................

Night.............

Daylight... .......

10p.m...........

10 to 11 a.m......

Remarks.

Moderate rocking, terminating in 

strong throe. 

Slight oscillations. 

Do.

Great number of strong undulations 

in quick succession, lasting 4 or 5 

minutes. 

Solitary tremor as strong as that of 

Jan. 23.

Many slight jars determined by 

plumb lines. 

Several alarming oscillations, the 

last surpassing all previous shocks; 

chimney tops thrown down; fissures formed. 

Numerous very slight tremors. 

Slight agitation. 

Vibration continuing nearly a minute. 

Stronger than last; much trembling, 

but little oscillation.

Do.

Do. 

Do.

Do. 

Do.

NNW.

Do.

Do.

VAT*V ^liirVii* ^hnolr

Do.

Do.

The fact that shocks are shown for distant localities where none 

are indicated at New Madrid probably arises from the fact that no 

systematic or continuous observations were made at the latter 

point and only a few fragmentary statements are available. It is, 

of course, a possibility that some of the more distant shocks were 

of local origin and unrelated to those of the New Madrid region. 

Other discrepancies arise from the fact that there were no selfrecording instruments, and the lists indicate only those vibrations 

which could be felt or which happened to occur when the observers 

of the crude home-made pendulums were at hand.
EFFECTS OUTSIDE OF THE ttEW MADRID AREA. 21 

EFFECTS OF THE SHOCKS OUTSIDE OF THE NEW MADRID AREA.

The following summary of the manifestations of the New Madrid 

earthquake, except those at Louisville and Cincinnati, is compiled 

mainly from the excellent narrative of Mitchill. 1

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.

The earthquake was felt at New Orleans, but was not severe. At 

Natchez four shocks were felt on the morning of December 16, the 

principal one being recorded as occurring at 2.10. Many houses 

were shaken, suspended objects swung to and fro, some plastered 

walls were cracked, a few articles fell from shelves, and several 

clocks were stopped. The surface of the river was agitated and 

parts of the banks fell in. The tops of the trees waved from side to 

side, but there seems to have been little or no noise.

Near Piney River, Tenn., 20 acres of land adjacent to the liver 

subsided until the tops of the trees were level with the surrounding 

earth. At Knoxville the first shock of the 16th is reported to have 

lasted more than 3 minutes, rattling the windows and furniture and 

awakening the inhabitants. Half an hour later another shock, 

lasting half a minute, was experienced, while between sunrise and 

breakfast three others, each of a few seconds' duration, were felt. 

At Columbia, in the same State, the people were awakened by the 

principal shock, which lasted 10 to 15 minutes. It was accompanied by a peculiar sound, which appeared to proceed from the southwest to the northeast. At Carthage and vicinity, also in Tennessee, 

there were one or more shocks daily from December 16, 1811, to 

January 1, 1812. At 3.30 on the latter date a shock threw bricks 

from chimneys and cracked the courthouse to its foundation. The 

motion appeared to proceed from south of west to north of east, or 

the reverse, and was greatest near the larger watercourses. In the 

shock of December 16 several chimneys were thrown down. At 

Clarksville, P. H. Cole reported the continuance of the earthquakes 

to December 15, 1812, one occurring on December 14.

In Christian County, Ky., a fine spring became muddy and 

remained so for several hours. At the same time it became charged 

with hydrogen sulphide, presumably from the disturbance of decaying organic matter in the deposits from which it came.

In Arkansas, according to. Mr. Hempstead, a delegate to Congress 

from Missouri Territory, the roads between New Madrid, where 

court was held, and the settlements of Arkansas, 200 miles distant, 

were rendered impassible by the earthquake. This made a circuit 

of 300 miles necessary, seriously interfering with the accessibility to 

the judiciary.

1 Mitchill, S. L., A detailed narrative of the earthquake which occurred on the 10th day of December, 1811: 

Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 1,1815, pp. 281-307.
22 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

At St. Genevieve, Dr. Robertson, who then resided there, kept a 

record of the shocks until they amounted to more than 500, when he 

became weary of the task.

At St. Louis, according to Mr. Riddick, the first shock was felt 

about 2.15 a. m. December 16, rousing people from sleep by the 

motion and the rattling of windows, doors, and furniture, to which 

was added a peculiar rumbling noise, resembling a number of carriages passing over a pavement. At 2.47, 3.34, daybreak, 8, and 

11.30 a. m. other shocks were felt, lasting from a few seconds to 

2 minutes. Some chimneys were thrown down and a few stone 

houses split.

OHIO VALLEY.

At the time of the New Madrid earthquake Cincinnati and Louisville were among the largest settlements west of the Allegheny 

Mountains and the only large towns near the earthquake center. 

As would be expected, therefore, it is from these places that the 

fullest details of the shocks are obtained.

LOUISVILLE.

The record of the shock at Louisville was kept by Jared Brooks 

and was published by Henry McMurtrie in his sketches of Louisville.1 Brooks constructed a number of pendulums of different 

lengths to detect the horizontal movements and a number of springs 

to show the vertical vibrations. In this manner he was able to note 

and measure many vibrations not generally felt. His account in 

the Sketches gives many interesting details regarding the intensities of the shocks and the weather conditions. He also classified 

the shocks into six groups according to their intensities (see p. 33).

The following table summarizes the shocks as recorded by Brooks 

in the publication mentioned. It will be found to differ somewhat in 

totals from the classified table of shocks, page 34, as, in the absence 

of the assignment of definite intensities in the text, it has not always 

been possible to determine the strength of a particular shock.

Record of the earthquake shocks at Louisville. 2

Date.

1811. 

Dec. 1C

17

IS

19

Hour.

2.15a.m...... 

2.30 a. m......

7.20a.m......

Strength.

Violent. ............................. 

.....do...............................

.....do...............................

Very slight.. . .......................

Weather.

Cloudy and misty; 

above freezing. 

Do.

Do.

Do.

Winter weather.

temperature

1 McMurtrie, Henry, Sketches of Louisville and its environs, Louisville, 1819. Appendix.

2 Compiled from notes of Tared Brooks.
.EFFECTS OUTSIDE Of THE NEW MADRID ABE A. 23 

Record of the earthquake shocks at Louisville Continued.

Date.

1811. 

Dec. 20

21

?2-28

29

30

31

1812.

2

3

4-8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

1C

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

Feb. 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Hour.

10.53 a. m....

10.48 a. m....

8 to 12 a. m....

8 to 12 p. m...

12.21 a. m.....

12.30a.m.....

8 to 12 a. in....

3 a. m. ........

9tol2.........

11 to 12 a. m...

12 noon.......

11 a. m. .......

Night, a. m . . .

11 to 1 noon...

9 p. m.. .......

Night, a. m...

Day...........

8.50 a. m......

10.30 p. m.....

Morning.......

11 to 12 a. in...

10.30 p. m.....

Morning.......

8.50 a. m......

9 to 12 a. m....

9 to Ha. m....

11.30 a. m.....

9 to 12 a. m....

3p. m. ........

9 to 12 a. m....

P.m..........

9 a. m. tolp.m

2 a. m. ........

9 to 12 a. m....

12 to 10 p.m..

10.45 p. m.....

10.45 to 11.30

p.m. 

12.36a.m.....

6 a. m. ........

8 to 12 a. m....

2p. m.........

3.30 p. m .....

4.30 p. m .....

8.30 a. m .....

11.15a.m.....

1.45 p. m .....

2.37 p. m .....

4.48 p. m......

Night, a. m...

8.30 p. m...... 

3.15 a. m......

3.15 to 5 a. m..

5 to 12 a. m....

12 to 8 p. m...

Strength.

Considerable. ......................

.....do..............................

.....do..............................

.....do..............................

Considerable. ......................

Slight..............................

.....do..............................

Incessant tremors. .................

Slight...............................

.....do...............................

Tremors. ...........................

Slight...............................

Very slight tremors. ................

Slight tremors... . ...................

.....do...............................

.....do..............................

Slight...............................

Strong tremor. .......................

Frequent vibrations. ................

Barely perceptible. . ................

Continual tremor... . ................

Slight motion. ......................

Considerable shock. .................

Considerable motion. ...............

Slight tremor.... . ...................

Tremors begin .................. ...

Moderate shock .....................

Strong, vertical vibrations. ..........

.....do...............................

Heavy shock. .......................

Frequent jarrings. ....

Tremors every 10 minutes on aver- flffp

Weather.

west. 

Do.

about freezing.

Do.

Do.

winds.

Do.

Weather becoming overcast.

Fair and cold.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Cold and fair.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Cold, calm, hazy. 

Do.

Do.

Rain and snow after 2 p. m.
24 THE NEW MADRID EABTHQXTAKE.

Record of the earthquake shocks at Louisville Continued,

Date.

1812. 

Feb. 7

8 

9 

10

11

' 12 

13

14 

15 

16 

17

18

19 

20

21 

22 

23

24 

25

26 

27

28 

29

Mar. 1 

2 

3

Hour.

8.10 p. m..... 

10.10 p. m.... 

12.05 a. m.... 

12 to 6 a. m... 

9.25 p. m..... 

8. 45 a. m.....

4.10 p. m..... 

9.08 a. m..... 

10.13 a. m.....

11.50a.m.....

10 a. m........

12m..........

9 to 12 a. m.... 

12 to Oa. m....

10 to 11 a. m . . 

12m..........

10 to 11 a. m... 

2.09 p. m......

12.30 a. m..... 

11.20a.m..... 

12.30p.m.....

9.15 to 12 a. m. 

12m..........

11 to 12 a. m... 

3.07p.m......

2p. m.........

8 to 10 a. m.... 

Night, a. in ...

Night, a. m . . . 

11.30 to 12a.m.

P.m..........

8 to 12 a. m ... 

12m..........

4p.m........

8.30p.m......

P.m..........

10.30a.m..... 

P.m..........

8 to 10 a. m ... 

Snnftp-t .

10 to 10.30a.m. 

Ip. m........

Night, a.m...

9.30 a. m......

9.30 a. m. to 

1.30 p. m. 

6 to 7p.m....

2.35 to 3.30 

p. m. 

8.35 p. m......

8.35a.m......

3.30p.m......

Strength.

Moderate shock. ....................

....do...............................

....do...............................

....do...............................

....do...............................

.....do...............................

All pendulums moved. ..............

.....do...............................

.....do...............................

Motion considerable (over 70 tremors during day and night).

Tremors; few shocks during day ....

.....do...............................

.....do...............................

Considerable tremor. ................

Smart vibration ....................

4-inch pendulum in motion (little 

motion through, day).

Irregular movements of pendulums . 

Slight shock (no motion during afternoon).

Considerable shock; considerable 

vertical motion.

Slight motion; stillest day yet as regards shocks. 

Pendulums in /motion; noticeable 

vibrations.

Strong shove and much motion .....

Very slight shock ...................

Weather.

Stormy. 

Do. 

Cloudy. 

Cloudy, or hazy. 

Overcast. 

Clear and pleasant. 

Do. 

Do. 

Overcast. 

Do. 

Do. 

Thunder shower. 

Calm and rainy. 

Partly cloudy. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Pleasant. 

Do. 

Cloudy. 

Do. 

Do. Do. 

Rainy. 

Clearing. 

Fair. 

Cloudy. 

Do. 

Partly cloudy. 

Rainy. 

Do. 

Overcast. 

Pleasant. 

Do. 

Do. 

Fair.

Fine weather. 

Cloudy. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Rainy. > Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Cloudy.

Fair. 

Do. 

Do.

Do, 

Do. 

Do.

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do.

Do.

Do. 

Especially fine weather. 

Do.

Do.

Do. 

Pleasant. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do.
EFFECTS OUTSIDE OF THE. NEW MADRID AREA. 

Record of Llie earthquake shocks at Louisville Continued.

25

Date

1812. 

Mar. 4

S

0

7

8

0

10

11

12

13

14

IS

Ifi

17

18

19

?n

21

fff,

23

?4

OC

flft

27

?S

?9

on

31i

Hour.

12m..........

11 a. m. to 2

p. m.

8.30 to 0 a. m..

8p.m........

7 to 12 a. m . . .

6 to 0 a. m ....

12.25p.m..... 

Night, a.m...

8.20 to 12 a. m.

2 to 3 p.m.... 

10.40 a.m. to 1 

p. m.

8 to 10 a. m ... 

Evening. .....

11.35 a. m. to 

6p. m.

8.25 a. m......

11.25 a. m.....

P.m..........

Strength.

dicular motion. 

Gentle shove. .......................

.....do..............................

considerable perpendicular motion. 

Short pendulums move slightly. ....

Perceptible shock. ..................

Faint tremor. .......................

Pendulums in motion at short intervals. 

.....do..............................

Short pendulum vibrates; little motion in afternoon. 

Generally felt in town and country..

Short pendulums in motion most of 

time. 

Barely perceptible vertical motion . .

..... do ..............................

Considerable shock; alarmed people. 

Medium-length pendulums in motion.

.....do..............................

Vibrators and pendulums in motion.

intervals.

Shorter vibrations; nearly constant.

ably.

.....do..............................

2 and 4 inch pendulums vibrate .....

.....do..............................

4-inch pendulum ; 1 in night felt by 

people.

Weather.

OvGfCtlSt

Do.

Cloudy.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Cloudy.

Do.

Pair.

Partly D'o.dourly.

Do.

Pleasant. 

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Approaching fair. 

Do.

Do.

Do. 

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do. 

Fair.

Do.

Rain and thunder.

Cloudy.

Fine weather. 

Do.

Do.

Do.

Rainy. 

Do.

Snowing.

Do.

Calm, cloudy.

Do.

Do.

Rainy.

Rain and lightning.

Rain or snow.

Fair.

Fair and frosty.

Do.

Hazy sun.
26 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

y

Record of the earthquake shocks at Louisville Continued.

Date.

1812. 

Apr. 2

3

4

5

6

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23-27

28

29

30

May 1

2

3

Hour.

Sunrise to 2 

p. m.

P.m..........

10p.m.......

P. m..........

Strength.

pendulums. 

Frequent vibrations of shorter pendulums.

tions all day.

Pendulums move at sunset .........

lums in morning. 

Perceptible shock ...................

.....do..............................

.....do..............................

.....do..............................

Pendulums in frequent action. ......

.....do..............................

.....do..............................

.....do..............................

slight, but some stronger.

at night.

evening. 

Many perceptible shocks; pendulums constantly in motion.

evening.

Weather.

Looked like gathering storm .

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

evening.

Do.

Do.

Do.

CINCINNATI.

A detailed account of the earthquake of 1811-12 as observed at 

Cincinnati is presented by Drake, who in fact left the only scientific 

record of the shocks at this point which the writer has seen. 1 The 

chronological list of the disturbances was given in the table on 

pages 19-20. Of the first shock he says:

At 24 minutes past 2 o'clock a. m. mean time the first shock occurred. The motion 

was a quick oscillation or rocking, by most persons believed to be west and east; by 

some south and north. Its continuance, taking the average of all the observations I 

could collect, was 6 or 7 minutes. Several persons assert that it was preceded by a 

rumbling or rushing noise; but this is denied by others, who were awake at the commencement. It was so violent as to agitate the loose furniture of our rooms, open partition doors that were fastened with falling latches, and throw off the tops of a few 

chimneys in the vicinity of the town. It seems to have been stronger in the valley of 

the Ohio than in the adjoining uplands. Many families living on the elevated ridges 

of Kentucky, not more than 20 miles from the river, slept during the shock; which 

can not be said, perhaps, of any family in town.

i Drake, Daniel, Natural and statistical view or pictures of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 1815, pp. 233-244.
EFFECTS OUTSIDE OF THE NEW MADRID AKEA. 27

Of the severe shock of January 23 he says:

About 9 o'clock a. m. a great number of strong undulations occurred in quick succession. They continued 4 or 5 minutes, having two or three distinct exascerbations 

during that time. An instrument constructed on the principle of that used in Naples, 

at the time of the memorable Calabrian earthquakes, marked the direction of the 

undulations from south-southeast to north-northwest. This earthquake was nearly 

equal to that which commenced the series on the 16th ultimo.

His account of the severe shock of February 7 is as follows:

At 45 minutes past 3 o'clock a. m. several alarming shocks in rapid succession. The 

instrument already mentioned indicated the three principal heaves to be from the 

southwest, the south-southwest, and south-southeast. The last greatly surpassed any 

other undulation ever known at this place. It threw down the tops of more chimneys, 

made wider fissures in the brick walls, and produced vertigo and nausea in a greater 

number of people, than the earthquakes of either the 16th of December or the 23d of 

January. It was said by some that this earthquake was preceded by a light and a 

noise; but this was denied by others, who were awake and collected in mind and 

senses.

On February 8 the following occurred:

At 40 minutes past 10 o'clock a shock considerably stronger than either of the preceding [of February 8]. It was observed to produce in suspended and elevated bodies 

a very sensible degree of trembling, but no oscillation; indicating, perhaps, a vertical 

 instead of the horizontal motion of the previous shocks. Immediately before this 

shock I had the satisfaction of hearing, for the first time, a noise such as preceded, 

according to the report of some of our citizens, most of the principal earthquakes. 

It was a peculiar, faint, dull, rumbling or rushing sound, near the horizon, to the 

southwest. It seemed to approach but not arrive at the place of observation, and after 

continuing four or five seconds was succeeded by the shake. During the remainder of 

the night and the next day the earth was in the same state of tremor which it suffered 

on the 5th and 6th.

Discussing the intensities of the shocks, Drake adds:

The violence of different earthquakes is best indicated by their efficiency in altering the structure of the more superficial parts of the earth, and in agitating, subverting, or destroying the bodies which they support. On a comparative scale, formed 

from such remarks, at this place the first shock of the 16th of December, 1811, that of 

the 23d of January, 1812, and the first on the 7th of February, occupy, above the rest, 

a decided elevation, and constitute the first class. To the second class belong the 

shock at 20 minutes past 7 o'clock a. m., December 16, that on the 27th of January, 

and that at 40 minutes past 10 o'clock p. m. on the 8th of February. Of the remainder, 

one-half, by estimation, may be referred to a fourth class, composed of those which 

were felt only by persons not in action; and the remainder will constitute a third class 

of intermediate violence. The numerous tremors and ebullitions that were detected 

by pendulums, and the delicate sensations of a few nice observers, when at perfect 

rest, may constitute the fifth and lowest order of these multiplied agitations.

After giving the description quoted above, Drake presents a detailed account of the physical phenomena observed during this period 

of disturbance and during previous earthquakes. (See p. 13.)

OTHER LOCALITIES.

At Jeffersonville, opposite Louisville, the shocks were felt very 

much as they were in Louisville. At Red Bank, 150 miles below
28 THE STEW MADEID EARTHQUAKE.

Louisville, Anthony New stated that from December 16, 1811, to 

January 4, 1812, there were 20 to 30 shocks, the one shortly after 

2 a. m. and the one at sunrise on the 16th being the most violent. 

These shocks, which cracked or threw down many chimneys and. 

caused the people to flee from their houses, are said to have been 

accompanied by a noise coming from the west. At Vincennes, on 

the Wabash River in Indiana, the first shock was very severe, 

menacing the safety of the houses, and was followed by shocks of less 

violence for several days. At Lebanon, Ohio, the vibrations, which 

appeared to move from east to west, were so great that the houses 

were vacated. At Circleville, in the same State, a violent trembling 

sufficient to bring persons from their beds was experienced at the time 

of the first shock, while a lesser shock was felt at 8 a. m. In the 

Green River region and Heriderson County, Ky. ; the first shock, 

which was alarming in its nature, was followed through night and 

day up to December 30 by less violent shocks. On the latter date a 

shock more severe than any of those preceding was experienced, overturning nearly every chimney in Henderson County. The shock of 

4 a. m., February 7, was severe at Pittsburgh, being greater than any 

previously experienced. Many persons left their houses.

GREAT LAKES REGION.

Judge James Witherall, writing from Detroit, Mich., reported that 

the first shocks were distinctly felt in that region. The weather was 

cold but calm. In February, 1812, he wrote that the earthquakes 

still continued.

On the 3d instant, 14 minutes past 4 p. m., a small shock was felt; the mercury low, 

but not quite in the ball; it had risen very considerably a few hours previous to the 

shock. On the 7th, at 4 p. m., the weather continuing moderate, the shock was strong, 

nearly equaling the one I previously mentioned to you, and continued about 90 seconds; on the same evening at half-past 7 another email shock; at 55 minutes past 9 the 

same evening another small shock; at 11, another; and at 12 a. m. of the 8th, one 

which seemed to produce a different motion, that is, like pounding up and down 

instead of oscillating.

A. B. Woodward, another judge in Michigan Territory, wrote on 

April 7:

We have had nine shocks of the earthquake here, of which I have an exact memorandum of eight and have somehow entirely lost the time of the other. I felt four 

myself. I know only one person, a French lady, who felt the whole; speaking here 

of the eight.

In a letter dated June 23, the same gentleman observes:

In a late journey to the Riviere aux Tranches, in upper Canada, I found the number 

of shocks of the earthquake felt there was exactly the same as here that is, nine.
EFFECTS OUTSIDE OF THE NEW MADRID ABEA. 29 

ATLANTIC COASTAL AND PIEDMONT PLAINS.

The shocks were distinctly felt throughout the Piedmont and 

Coastal plains from Washington southward, but were not very noticeable farther north, although reported at Baltimore and even at 

Boston. The nontransmission of the shocks in the Northern States 

was probably due in part to their distance from the centrum and 

in part to the oblique angle made by the line of transmission of the 

vibrations to the strike of the rock strata, the shock apparently being 

transmitted much more readily in directions at right angles to the 

trend of the strata, as in the southern Appalachians, than in those 

making very low angles, as at the northern end of the system. The 

following include the principal allusions found in regard to the 

shocks.1

Washington. On the morning of Monday, the 16 December, 1811, several shocks of 

earthquakes were felt at the city of Washington. The first of these happened at 3 

o'clock, and in some houses was considerable, enough to shake the doors and windows 

and wake persons from their sleep. There were successive tremors. Tassels of curtains were seen to move, and pitchers of washing stands were heard to rattle upon their 

basins. The sound was very distinguishable and was believed by many to pass from 

southwest to northeast. The alarm was so great in some families that searches were 

made from room to room to discover the robbers who were imagined to have broken 

into the houses.

A second shock, though lighter, was experienced about 6 o'clock, and a third about 8.

A gentleman standing in his chamber at his desk and writing, in the third story of a 

brick house upon the Capitol Hill, suddenly perceived his body to be in motion, vibrating backward and forward and producing dizziness. Not suspecting at the moment 

that the uncomfortable sensation was caused by an earthquake, he examined his desk 

to know whether it stood firm. Finding that it did, he dropped his pen and, turning 

his eyes upward, discerned that the looking-glass and other things hanging near him 

were in a similar motion.

Another person was near a table placed beneath a mirror. Feeling a giddiness come 

upon him, he seized the table for support. The general agitation of the chamber and 

house ceased in about a minute; but the looking-glass, which was suspended in the 

usual manner, continued to swing for some seconds longer.

Points in the South.~In Richmond the signs of an earthquake were witnessed by 

many persons. At 3 o'clock on the same morning (the 16th of December) there were 

said to be three successive shocks, another about 6, and a third about 8. Several 

people were impressed with a belief that thieves had entered their dwellings, and in 

one of the most elevated mansions the bells were set a-ringing in both the upper and 

lower rooms. The noise and concussion were supposed by some to proceed from east 

to west. It was stated at Norfolk that two very distinct shocks were felt in that 

town and in Portsmouth, to wit, at 3 and 8 o'clock in the morning of the 16th. Some 

clocks were reported to have stopped, the doors rattled, and articles hanging from the 

ceilings of shops and houses swung to and fro, although a perfect calm prevailed.

At Raleigh, N. C., several slight earthquakes were felt on the morning of the 16th of 

December. The first happened between 2 and 3 o'clock and was distinctly perceived 

by all who were awake at the time. Two others were reported to have occurred 

between that time and 7 o'clock, but were not plainly observed except by some members of the legislature who were in the Statehouse and were considerably alarmed at 

the shaking of the building.

1 Mitchill, S. L., Trails. Lit. ana Pbilos. Soc. New York, vol. 1,1815, pp. 281-307.
30 THE NEW MADRID EAE-THQUAKE.

From Georgetown, S. C., it was told that several shocks had been experienced 

between the hours of 3 and 8 on the morning of the 16th. The inhabitants were much 

alarmed. The shocks were so considerable that the parade ground of the fort was said 

to have settled from 1 to 2 inches below its former level. A tub of water standing upon 

a table in the barracks was reported to have been overset by the jarring of the building. 

Another severe shock was felt two days afterwards at noon.

At Columbia, S. C., the inhabitants were alarmed by repeated shocks. The first 

took place at half after 2 in the morning of Monday, which was represented as shaking 

the houses as if rocked by the waves of the sea. It was followed after the cessation of 

a minute by three slighter ones. At 8 o'clock two others took place, and at 10 some 

slight ones. The South Carolina College appeared to rock from its foundation and a 

part of its plaster fell, which so alarmed the students that they left their chambers 

without their clothes. It seemed as if all the buildings would be leveled. The dogs 

barked, fowls made a racket, and many persons ran about with lights, not knowing 

where to go so great was their terror. During the first agitation it was observed that 

the air felt as if impregnated with a vapor, which lasted for some time.

At Charleston, S. C., the sensation was of considerable strength. One account stated 

that on the morning of the 16th, at a few minutes before 3 o'clock, a severe shock of an 

earthquake was felt. Its duration conjectured to have been between 2 and 3 minutes. 

For an hour previous, though the air was perfectly calm and several stars visible, there 

was at intervals of about 5 minutes a rumbling noise like that of distant thunder, which 

increased in violence of sound just before the shock was felt. The vibration of St. 

Philip's steeple caused the clock bell to ring about 10 seconds. Two other shocks were 

felt afterwards, one a little before 8, and the other about a quarter of an hour after. 

Both these were slighter and shorter than the first. Many of the family clocks were 

stopped by the concussions. In many wells the water was considerably agitated. 

From another source it was related that Charleston was shaken by an earthquake 

severely at the time, before specified. This was preceded by a noise resembling the 

blowing of a smith's bellows. The agitation of the earth was such that the bells in the 

church steeples rang to a degree indicative of an alarm of fire. The houses were so 

much moved that many persons were induced to rise from their beds. The clocks 

generally stopped. Another slight shock was experienced about 15 minutes after, and 

yet another at 8 o'clock. This last one produced a considerable rattling among glass, 

china, and other furniture. A looking-glass hanging against a west wall was observed 

to vibrate 2 or 3 inches from north to south.

The inhabitants of Savannah were sensible of four earthquakes. The first was on 

the morning of the 16th of December between 2 and 3 o'clock. It was preceded by a 

flash of light and a rattling noise resembling that of a carriage passing over a paved 

road. It lasted about a minute. A second soon succeeded, but its duration was 

shorter. A third happened about 8 o'clock, and a fourth about noon on the 17th. Persons who experienced the hardest shock were made to totter as if on shipboard. Its 

course was believed to be from southwest to northeast.

It was observed by Dr. Macbride, of Pineville, S. C., that the earthquake terrified 

the inhabitants exceedingly. It was accompanied by several appearances that countenance the theory of this phenomenon which brings in the agency of the electric 

fluid. (1) The infrequency or absence of thunder storms; that is, they were much 

less frequent this year than usual, especially in the autumn. (2) Immediately before 

the earthquake a red appearance of the clouds which had much darkened the water 

for 24 hours immediately before the shock. (3) The loudness of the thunder, and the 

number of the peals within 24 hours after the first shock and but a few hours before the 

last, which was felt before he wrote. Such thunder was very unusual at that season. 

The Hon. Israel Pickens, of Buncombe County, N. C., received a letter from the 

Rev. John Carrigan, dated the 28th of February, and containing the following information:
NATURE OF THE VIBRATIONS. 31

"During my travels lately to and from the State of Georgia I made it a part of my 

business to obtain the most accurate accounts of the present shaking of the earth from 

all parts. I have found that in all parts of the Continent the motion of the earth has 

been the same and its partiality remarked in the same neighborhoods. In this country 

the first rocking (as it is generally called) was perceived on the 23d of December, a 

little before daylight. Since that time it has been observed almost every week through 

South Carolina and parts of Georgia. Several persons in those States have told me 

that they have felt it almost every day.since. No damages have arisen more than a 

few bricks shaken off some chimneys. There is no truth in the report in circulation 

respecting the fall of the Painted Rock and other extraordinaries in Buncombe County. 

I gave my friend, Col. Freeman, in Georgia, a call, who informed me that he had particularly noticed some tall poplars in his lane during the time of the second shock rocking with an equable motion from northeast to southwest, which I have found to be 

general. On the 7th and 16th instant the shaking has been general here."

NATURE OF THE VIBRATIONS. °

In the New Madrid area proper the only evidence of the nature of 

the vibrations is the accounts of those persons who experienced

them. Of these Bringier, who experienced one of the major shocks, 

describes the action as a blowing up of the earth accompanied by 

loud explosions. 1 Casseday writes: 2 "It seems as if the surface of 

the earth was afloat and set in motion by a slight application of 

immense power, but when this regularity is broken by a sudden 

cross shove, all order is destroyed, and a boiling action is produced, 

during the continuance of which the degree of violence is greatest, 

and the scene most dreadful."

Others described the movement as an " undulation of the earth resembling waves, increasing in elevation as they advanced, and when 

they had attained a certain fearful height the earth would burst." 3

Le Sieur likewise says: "The earth was observed to roll in waves 

a few feet high with visible depressions between. By and by these 

swells burst throwing up large volumes of water, sand, and coal." 4 

Haywood writes that in Tennessee the motions were undulating, the 

agitated surfaces "quivering like the flesh of a beef just killed." 

The motion is said to have "progressed from west to east and was 

sometimes, though seldom, perpendicular, resembling a house raised 

and suddenly let fall to the ground." 5

Audubon, who experienced one of the shocks while riding in Kentucky, says that "the ground rose and fell in successive furrows like 

the ruffled waters of a lake. * * * The earth waved like afield 

of corn before the breeze." 6

There were great differences in the intensity and destructiveness 

of the shocks. . According to Foster: 7 "Sometimes they would come

1 Bringier, L., Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 3,1821, pp. 15-46.

3 Casseday. Ben., History of Louisville, 1852, p. 122.

a Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last ten years, Boston, 1820, p. 223.

* Le Sieur, Godfrey, quoted in Am. Geologist, vol. 30,1902, p. 80.

 Haywood, John, Natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee, Nashville, 1823, p. 124.

«Audubon, J. J., Audubon and his Journals, New York, 1897, vol, 2, pp. 234-237.

' Foster, J. W., The Mississippi Valley, Chicago, 1809, p. 20, , :t -
32 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

on gradually and finally culminate; again they would come without 

premonition and in terrific force and gradually subside." When the 

shocks were severe it was practically impossible to stand. Bradbury 

and his crew, who encountered one of the severe shocks while on 

shore caring for his boat, had great difficulty in preventing themselves from being thrown down, and one of the party was nearly 

precipitated into the river. 1 Again Flint says that when the shocks 

"were at the severest point of their motion the people were thrown 

on the ground at almost every step. A French gentleman told me 

that in escaping from his house, the largest in the village, he found 

he had left an infant behind, and he attempted to mount up the 

raised piazza to recover the child and was thrown down a dozen 

times in succession." 2

Vertical shocks do not appear to have been lacking in the New 

Madrid area, but, according to Flint, were less destructive than the 

horizontal type. He says: "The shocks were clearly distinguishable 

into two classes, those in which the motion was horizontal and those 

in which it was perpendicular. The latter were attended with the 

explosions and the terrible mixture of noises, * * * but they were 

by no means as destructive as the other." 3

In the more remote districts the action was less intense, producing 

only vibrations and tremors. There appears, however, to have been 

more or less, of surface movements, as the shocks were much more 

distinctly felt by those living in the alluvial flats of the valleys than 

by those on the rock uplands, notwithstanding that it is only through 

the rocks that the shocks could be transmitted to the distances 

observed. The slight vibrations in the latter must, therefore, have 

been greatly magnified on transmission to the alluvial masses. The 

intensities in valley and upland differed sufficiently to be noticeable 

at the time. Drake, speaking of Cincinnati, says: 4 "The convulsion

was greater along the Mississippi, as well as along the Ohio, than in 

the uplands. The strata in both valleys are Joose. The more 

tenacious layers of clay and loam spread over the adjoining hills, 

many of which are composed of horizontal limestone, suffered but 

little derangement."

At Louisville Jared Brooks constructed a number of pendulums 

varying from 1 to 6 inches in length. According to his records, as 

presented in McMurtrie's history,5 although there was great variation 

in the rapidity and amplitude of the vibrations at different times, 

there was often considerable uniformity during a single shock. 

Sometimes when the amplitude was short only the 1 or 2 inch pendulums would vibrate. At other times the 3 and 4 inch pendulums

1 Bradbury, John, Early western travels, Cleveland, 1994, vol. 5, p. 257.

8 Flint, Timothy, op. cit., p. 225.

»Op. cit., p. 224.

4 Drake, Daniel, Natural and statistical view or picture of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 1815, p. 235.

? McM-Urtrie, H., Sketches of Louisville and its environs, Louisville, 1819, Appendix.
CLASSIFICATION OF INTENSITIES. 33

would move while both, the- longer and shorter ones remained stationary, and again the 6-inch pendulum alone would be in motion. 

The great majority of the vibrations at Louisville appear to have 

been horizontal and to have varied from mere tremors to strong 

movements to and fro. Usually a considerable number of movements occurred during each shock, but at times the motion was 

like a shove in a single direction without any corresponding movement in the opposite direction. Sometimes two or three such 

shoves occurred in succession, varying in intensity from gentle to 

sharp. A few motions were vertical and were recorded only by the 

spring indicators, the pendulums remaining quiet. Other notes on 

the movements are given on pages 22 to 26.

CLASSIFICATION OP INTENSITIES.

No record of intensities was kept at New Madrid or vicinity, but 

at Louisville, only a short distance away, a systematic record was 

kept by Jared Brooks, who divided the shocks into six classes, viz:

First rate. Most tremendous, so as to threaten the destruction of the town, and 

which would soon effect it should the action continue with the same degree of violence; 

buildings oscillate largely and irregularly and grind against each other; the walls 

split and begin to yield; chimneys, parapets, and gable ends break in various directions and topple to the ground.

Second rate. Less violent but very severe.

Third rate. Moderate but alarming to people generally.

Fourth rate. Perceptible to the feeling of those who are still and not subject to 

other motion or sort of jarring that may resemble this.

[Fifth rate. Not defined.]

Sixth rate. Although often causing a strange sort of sensation, absence, and sometimes giddiness, the motion is not to be ascertained positively, but by the vibrators 

or other objects placed for that purpose.

In his classified list he records a total of 1,874 shocks between 

December 16, 1811, and March 15, 1812, but many more occurred 

in the succeeding months for over a year, as shown in the tables on 

pages 25-26. Of the 1,874 shocks, 8 are classed as violent, 10 as very 

severe, 35 moderate, 65 generally perceptible, 89 of "fifth rate," 

and 1,667 indistinctly felt or noted by movements of delicately 

poised objects. (See table on p. 34.)

PERIODS OF ACTIVITY.

The greatest intensity of action occurred not at the beginning 

of the disturbances but in the first half of the following February 

and continued through the later part of February and the early 

part of March. The activity beginning on December 16 gradually 

increased until the middle of January, but fell off during the later 

part of the month until only a little over one-third of the former 

number of shocks was felt. Then followed a second period of great 

9800° Bull. 494 12 3
34 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

activity in late January and early February and alter a falling off 

in the middle of the month a period of still greater activity late in 

February. After another falling off in early March a further period of 

intensity developed about the middle of the month. This is brought

out by the lines in figure 2. 

Figure 3 shows similar lines 

for shocks of th.e first, second, 

third, and fourth intensities. 

It is interesting to note that 

the lines for the heavy shocks, 

or those of intensities from 1 

to 3, are synchronous, but that 

of the fourth intensity tends 

to be highest when the others 

are relatively low. This suggests that instead of readjustments by a few large slips 

(intensities 1, 2, and 3) the 

change is at times by a large 

number of small slips, giving 

rise to very faint shocks, 

such as those of intensity 

4. Shocks in the weeks ending December 22 and February 9 furnish examples of 

readjustment by a few large 

slips, while those of January 

12 and March 8 show perhaps 

equally large readjustments by a considerable number of small slips. 

The number and intensities of earthquake shocks from December 

16 to March 15 are brought out in the following table of Brooks:

Distribution and intensities of the shocks of the New Madrid earthquake.

FIGURE 2. Diagram showing earthquake activity by 

weeks, based on Brooks's summary of shocks at Louisville, Ky.

End of week.

Dec. 2* .......................................

9Q

19

19

26.......................................

Feb. 2. ......................................

9

1C.......................................

23.......................................

Mar. 1. ......................................

8.......................................

15.......................................

Rate.

First.

3

1 

1 

3

8

Second.

2

1 

1

1

5

10

Third.

3

2

7 

4 

7 

3 

4 

1 

2 

2

35

Fourth.

1

9 

10 

4 

2 

6 

5 

6 

6 

4 

9 

3

05

Fifth.

12 

6 

3

6 

2 

7 

15 

12 

4 

8 

8 

6

89

Sixth.

66 

150 

119 

150 

55 

78 

191 

140 

65 

278 

126 

39 

210

1,667

Total.

87 

156 

134 

161 

65 

91 

209 

175 

86 

292 

139 

58 

221

1,874
RELATION OF SHOCKS TO TIME OF DAY. 35 

RELATION OF DISTRIBUTION OF SHOCKS TO TIME OF DAY.

For the purpose of determining the relation of distribution to 

time of day, about 178 shocks, the hours of which were more or 

less specifically stated, were selected from the list of Brooks (see 

table, pp. 22 to 26) and grouped in the table given on page 36, 

which shows the number of shocks of five grades of intensity occurring in each hour of the day. It will be noted that of the minor

Faint shocks

Moderate shocks

Severe shocks

Violent shocks

FIGURE 3. Diagram showing earthquake activity by intensities, based on Brooks's summary of shocks at

Louisville.

shocks very few are recorded in the night, doubtless because they 

were not of sufficient strength to awaken sleepers. Beginning at 

6 a. m. there is, according to the tables, a gradual increase of activity 

to a time between 9 and 11, after which it falls off until 1 o'clock, 

at which hour almost no shocks are recorded. A second but lesser 

period of intensity develops about 3, with a falling off from 4 to 7, 

after which the intensity increases again from 8 to 11. Between 

11 and 12 only 1 shock is recorded, but considerable activity is 

manifest between 12 and 1 in the night. (See fig. 4.)
36 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

'Faint shocks

Slight shocks

Moderate shocks

Severe shocks

Violent

FIGURE 4. Diagram showing earthquake activity by hours of the day, based on 178 shocks whose time of

occurrence was recorded.

Distribution of shocks with reference to time of day.

Hour.

t to 2 a. m ..................................

3 to 4 a. m..................................

4 to 5 a. m ..................................

5 to 6 a. m .............................

C to 7 a. m. .................................

9 to 10 a. m.................................

10 to 11 a. m................................

11 to 12 m. ..................................

I to 2 p.m..... .............................

2 to 3 p. m..................................

6 to 7 p. m................ ...................

8 to 9 p. m..................................

9 to 10 p. m.................................

10 to lip. m................................

Violent 

shocks.

2

1

2

1

1

1

8

Severe 

shocks.

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

1

10

Moderate 

shocks.

7

1

3

1

1

2

2

3

3

2

2

2

2

1

1

1

2

36

Slight 

shocks; 

strong vibrations.

3

1

4

4

5

4

6

G

7

4

5

1

2

1

1

2

2

2

1

. 61

Faint 

shocks: 

tremors.

3

3

7

11

7

7

5

3

6

3

2

5

1

63

Total.

10

3

3

4

1

7

9

16

17

17

18

14

2

10

13

4

2

4

2

 6

8

7

1

178

RELATION OF DISTRIBUTION OF SHOCKS TO DIURNAL VARIATIONS OF BAROMETRIC PRESSURE.

The grouping of the shocks suggests at once a relationship to 

barometric pressure, each of the periods of activities coinciding 

approximately with a barometric maximum or minimum. Assum-
RELATION" OP SHOCKS TO PHASES OF THE MOON. 37

ing the maximums to occur at 10 a. m. and 9 p. m. and the minimums 

to occur at 3 a. m. and 4 p. m., and arranging the day into periods 

of two to five hours according to the intervals between the diurnal 

crests and troughs, it is found that the relation of shocks to barometer is very striking. This is well brought out in the following table:

Distribution of shocks with reference to barometric pressure.

Hour.

5 to 8 a.m.........................

8 to 12 a. m. .......................

12 to 2 p. m.......................

5 to 7 p. m ........................

10 to 12 p. m......................

Barometer. Violent 

shocks.

3

. 3

1

1

Severe 

shocks.

2

1

2

2

1

Moderate 

shocks.

11

2

10

4

5

o

2

Total.

16

2

15

4

8

4

4

The writer does not wish especially to support a relation between 

shocks and barometric maximums and minimums, but the figures of 

the table are so striking as to suggest that the relation is more than 

accidental. The use of the three higher shock intensities only is 

owing to the incomplete records for the lighter shocks, due to the 

absence of recording seismographs and the fact that the vibrations 

were too slight to awaken the people.

RELATION OF DISTRIBUTION OF SHOCKS TO PHASES OF THE

MOON.

The attraction exerted by the sun and moon on the earth's surface at times of new and full moon is decidedly greater than during 

the intermediate periods and has been thought to be an appreciable 

factor in determining the times of earthquakes. In order to detect 

the relation that exists, if any, in the case of the New Madrid series 

of shocks, the writer obtained from Prof. Walter S. Harshman, 

Director of the Nautical Almanac Office, the dates of the moon's 

phases for 1811-12. These are as follows in Greenwich mean time:

1811 

1812

New moon.

Dec. 15....

Feb. 12....

Mar. 12....

Apr. 11....

May 10....

ft. m.

... 7 6

... 2027

... 8 15

... 18 32

... 328

... 11 35

Full moon.

ft. m. 

Dec. 29........ 731

Jan. 27........ 23 51

Feb. 26........ 18 4

Mar. 27........ 12 21

Apr.26.. ...... 5 8

May 25. ....... 19 31
38 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

Figure 5 shows a curve representing the 

relative attractions of sun and moon at times 

of full and new moons and in intermediate 

periods (not to scale). On this is shown by 

symbols the distribution of the three most 

severe classes of shock, including (1) violent 

or "tremendous," (2) strong or severe, and 

(3) moderate or considerable. In general the 

shocks occur in groups beginning with violent 

and grading off into severe and moderate, 

although there are frequently two or more 

shocks of great severity. It is as if the first 

was the primary shock due to the formation 

of a fissure along which occur the.minor movements reestablishing the equilibrium disturbed 

by the main shock and giving rise to the 

lesser shocks. With one marked exception 

the groups occur approximately either at 

times of new or full moon. There appears to 

be little difference in the activity at the two 

maximum periods.

With the minor shocks the conditions are 

somewhat different. In frequency these vary 

inversely with the number of severe shocks. 

In the first week, when several violent disturbances occurred, only 87 minor shocks are recorded. During the week ending June 26, which 

was marked by violent shocks, there were 91 

minor disturbances, while during the week of 

February 9, also marked by tremendous shocks, 

the minor vibrations were less than in many intermediate periods. In fact, the records suggest 

that if the movements are considerable, as were 

those giving rise to the principal shocks, new 

equilibriums are established quickly, whereas 

a large number of minor movements are required to produce the same result. This explains why the minor shocks were fewest in 

the first quarter of the moon-and the violent 

shocks were most numerous. The general relation of the number of shocks to the phases 

of the moon is indicated in the following table, 

based on the records of Brooks:*

» Brooks, Jared, op. cit., appendix.

New Moon ; Dec. 15

Dec. zz

\

Full Moon I Dec. Z9

Jan. 6

New Moon ; Jan. 13

Jan. 20

Full Moon i Jan. 2?

Feb. 5

New Moon !Feb.12

Feb. 19

Full Moon ' Feb. 26

Mar. 5

New Moon ! Mar. 12
RELATION OP THE EARTHQUAKE AND THE WEATHER. 39

Distribution of shocks with reference to phases of the moon. 

[Based on table of Jared Brooks, reprinted on page 34.]

Week ending.

1811. 

Dec. 22. ..........................................

1812.

Jan. 12...........................................

Jan. 26 ...........................................

Feb. 2.. .................................:........

Feb 9

Feb. 16...........................................

Feb. 23.. .........................................

Mar. 1. ...........................................

Mar. 8.. ..........................................

Mar. 15.. .........................................

Phase of moon.

Phase.

Full.......

Full.......

Full.......

Date.

Dec. 15 

Dec. 29

Jan. 13

Jan. 27

Feb. 12

Feb'. 26

Mar. 12

General phase for 

week.

First quarter. . . 

Second quarter.

Third quarter. . 

Fourth quarter. 

First quarter. . . 

Second quarter. 

Third quarter. . 

Fourth quarter. 

First quarter. . . 

Second quarter.

VThird quarter. .... 

Fourth quarter....

Total 

shocks.

87 

156

134 

161 

65 

91 

209 

175 

86 

292 

/ 139 

X 58 

221

Summary for quarters.

First 

quarter.

87

65

86

238

Second 

quarter.

156

91

' 292

539

Third 

quarter.

134

209

197

540

Fourth 

quarter.

161

176

221

557

RELATION OF THE EARTHQUAKE AND THE WEATHER.

There has been for some time a growing tendency to regard speculations as to the relations of earthquakes and weather as futile. So far 

as this applies to temperature and precipitation the tendency is 

probably warranted, but there appears to be reason to believe that 

the variations of pressure associated with cyclonic or storm movements are of more importance than is sometimes imagined. Variations of an inch in the length of the mercury column, which are by no 

means excessive, mean a change in pressure of half a pound per square 

inch, or 3$ per cent of the total atmospheric pressure. Such changes 

in pressure, especially when they are sudden, have profound effects. 

The water in deep wells often fluctuates materially with changes of 

barometric pressure; many wells flow during the passage of cyclonic 

centers which at other times fail to reach the surf ace; broad tidelike 

waves (seiches) several feet in height are not infrequently formed in 

the Great Lakes; and recent observations by Omori * near Tokyo, 

Japan, show that the passage of cyclonic storms sometimes even produces measurable tiltings of the earth's surface, the ground rising and 

falling as the cyclones progress.

i Nature, Sept. 26,1907, p. 553; Science, new ser(J vol. 26, p. 761.
40 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

No record of barometric pressures in the vicinity of New Madrid 

at the time of the earthquake seems to be available, but in view of 

the possible importance of the relation of earthquakes to variations 

of atmospheric pressure, it is pertinent to present the inferential 

evidence afforded by the general weather conditions in adjacent 

regions.

Very complete notes on the general weather conditions at Louisville 

were made by Jared Brooks. 1 These are abbreviated in the table on 

pages 22 to 26. From these it appears that the weather, although 

marked by long cloudy or stormy periods, was really not abnormal 

unless somewhat warmer than usual. In the time for which the 

record was kept, extending from December 16 to May 5, there were 

100 fair, 42 cloudy, and 33 stormy days. A study of the shocks 

separately recorded shows that 89, or 0.89 per day, took place in 

pleasant weather, 100, or 2.38 per day, in cloudy weather, and 66, or 

2 per day, during storms. The cloudy and the rainy weather should, 

however, be combined in a single class, since rain is a mere and 

uncertain incident to the cloudiness. This grouping gives 89 shocks, 

or 0.89 per day, in fair weather, as against 166, or 2.21 per day, in 

cloudy or stormy weather. The details of the shocks, as brought out 

more fully in the following table, seem to indicate that about twice 

as many shocks occurred in periods of low barometer (as indicated by 

cloudiness and rain) as in periods of high barometer, while the average 

number per day was nearly two and one-half times as great in stormy 

and unsettled weather as in fair weather.

Relation of shocks to the weather, as observed at Louisville, Ky. 

[Based on table, pages 22 to 26.o]

Intensity.

Intense, violent. ..........................

Strong vibrations, considerable vibrations, 

slight chocks. ...........................

Faint shocks, tremors, weak vibrations....

Fair (100 days).

Number 

of shocks.

2 

5 

13

23

46

89

Number 

of shocks 

daily.

0.02 

.05 

.13

.23

.46

.89

Cloudy, etc. (42 

days).

Number 

of shocks.

2 

1

16

21 

60

100

Number 

of shocks 

daily.

0.05 

.02 

.38

.50 

1.43

2.38

Stormy (33 days).

Number 

of shocks.

4 

4 

15

13 

30

66

Number 

ofshocks 

daily.

0.12 

.12 

.45

.40 

.90

2.00

a The lack of agreement as to the total numbers of the less severe shocks between this and the summary 

table of Brooks (p. 34) is due to the indeflniteness of some of the descriptions In Brooks's list.

DIRECTION OF VIBRATIONS.

The reports of the direction of vibrations are much less complete 

than could be wished, and of those available only a few represent 

instrumental determination, and even these were recorded on more or

»McMurtrle, H., Sketches of Louisville and its environs, Louisville, 1819, Appendix.
DIRECTION OP VIBRATIONS. 41

less imperfect home-made instruments. The recorded directions of 

the principal shocks are presented in the following table. The directions are also shown graphically in figure 1. The apparent directions 

of sounds are omitted as being too unreliable for record. The sounds 

appear to be produced by elastic waves of the same origin as the more 

powerful waves giving rise to the earth tremors and seem to be transmitted through the ground and communicated to the air just before 

they reach the ear. The general directions of the air vibrations would 

thus be upward and downward, giving rise to very illusory impressions. 

It is interesting to note that vibrations capable of producing sound 

reached as far as Washington, D. C., and Charleston, S. C.

Directions from which vibrations of the New Madrid earthquake were reported as coming.

Locality.

New Madrid, Mo...

Herculaneum, Mo. .

Columbia, Term....

Carthage, Tenn. . . .

Louisville, Ky.....

Cincinnati, Ohio...

Lebanon, Ohio.....

Detroit, Mich......

Charleston, S.C....

Savannah, Ga......

Authority.

Various...

Mitchill...

...do.......

...do.......

Mitchill...

...do.......

...do.......

...do.......

...do.......

Dec. 16, 

1811.

SW.

SE.

SW.

SW.

f SW.M

\ 8.1,8 lVert.i>« 

W.

E.

G /o\

SW.

Dec. 17,

1811.

I---

SW.

SW.

Jan. 23, 

1812.

SSE.i

Feb. 7, 

1812.

f SW.i 

\ SSW.i

1 SSE.i

Feb. 8, 

1812.

1 Vert.i

Vert.i

Feb. 17, 

1812.

SSE.i

Feb. 22, 

1812.

S.i

1 Instrumental determinations. "Most. s Few. «Occasional.

From the table it appears that the direction of the vibrations at 

New Madrid was from the west, while at Herculaneum, which is 

northwest of New Madrid, the movement was from the southeast. 

At Red Bank and Cincinnati, northeast of New Madrid, the vibrations were from the west; but at Lebanon, not far from Cincinnati, 

they are reported to have been from the east. At Carthage and 

Columbia, Tenn., nearly due east of the area of greatest disturbance, 

the direction of the vibrations was from the southwest. At Washington, B. C., the movement was reported as northeastward.

Considering the difficulty in determining the direction from which 

a shock comes, even when the trend of the oscillation is known, it 

is perhaps surprising in the absence of any recording instruments 

that the records agree as well as they do. An example of this was 

presented in Lebanon, Ohio, where the movement was in an eastwest direction, but whether propagated from the east or from the 

west could not be readily determined- It was reported as coming 

from the east, though it came, in all probability, from the west. In 

fact, except that from Lebanon, the observations on the direction of 

the first shock are all reasonably accordant, the slight variation 

shown at the Ohio River towns doubtless being due to local influence,
42 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

The direction of the shock of December 17 was recorded only at 

Detroit and Savannah, although it was felt at other places. The 

direction of the vibrations at the former city were normal for a shock 

originating in the New Madrid area, but at the latter city were somewhat abnormal, possibly owing to a local tendency to move in the 

line of least resistance toward the adjacent river.

The shock of January 23 was recorded by instruments at Cincinnati as from the south-southeast, which must be regarded as abnormal 

if the shock originated in the New Madrid area, but would be normal 

for a readjustment taking place in the Appalachians. It should be 

noted, however, that the shock was comparable in severity to that 

of December 16 in the New Madrid area, indicating that the focus 

could not have been very remote.

The shocks of February 7, often known as the big shocks, were 

three in number and were recorded in Charleston as from the southwest, south-southwest, and south-southeast. The two former are 

normal for a shock originating in the New Madrid area.

The shock of February 8 is notable for the apparently vertical 

character of its vibrations, which are reported from points as remote 

as Cincinnati and Detroit. No record of a shock on this date at 

New Madrid has been found, although very likely there was one. 

The same is true of the shocks of February 17 and 22.

EFFECT OF THE EARTHQUAKE ON LIFE.

As would be supposed from the severity of the disturbance, human 

beings nearly everywhere were terrified by the earlier shocks, their 

behavior giving rise to many ludicrous and many pathetic incidents. 

Even the lower animals shared the feelings of great alarm. The most 

graphic accounts of the feelings and behavior of the inhabitants during 

the shock are given by Drake, Mitchill, Foster, Bryan, LeSieur, Audubon, Wetmore, Carr, Bradbury, Brooks, and Cassedy. The effects on 

lower animals are described by Audubon, Bryan, Mitchill, Bradbury, 

Hildreth, and Flint. (See Bibliography, pp. Ill to 115.) Later, as 

the inhabitants became more familiar with the shocks, they lost much 

of the fear and began to observe the phenomena more closely. In 

Louisville and elsewhere swinging and spring pendulums were set up 

for the purpose of detecting the minor tremors and of distinguishing 

the horizontal and vertical movements. Jared Brooks, especially, 

conducted a long series of experiments, using pendulums from 1 to 6 

inches in length, the results of which were recorded fully. (For summary, see pp. 22 to 26.)

The New Madrid earthquake caused very slight loss of life, as compared with most other earthquakes of similar intensity. Thus, at 

Caracas, which was destroyed during the continuance of the New 

Madrid shocks, over 10,000 were killed by falling walls, whereas in
GOVERNMENT BELIEF. 43

the New Madrid area only a single life has been reported as lost in 

tliis manner. This immunity was due to the fact that the region of 

greatest disturbance was thinly settled and without large towns 

with brick or stone buildings to collapse and crush the inhabitants. 

In this country region the buildings were mainly cabins, which were 

strongly built and at the same time more or less elastic. The frame 

houses of the larger villages were likewise of a character to give 

before rather than resist the vibrations. The fact that the people 

left their houses at the first shock and were in places of comparative safety when the later and more severe shocks came also has much 

to do with their escape. The only death on land of which accounts 

have been seen was that of one woman who, frightened by the shock, 

ran until her strength gave out and expired of fear and exhaustion.1 

One writer tells of others who were thrown into the river by caving

banks at New Madrid and drowned.2 None of the contemporaneous accounts, however, seem to mention the latter incident. An 

account of a loss of life by the caving and disappearance of Island 

No. 94, near Vicksburg, is given by Broadhead.3 Quoting from an 

old account of the trip of Capt. Sarpy, of St. Louis, he says:

They tied up at this island on the evening of the 15th of December, 1811. In 

looking around they found that a^ party of river pirates occupied part of the island 

and were expecting Sarpy with the intention of robbing him. As soon as Sarpy 

found that out he quietly dropped lower down the river. In the night the earthquake came and next morning when the accompanying haziness disappeared the 

island could no longer be seen. It had been utterly destroyed as well as its pirate 

inhabitants.

On the river a number were drowned. Bradbury mentions seeing 

drifting canoes, the owners of which he afterward found had been 

lost.4 Hildreth describes the loss of several boats and their crews by 

caving banks.5 Lloyd 2 records that a flat boat belonging to Richard 

Stump was swamped and six men drowned. Many other boats were 

destroyed by snags and the river was covered with wrecks. So 

numerous were the disasters that the escape and arrival at Natchez 

of Capt. Roosevelt with the steamer New Orleans was regarded as 

almost miraculous.

GOVERNMENT RELIEF.

The earthquake, as has been indicated, left many persons homeless, while the habitations of others were rendered so dangerous 

that the owners were compelled to take up their abode in tents 

or temporary huts for safety. Many farms were in whole or in part

1 Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last 10 years, Boston, 1826, pp. 222-228.

»Lloyd, J. T., Lloyd's steamboat directory, Cincinnati, 1856, p. 325.

'Broadhead, G. C., The New Madrid earthquake: Am. Geologist, vol. 30,1902.

«Bradbury, John, Early western travels, Cleveland, 1904, vol. 5, p. 206.

a Hildreth, S. P., Original contributions to the American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1844, pp. 34-35.
44 THE NEW 'MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

precipitated into the streams; others were covered by extruded 

waters; still others were depressed and gradually covered by accumulating surface waters. The aggregate loss of tillable land reached 

thousands of acres. Moreover, the continuance of the shocks gave 

rise to an uneasiness for the future which seriously retarded the 

recovery.

The loss and suffering were eventually brought to the attention of 

Congress, but in the light of subsequent events it is not certain to 

what extent assistance was the real object of the agitation or to what 

extent it was a pretext for land grabbing on the part of certain 

unscrupulous persons.

The agitation in Congress resulted in the passage of an act allowing 

those whose lands had been destroyed by the earthquake to locate the 

same quantity of land in any other part of the public domain open to 

entry. Few of the losers took advantage of this, however, for by 

this time the shocks had nearly ceased, the people had become adjusted to the new conditions and the prospects for the future looked 

fairly bright, even on the original lands. On this account the inhabitants were loath to go to the expense and hardships of removal to 

distant lands, but sold out their claims to new lands for whatever 

they would bring, usually only a few cents per acre. Five hundred 

and sixteen certificates were issued, but only 20 were located by the 

original claimants in person; most of the remainder were acquired by 

speculators in St. Louis. Perjury and forgery became so common 

that for a time a New Madrid claim was regarded as a synonym for 

fraud.1

PHENOMENA OF THE EARTHQUAKE.

ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA.

Darkness. As in most of the great earthquakes the atmosphere

seems to have become darkened during the more severe shocks in the 

Mississippi Valley. Eliza Bryan notes that total darkness accompanied the first shock, while a similar " awful darkness of the atmosphere" marked the severe shock of 4 p. m. on February 7.2 Godfrey 

Le Sieur also says a " dense black cloud of vapor overshadowed the 

land" after the severe shocks.2 At Herculaneum the atmosphere, 

according to Col. Samuel Hammond, was filled with smoke or fog so 

that a boat could not be seen 20 paces, and houses were so shrouded 

as not to be visible 50 feet. The air did not clear until the middle 

of the day.3 A writer from New Madrid states that at the time of 

the shock the air was clear, but in five minutes it became very dark, 

and the darkness continued until nearly morning, during which period 

there were six shocks. At 6.30 the air cleared, but at the severe 

shock later in the morning the darkness returned.4

»Carr, Lucien, American Commonwealths: Missouri, Boston, 1888, p. 111. 

» See Bibliography, pages 111-115.

sMitchill, S. L., Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 1, p. 291. 

« Mitchill, S. L., op. cit., p. 297.
ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. 45

The darkness was probably due to a number of cooperating causes. 

In all probability the dust projected into the air by the agitation of 

the surface, the opening and closing of fissures in dry earth, landslides 

on dry hillsides, and possibly the falling of chimneys and buildings 

contributed to supply to the atmosphere the suspended particles 

which presumably produced the obscurity described. It is likely also 

that aqueous vapors, rising from fissures connecting with the warm 

ground waters (temperature 50° to 55°), or from the waters extruded 

from cracks and craterlets and condensed by the cold December air 

played a part. The extrusion of such vapors, usually more or less 

sulphurous, is described by many witnesses. It is not entirely 

impossible that conditions favoring condensation of atmospheric moisture either accompanied or resulted from the earthquake disturbance.

Besides the darkness observed in the area of principal disturbance 

similar manifestations were recorded in other localities. For instance,

at Columbia, Tenn., a very large volume of something like smoke was 

declared to have risen in the southwest, from which direction the 

sound appeared to have come, and, proceeding northeastward, 

settled as a black cloud in the course of the 10 or 15 minutes the shock 

lasted.1

An unusual darkness during the earthquake was reported at a number of other points, but if it had any relation to the earth disturbances 

its nature is not known. It seems likely that in the outlying districts 

the darkness was due to ordinary clouds associated with storms then 

in progress across the country.

Odors and vapors. Sulphurous or otherwise obnoxious odors and 

vapors were an attendant feature of the earthquake at many points, 

as stated by nearly every writer. Bryan speaks of the complete 

saturation of the atmosphere with sulphurous vapor a few minutes 

after the first shock, and of similar vapors after the shock of February 

7.2 Hildreth speaks of the escape of sulphur gas through the cracks 

tainting the air and impregnating the water for a distance of 150 

miles so it was unfit to use.2 Another observer, writing to Mitchill 

from New Madrid, states that although the air was clear at the time 

of the shock, within five minutes a vapor with a disagreeable smell 

and producing a difficulty of breathing impregnated the atmosphere. 

At Jeffersonville, Ind., warmth and smokiness were noted for several 

days after the shock, while at Columbia, S. C., the air during the 

shock felt impregnated with vapor which lasted for some time.

The source of the odors in the New Madrid region seems to have 

been the buried organic matter which here, as elsewhere in the Mississippi embayment, occurs in the alluvium and underlying Tertiary 

deposits, the emanations coming mainly from the carbonaceous

1 Mitchill, S. L., op. cit., p. 287.

2 See Bibliography, pages 111-115.
46 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

material extruded from below through the fissures and craterlets, 

which were numerous in the region. In the more remote localities 

the vapors probably represented normal atmospheric condensations 

which happened to be coincident with the earthquake disturbance.

"Light flashes" and "glows." The phenomena of what may be 

termed "light flashes" and "glows" seem so improbable that they 

would be dismissed from consideration but for the considerable number of localities from which they were reported. Dillard, in speaking 

of the shocks (not especially the first one), says: "There issued no 

burning flames, but flashes such as would result from an explosion 

of gas, or from passing of electricity from cloud to cloud." Lewis F. 

Linn, United States Senator, in a letter to the chairman of the 

Committee on Commerce, says the shock was accompanied "ever 

and anon [by] flashes of electricity, rendering the darkness doubly 

terrible." 1 Another evidently somewhat excited observer near 

New Madrid thought he saw "many sparks of fire emitted from the 

earth." 2 At St. Louis gleams and flashes of light were frequently 

visible around the horizon in different directions, generally ascending 

from the earth.3 In Livingston County, according to Mr. Kiddick, 

the atmosphere previous to the shock of February 8 was remarkably 

luminous, objects being visible for considerable distances, although 

there was no moon. "On this occasion the brightness was general, 

and did not proceed from any point or spot in the heavens. It was 

broad and expanded, reaching from the zenith on every side toward 

the horizon. It exhibited no flashes nor coruscations, but, as long 

as it lasted, was a diffused illumination of the atmosphere on all sides." 

At Bardstown there are reported to have been "frequent lights during 

the commotions." 4 At Knoxville, Tenn., at the end of the first shock, 

"two flashes of light, at intervals of about a minute, very much like 

distant lightning," were observed.5 Farther east, in North Carolina, 

there were reported "three large extraordinary fires in the air; one 

appeared in an easterly direction, one in the north, and one in the 

south. Their continuance was several hours; their size as large as 

a house on fire; the motion of the blaze was quite visible, but no 

sparks appeared." ° At Savannah, Ga., the first shock is said to have 

been preceded by a flash of light.7

That the flashes were entirely imaginary is improbable, but it is 

very doubtful if anything out of the ordinary actually took place. 

A source of many of the flashes appears to have been the thunder 

storms which occurred at the time. Such storms, which were very 

unusual at the season at which the shocks took place and which were

1 Wetmore, Alphonso, Gazetteer of the State of Missouri, St. Louis, 1837, pp. 131-142.

2 Mitchill, S. L., Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 1, p. 300. 

s Idem, p. 288.

4 Idem, p. 298.

5 Idem, p. 287. 

8 Idem, p. 300. 

7 Idem, p. 286.
FISSURES. 47

unsuspected by the people outside of their immediate path, have been 

recorded at a number of points, especially in South Carolina.1 Bearing 

on the origin of the flashes or glows the observations of several of the 

captains of ocean liners in the Tropics at the time of the recent severe 

disturbance in Mexico (1907) are of significance. They reported that 

on the night on which they afterwards learned that the earthquake 

had occurred strong glows in the sky, resembling the auroras of 

northern latitudes, were seen. As these were not reported farther 

north the view suggests itself that they were due to magnetic disturbances depending upon or related to the severe earth disturbances 

going on at the time. It is not improbable that similar magnetic 

manifestations were associated with the New Madrid shock.

It is probable that in the New Madrid region brush or wood fires, 

made by the Indians or settlers, may have been an additional cause. 

It should be noted in this connection that in the New Madrid area 

itself, where the weather was clear at the time, no mention of any 

such phenomena was made in the more conservative descriptions.

GEOLOGIC PHENOMENA.

FISSURES. 

RECORD OF FISSTTRING.

Fissuring was one of the most common and widespread of the 

phenomena resulting from the New Madrid earthquake and is mentioned in practically all contemporaneous narratives. Among the 

most vivid accounts is that of Le Sieur, who says 2 that the earth 

rolled in waves several feet high with visible depressions between the 

swells, finally bursting and leaving parallel fissures extending in a 

north-south direction for distances as great as 5 miles in some cases. 

Dillard 3 describes the opening of fissures 600 to 700 feet long and 

20 to 30 feet wide. Some were sufficiently wide to swallow horses 

or cattle 4 and in one instance a load of castings disappeared from 

a cellar.5 Another type, of smaller size but of even more general 

distribution, was that resulting from the settling and caving of the 

river banks, as described by Bradbury. 6 Again, Hildreth says "the 

earth on the shores opened in wide fissures," and Flint states that 

some persons were extricated from them with difficulty,7 while Flint 

and others describe the felling of trees crosswise with the trend of the 

fissuring, on which persons climbed as a protection against engulfment. Latrobe, in relating the experience of a boatman, says 8 that

1 Mitchill, S. L., op. cit., pp. 285-286.

2 Le Sieur, Godfrey, quoted in Am. Geologist, vol. 30,1902, p. 80.

3 Foster, J. W., The Mississippi Valley, Chicago, 1869, pp. 19-22.

« Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last ten years, Boston, 1826, p. 226.

* Hildreth, S. P., Original contributions to the American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1844, pp. 34-35.

8 Bradbury, John, Early western travels, Cleveland, 1904, vol. 5, p. 205.

' Flint, Timothy, op. cit., p. 223.

s Latrobe, C. J., The rambler in North America, London, 1836, vol. 1, pp. 107-108.
48 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

a chasm opened in the Mississippi admitting great quantities of water, 

but immediately closed, giving rise to waves of great size. From 

many of the fissures it was stated that sand and water were forcibly 

extruded.

CHARACTER OF THE FISSURES.

Fortunately it is not necessary to rely on the contemporary 

accounts of the fissuring, as many of the cracks are still well preserved, 

and the position of others is marked by extruded materials, or 

occasionally by sand dikes filling the original fissures.

Types. There are two distinct types of what are here spoken of 

as fissures. The first is the simple crack, which is either open at the 

present time or is filled with sand extruded when formed or by debris 

which has fallen in subsequently. The second type, although for 

convenience spoken of as a fissure because of its considerable depth, 

appears to be in reality a narrow down-faulted block between two 

parallel cracks, as indicated in figure 6. The sharp depressions, often 

many feet in depth and width and of great length, seem to be all of 

this type. Plate II, A, shows one side of such a fissure, the drop

-^L :Clayey._aliuyjum ^ ^-\

'. . .'.'.'.'.".'.'. 'V-^-'V'.'.'.'.'.'.'.' Qui c k'ssn'd .' '.'.'.'.'.' 

FIGURE 8. Diagram showing trench or "fissure" formed by settling of fault block, a, Direction of 

movement of upper alluvium toward stream; b, Direction of flowage of quicksand; c, Original walls of 

trench before slump.

of the central segment being about 4 feet and its width (not shown) 

about 15 feet. In most of the simple fissures there has been no 

vertical movement of the walls, but occasionally low faults are seen. 

No extrusion of sand has been noted from the fault block or the 

simple faulted fissures.

Form. The form varies considerably with the location and type 

of fissures. The simple cracks are on the whole much more irregular 

than the compound fissures. They are seldom straight for any great 

distance. Those near the margins of the rivers often partake of 

the curvature of the banks. Those across points of land in oxbows 

of the river are commonly irregular and branching. Those of the 

flat bottoms in sand-blow districts appear to be in most cases short, 

interrupted, and more or less crooked fissures, although a few are 

straight. The larger fault-block fissures are often straight for considerable distances, although usually exhibiting more or less irregularity of direction throughout their course. Lyell,1 in describing such 

fissures near New Madrid, says: "Some of them were jagged, others 

even and straight * * *. I might easily have mistaken them

i Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States, London, 1849, p. 235.
PISSUEES. 49

for artificial trenches." This characteristic, in fact, is very general 

in this type of fractures, especially in those in the area southwest of 

Lake St. Francis, where the sharp steep sides and flat bottoms are 

especially suggestive of canal excavations.

Arrangement. The arrangement depends upon the type and 

situation. The simple fissures along river banks are usually in 

concentric curves. Where the deposits tended more to disintegration during the shock, as on long points of land, a complex of jagged 

branching fissures commonly resulted. In the flat lands of the 

sand-blow country there appears to be a general tendency to an 

arrangement in parallel lines, but owing to the shortness of many 

of the gashes this is not always apparent. In the large fault-block 

fissures the parallelism is generally very marked, groups of from two 

to five or more long, straight, and parallel canal-like depressions 

being not uncommon.

Intervals. The spacing of the fissures is very variable. They are 

closest together when near the banks of rivers, parallel cracks only 

a foot or two apart sometimes occurring, while a spacing of from 10 to 

15 feet is not uncommon. In the sand-blow districts the spacing 

varies from several hundred feet down to less than 10 feet, the 

resulting extrusions in the latter case forming more or less confluent 

sheets of sand. The spacing in the caving ground on points is still 

less. In the case of the large fault-block fissures the spacing is 

greater, several hundred feet often intervening between the cracks, 

while the space between them may be half a mile or more. Isolated 

cracks of this type are not uncommon.

Direction. The direction of the fissures is of much interest because 

of the light it might be expected to throw upon the question of the 

center of disturbance and the direction of the earth waves. In 

considering the direction, however, three classes of fissures must be 

differentiated. The first, or the simple cracks near streams, are, 

as already indicated, almost invariably parallel with the banks of 

the rivers, occurring in any and all directions, but apparently entirely 

independent of the direction of the earthquake waves. The second 

class, or the simple fissures of the sand-blow areas seem to have a 

tendency toward a definite arrangement along northeast-southwest 

lines (averaging about N. 30° E.), although where the blows are 

scattered the arrangement is not always very apparent. The fissures 

of the sand sloughs are in general paraUel to the depressions and are 

even more commonly aligned in northeast-southwest directions.

In the third class, or the compound or fault-block fissures, the 

tendency is not always so manifest. In the area southwest of Lake 

St. Francis (T. 9 N., R. 5 E.), which was studied in most detail, the 

majority of the cracks have a trend very close to the bearing mentioned, being apparently independent of the course of the river

9800° Bull. 494 12 4
50 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

near which they are located (fig. 7). There are, however, at least 

two compound fissures nearly at right angles to the others.

Of those who observed the fissures soon after their formation, 

Flint has given the most specific statement of their direction, which 

he states was generally from northeast to southwest. Lyell in describing those near New Madrid says:1 "They varied greatly in direction, 

some being 10° and others 45° west of north."

FIGURE 7. Sketch map showing earthquake features southwest of Lake St. Francis. The lines 

indicating fissures are intended to show location and general direction but not the specific number of the fractures.

It is a question if the statement credited to Lyell is not a misprint, 

as most other observers have recorded them as east of north. In 

fact, except in the case of the local fissures manifestly due to the 

creep or disintegration of the river banks and points, practically 

all the evidence supports the existence of a northeast-southwest 

trend of the fissuring of both simple and compound types throughout 

the entire area examined.

i Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States, London, 1849, p. 235.
FISSUBES. 51

Length. The length of the fissures varies considerably. Some of 

the narrow ones of the simple type appear to be only a few yards long, . 

but others may be 100 to 200 feet or even more in length. Probably 

300 feet is the maximum for this type, both when occurring along 

the river banks or in the broad flat sand-blow districts. The length 

of the compound or fault-block fissures, however, is much greater. 

Those along the St. Francis River north of Parkin are said to be 

half a mile or so long (fig. 7), while others doubtless have even 

greater length, as the fissures cited by Le Sieur, which he reported 

to have a length of 5_miles. The average length for cracks of this 

type is estimated to be from 300 to 500 feet. East of the Mississippi the fissuring was in general less pronounced, but Usher l mentions cracks of some size extruding for miles.

Depth. The depth of the openings was not usually very great, 

probably being in most cases limited to the hard clayey zone extending 

from the surface down to the quicksand which usually underlies the 

surface soil at depths of from 10 to 20 feet (fig. 6). Few openings 

probably extended much below the water level, which is apparently 

nowhere much over 25 feet from the surface. The fissures locally 

extended somewhat deeper but did not long remain open, owing to 

the presence of water and quicksand. Flint 2 speaks of the fissures 

as "fearfully deep" at the time of his visit seven years after the 

shock, although formed in soft alluvium. Lyell, speaking of the 

trenchlike cracks near New Madrid, says 3 that his informant stated 

that within his recollection these were "as deep as wells." At the 

time of his visit they were only 5 or 6 feet deep, although, as he says: 

"The action of rains, frost, and occasional inundations, and above 

all, the leaves of the forest blown into them every autumn in countless 

numbers, have done much to fill them up."

The deepest fissures seen by the writer, outside the landslide area 

of the Chickasaw Bluffs, were in the St. Francis River region south 

of the lake. Several of the compound fissures here were so deep that 

when riding on horseback in their bottoms his head was below the 

level of the surrounding flats. Plate II, A, shows one side of one of 

the smaller of these fissures, the scarp being about 4 feet high. 

Several rather deep cracks were also seen at Marked Tree.

The present depth of the simple fissures was nowhere found to be 

more than a foot or two, owing to their becoming filled by the caving 

of the sides. Of the smaller fissures, such as those of the sand-blow 

area, no surface indications remain other than the extruded material.

Fillings (sand dikes). The filling of the fissures by the caving of 

the walls has already been mentioned. Besides this, however, 

should be mentioned the fillings of intruded materials from below.

1 Usher, F. C., Am. Jour. Sci., 1st set., vol. 31,1837, p. 295.

2 Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last 10 years, Boston, 1826, p. 223. 

s Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States, London, 1847, p. 235.
52 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

As described elsewhere (pp. 76 to 87), the formation of fissures was 

almost always accompanied by the extrusion of sand and water 

which flowed out over the surrounding surface. Besides the fissures 

which reached the surface, many pinched out before the top of the 

ground was reached, and the sand had no opportunity to escape but 

remained in the crack as a sand dike after the cessation of the shock. 

Even where the fissures reached the surface more or less sand was 

caught in the cracks and was left as stringers and dikes in the darker 

alluvium. (See PI. III.) Probably the sand-blow region is full of 

such dikes, but owing to the fact that few cellars or other excavations are made, because of the frequent overflow and dampness of the 

region, sections showing them are rare. They are, however, rather 

abundant at certain points on the higher ground, especially at Charleston and Campbell, Mo., and vicinity, several sometimes being 

exposed in a single excavation. That shown in Plate III is said to 

be one of several in the same cellar.

Objects swallowed fo/>fissures. Considering the number and frequency of fissures it at first seems surprising that so few objects were 

swallowed. It should be borne in mind, however, that the fissures 

were of two kinds, one due to the down-faulting of narrow strips of 

earth (fig. 6, p. 48), and the other to the cracking of the soil by 

tension as the earth waves progressed across the surface. The first 

made wide and deep depressions, which, however, had firm bottoms 

with nothing in the nature of deep chasms. The second were actual 

fissures. They were a few inches wide and extended to considerable 

depths, although probably rarely to the unfathomable depths which 

the people in their excitement were inclined to believe. The deepest 

one of which we have a measurement is 20 feet. The fear of being 

swallowed by the fissures led many to fell trees, at right angles to 

the direction of the fissures previously formed, upon which they 

climbed for safety at times of severe shocks when new fissures were 

to be expected. Many attributed their preservation to this practice. 

As a matter of fact, however, nothing except a boatload of castings, 

which had been stored in a cellar,1 and a few tree trunks 2 appear to 

have been swallowed in the crevices, although a few persons extricated 

themselves from them with difficulty.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE FISSURES.

y

Situation. The situation of the fissures has been indicated in the

foregoing discussion, but may be summarized here. In general it 

may be said that the phenomena of fissuring may be seen on the 

uplands as well as the lowlands, but that in the former situation 

they are limited to the vicinity of the edges of steep bluffs and are 

/' not seen where the surface is flat or the slopes gentle, the absence of

i Foster, J. W., The Mississippi Valley, Chicago, 1869, pp. 19-22.

* Lloyd, James, Lloyd's steamboat directory, Cincinnati, 1856, p. 325.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 49* PLATE III

EARTHQUAKE FISSURE FILLED WITH INTRUDED SAND, CHARLESTON. MO. 

Photograph by Thomas Beckwith.
FISSURES. 53

fissuring in such situations being due to the distance of the highland 

rims from the center of disturbance. Visible fissures are absent from 

most of the prairie ridges standing a few feet above the lowlands, 

because the superficial alluvial beds to which most of the fracturing 

was confined are there thicker than on the surrounding lowlands. 

In the northern part of the area the prairie deposits are more sandy 

and incoherent, and fissures, if they were formed at all, must have 

closed almost immediately.

The broad, flat alluvial bottoms of Mississippi, Little, and St. 

Francis rivers seem to have afforded very favorable conditions for 

the development of minor fissures, for the blows marking the extrusions from them are of wide distribution. The most favorable points, 

however, seem to be the broad linear depressions resulting from the 

sinking of the land. Here, if the extruded sand so characteristic of 

the sloughs is relied upon, the fissuring must have been even more 

common than on the surrounding flatlands. Fissuring in the bottoms of bayous was also very common, and in some instances is said 

to have led to the draining of the waters. (See p. 54.)

Localities. The general distribution of fissuring can best be seen 

by reference to the maps (PI. I and fig. 1). In the figure the areas 

of intense and moderate earthquake action are shown. Stream banks 

were caved northward to Herculaneum, northeastward to Indiana, 

southward to the Arkansas, and probably westward throughout the 

valleys of Black, Cache, and White rivers. The region showing 

fissuring is much smaller, being limited to the area extending 

from the vicinity of New Madrid to a point on the St. Francis 

a little northwest of Memphis. The most profound fissuring (compound type) observed by the writer was along the St. Francis 

and Tyronza rivers in the area delineated on Plate I and shown 

in detail in figure 10, but it is possible that similar fissuring extends 

farther north, although no marked examples were seen at Blytheville. The minor fissuring, giving rise to the sand blows, was 

mainly limited to the region between a point northwest of New 

Madrid and the lower end of Lake St. Francis, as shown on Plate I, 

but similar though less extensive fissuring also occurred east of the 

Mississippi from southwestern Kentucky southward at least as far 

as the mouth of the Obion River. Fissuring also occurs near the 

edge of the uplands, terminating in the Chickasaw Bluffs, from near 

Hickman on the Mississippi to beyond the Obion River. No marked . 

fissuring of recent date was noted in Crowley Ridge, but faulted strata, 

due to early Pleistocene disturbances, were seen near Wittsburg, east 

of Wynne.

The most northerly cracks of which evidences were noted by the 

writer were in the woods along the Castor River northeast of Bloom-
54 THE NEW MADE-ID EARTHQUAKE.

field, where there are several cracks parallel to the river (one of them 

cutting an Indian mound) and one at right angles to the stream. 

Cracks were also observed parallel to a cypress bayou near La Forge, 

north of New Madrid. At New Madrid, which is near the northern 

limits of the area of marked disturbance, fissures were originally 

common, but many have now been obliterated by the encroachments 

of the river, which has cut into the banks half a mile or more since 

the earthquake, by the overflowing waters, by the gradual accumulation of silts and vegetable muck, and by the cultivation of the land. 

Lyell, on his visit to the region in 1849, saw several fissures still open, 

two of which he traced continuously for over half a mile. Some were 

parallel, but most'of them varied greatly in direction. In depth the 

simple fissures ranged up to 5 or 6 feet, and in width from 2 to 4 

feet, the edges being marked by accumulations of sand and dark 

clayey shale. He also describes a fault produced by the earthquake 

which separated the higher level plain from the low ground about 

Bayou St. John just east of New Madrid. The descent was 8 or 10 feet

at this point, although it was reported to 

c ^ / w/ t*e as much as 20 or 30 feet in places.1

South jfi.' :_-»V.vj/ r

Two parallel fissures, about 8 yards apart, 

___________ through which the waters of Lake Eulalie 

^~,Foot .& escaped after the earthquake, could still 

' ' be seen in the bottom of the dry bed. FIGUEE 8. Plan of earthquake fissure , _^ . . .,

at Beechweii, near campbeii, MO. JNear rortageville, a tew miles soutno, clayey alluvium; 6, intruded sand west Of ^ew Madrid, on Little Kiver, large

and lignite. ' ' °

cracks were observed by the writer on both

sides of the river, and smaller cracks occur in the vicinity of Marston, 

a short distance away. At Beechweii, just northeast of Campbell, a 

fine section of a fissure filled with sand, pieces of lignite, and dark shaly 

clay, was seen in a trench. This appears to have been pushed diagonally upward into the clayey alluvium, but not with sufficient force, 

at least on one side, to break through, the fissure terminating in a 

rounded head both in horizontal and vertical directions (fig. 8).

Many similar fissures are found in digging cellars in the vicinity of 

Charleston, some distance to the northeast (PI. Ill), some failing to 

reach the surface, as in the instance described, while others reached 

the surface and formed sand blows.

At Caruthersville, as at New Madrid, fissures were originally very 

numerous, but many were obliterated by the overflowing waters of 

the Mississippi before the construction of the levees, and by the other 

causes mentioned. Traces of cracks are still to b§ seen near the 

creeks and bayous. Near Carlton, between Caruthersville and Hayti, 

a number of faults and gashes occur south of the railroad. Most of 

the scars at this point seem to have an east-west direction, but one 

or two north-south scars occur.

» Lyell, Cnarles, A second visit to the United States, pp. 235-236.
FISSURES. 55

Farther southwest on the Perniscot is the site of the smokehouse incident related by Le Sieur.1 It seems that a Mr. Culberson 

lived on a V-shaped point in a bend of Perniscot River, embracing 

about an acre of ground, on which his well and smokehouse were 

situated, lying between the house and the river. On the morning of 

the earthquake Mrs. Culberson started to go to the smokehouse for 

meat, only to find the path crossed by the wide stream, the smokehouse and well being seen across the river, on the opposite side from 

where they were the night before. Numerous cracks were made 

across such points, some of which afforded shorter courses to the 

streams. Near Blytheville, east of the Pemiscot, several cracks were 

observed along an old bayou.

Visible fissuring occurs at Lake City, on Lake St. Francis, and it is 

stated that crevices can be made out in the old river banks beneath 

the surface of the water. It is probable that other fissures, both 

numerous and large, would be found if the lakes and sunk lands were 

drained of their waters. At Marked Tree, south of Lake St. Francis, 

cracks 3 to 6 feet deep and 6 to 15 feet wide, extending for some distance, are found on the east side of St. Francis River,'and smaller, 

more irregular, and branching cracks occur on the west side. One 

of the cracks passes through the lumber yard at Marked Tree, cutting 

an Indian mound. This crack is now filled with standing water 

during wet seasons. Similar cracks occur along St. Francis and 

Little rivers for 12 miles, reaching into Mississippi County (PL I), 

while others are found along Tyronza River and south and southeast 

of Marked Tree. Cracks were seen at intervals below Marked Tree 

as far as the Maurice Smith place, in sec. 29, T. 9 N., R. 5 E., and are 

reported to occur near the bend of the river a mile farther to the 

southeast, this point being the southernmost limit of recorded fissuring. Figure 7 shows the distribution of the fissures in this region. 

The northernmost cracks in the township are north of the Hand 

place, in sec. 11. These are of the simple fissure type, from 10 to 100 

or more feet long and 4 to 12 inches wide, and are concentric with 

the curve of the river bend at that point. A mile and a half farther 

west, in sejc^9, a series of northeast-southwest compound fissures of 

great size were observed. These are great canal-like depressions with 

flat bottoms and steep sides (higher even than the normal angle of 

repose) and so deep that a man on horseback is in some places unable 

to see over the top. It is probable that some of the depressions are 

from 10 to 15 feet deep, and the bottoms are usually from 10 to 20 

feet in width. One large cross fracture mainly at right angles to the 

others was observed, and 3 miles south in sec. 28 three or four more 

large compound fissures were seen having a northeast-southwest

i Le Sieur, Godfrey, quoted in Am. Geologist, vol. 30,1902, pp. 80-81.
56 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

trend. The Smith place fracture, already mentioned, was some 4 feet 

deep and 20 feet across at the bottom.

On the east side of the Mississippi the visible fissures, although less 

numerous than on the west side, were not uncommon. Usher l 

describes a fissure 4 feet deep and 8 feet wide, extending several miles. 

Lyell records several fissures in Tennessee where the ground on one 

side remained 2 feet higher than on the other. The writer is convinced that faulting of at least 10 feet occurred at places in the vicinity 

of the south end of Reelfoot Lake and it is known that fissures occur 

in the uplands at the edge of the Chickasaw Bluffs. David Dale 

Owen, in his report of the geological survey in Kentucky (1854-55) 

states on page 119 that "in Obion County, Tenn., depressions are 

even now visible 100 feet deep and varying from a few feet to upward 

of 100 feet wide, which are said to have been more than double this 

depth when originally formed." At another point "in the bluffs of 

the Mississippi earth cracks can be traced for a quarter to half a mile, 

20 to 70 feet wide, bounded on either side by parallel banks 1 to 5 

feet above the sunk ground." N. S. Shaler describes "earth cracks" 

as occurring at many points in the southwest corner of Kentucky, 

"the fissures being from 20 to 70 feet wide and 1 to 4 feet deep." 2 

To these instances the writer can add small faults near Push and near 

Grace post office and a more conspicuous one parallel to Bluebank 

at the southern end of Reelfoot Lake. The sinking along the latter 

fault was about 6 feet.

Besides the fissuring giving rise to visible cracks those openings 

from which the materials of the sand blows and sand sloughs were 

extruded should be mentioned. The area in which these occur is 

indicated in the discussion of the blows and sloughs and its characteristics are considered in an earlier part of this section.

CAUSE OF FISSURING.

Bluff fissures. In this class are included the simple fissures found 

near the edge of river bluffs, along the flanks of deep bayous, and 

near the edge of the uplands terminating in the Chickasaw Bluffs. 

These fissures have clearly been produced either by the actual settling 

of the land nearest the channel, valley, or other depression, the movement being away from the higher stationary ground, or by a partial 

undermining and tilting of the materials comprising the immediate 

banks of the streams. Where a material settling has occurred in 

addition to the lateral displacement, faults are produced. These 

fissures, as would be expected, merge into landslide disturbances. 

In fact, the explanation advanced appears to account satisfactorily 

for all the observed facts of occurrence and distribution.

i Usher, F. C., Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 31,1837, p. 295.

a Shaler, N. S., Earthquakes of the western United States, Atlantic Monthly, November, 1869, p. 555.
FISSURES. 57

Fissures of the sand-How regions. The fissures from which the 

materials of the sand blows and sloughs were extruded were probably 

produced as described in the contemporary narratives. It is known 

that, owing to the unusually favorable conditions existing (a thin 

surface stratum of stiff alluvium resting on a quicksand saturated 

with water as shown in fig. 6), earth waves of unusual magnitude, 

sometimes several feet in height, were propagated across the country, 

and there is every reason to suppose that numerous fissures resulted 

from this sudden flexing as they did at the time of the Charleston 

shock 75 years later. This " bursting of the swells," as it was termed 

by the eyewitnesses, is not only the possible but the probable cause 

of the fissuring, fully accounting for the distribution of the cracks, 

for their arrangement, and for their great numbers.

Fissuring of the sand sloughs. The fissures of the sloughs appear 

to be longer than those associated with the sand blows, but do not 

seem to differ in other respects. It is believed that they are due to 

the same processes of flexure, the principal difference being that while 

the surface in the sand-blow areas became flat again after the passage 

of the waves, that of the sloughs remained bent, giving rise to the 

troughs in which they are now found.

Analogous to the slough fissures are the faults and cracks which 

sometimes separate the higher from the lower parts of the bottom 

lands. They are believed likewise to have resulted from warping, 

which, however, was on a much larger scale, the difference in level 

being so great andr the change so sharp that fracture resulted.

Compound fissures. The so-called compound fissures are believed 

to be the result of the dropping of a narrow fault block between two 

parallel simple fissures. The flatness of the bottom and the presence 

of trees antedating the shock seem to indicate that the present contour of the depression is due rather to the dropping of a block than to 

filling in from the sides of the fissure. There is an absence of gradation between the steep walls and the flat bottoms that would also be 

difficult to account for if a simple fissure had been partly filled by 

wash.

In order that the block between the parallel fissures should sink 

it is necessary that there should be either an outward movement of 

the material at one or both sides or an undermining of adequate 

extent. (See fig. 6, p. 48.) From examination it appears that such 

fissures are generally very near to rivers. s The fissuring, however, is 

not always parallel to the stream, as would seem to be necessary if it 

was a lateral creep toward the river which permitted the sinking. 

In the majority of cracks of this type there was no extrusion of sand, 

hence the undermining can not be due to the transfer of material 

to the surface through fissures in the immediate vicinity. There remains the undermining by extrusion through more distant sand blows
58 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

or undermining by creep of the quicksand into the rivers. From 

exposures in the bottom of the streams at low water it seems probable 

that the latter action took place to a considerable extent, and it is 

believed that in it lies the explanation of the sinking of the blocks 

of the great compound fissures.

FAULTS.

Location. Faulting, at least in the surficial deposits, was not a 

common nor a characteristic feature of the New Madrid earthquake, 

although it occurred at a number of points. Some of the faults 

crossed the Mississippi, causing rapids and even waterfalls. William 

Shaler 1 in describing a patron's trip down the river at the time says 

that a few miles above New Madrid "he came to a most terrific fall, 

which, he thinks, was at least 6 feet perpendicular, extending across 

the river. * * * Another fall was formed about 8 miles below 

the town, similar to the one above, the roaring of which he could distinctly hear at New Madrid. He waited five days for the fall to wear 

away." Speaking of the fissures on the land in the vicinity of the 

town mentioned, he says many of them were "5 or 6 feet wide, 

extending in length out of sight, and one side was several feet lower 

than the other." Lyell 2 describes a fault, possibly the same as that 

noted by Shaler, separating the higher level plain from the low ground 

about Bayou St. John just east of town, the descent being 8 to 10 

feet at this point. He also records several fissures in Tennessee 

where the ground on one side remained 2 feet higher than that on the 

other.

At the present time evidences of faults are hard to find, owing to 

the modification of the bottoms by the overflowing river. The 

writer, however, noted a scarp along a gently sloping hillside at 

Beechwell, near Campbell, Mo., the displacement of which seems to 

have been 10 feet or more. Small faults were also noted on the flat 

bottom lands near Push and Grace post offices in the vicinity of 

Reelfoot Lake, Tenn., and parallel to Bluebank at the southern end 

of Reelfoot Lake. The displacement at the latter point was about 

6 feet. Still other faults are believed to have been formed about the 

south end of the lake mentioned, contributing to the damming of 

its waters.

Besides those mentioned there are a considerable number of faults 

parallel to a stream, where the land next the river has sunk below 

the landward side of the fissures. In the landslide areas much 

displacement has also taken place, as is described in the section on 

landslides (p. 59). Nearly all the principal fissures appear to have 

resulted from the dropping of narrow fault blocks, as described on 

pages 48 and 57.

1 Shaler, William, Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 1, p. 301.

2 Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States, London, 1849, pp. 235-236.
FAULTS. 59

Cause. The faults appear to have resulted from various causes. 

Those formed across the Mississippi near New Madrid ponding the 

water back and giving rise to waterfalls almost certainly resulted 

from fractures incident to the uplift of the Tiptonville dome (p. 63). 

Those about the southern end of Reelfoot Lake appear to be due to 

the same general cause. The fault described by Lyell along the 

Bayou St. John apparently resulted from the settling of the land 

nearest the river, doubtless due to undermining resulting from the 

extrusion of the underlying quicksands or to their lateral flowage 

toward the river. At Beechwell there appears to have been a 

general movement of the lower hillside toward the flats, leaving a 

long high scarp. The faulting parallel to the river is unquestionably 

due to a displacement and slump toward'the river, while the dropped 

fault blocks appear to have been let down by undermining, as 

explained on page 57.

LANDSLIDES.

Probably no feature of the earthquake is more striking than the 

landslides developed in certain of the steeper bluffs, even the casual 

observer noting at once the unusual character of the highly disturbed 

slopes. Landslides in the general sense of the term occurred whenever a slope had sufficient steepness so that portions gave way during 

the shock and slipped or fell down the grade toward the lower levels. 

The necessary conditions were presented by both the river banks and 

the higher bluffs bordering the Mississippi lowlands, especially on the 

east side. The breaking down of the river banks was very extensive, 

being observed, as noted on page 53, at least as far up the Ohio as 

Indiana and doubtless extending down the Mississippi a corresponding distance. The action in the case of the bluffs was more 

limited in area but often far greater in magnitude. The area characterized by minor disturbances, such as the caving of banks, is indicated in figure 1, and the principal landslide area is shown on 

Plate I.

CHICKASAW BLUFFS.

Location and character. The area of landslides lies along the Chickasaw Bluffs, which face the Mississippi bottoms from the vicinity of 

Hickman in southwestern Kentucky at least to the mouth of the 

Obion River, about halfway across the State of Tennessee, a distance of at least 35 miles.

Throughout this distance the landslides are a striking feature. 

Skirting the edge of the bluffs, in the vicinity of Reelfoot Lake, a 

characteristic landslide topography is almost constantly in sight 

from the carriage road which follows then' base, the road in some 

places crossing over large masses of earth brought down by the 

earthquake and winding among the trunks of the trees tilted by the
60 0?HE HEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

movement. (See PI. IV, A.) On climbing up the bluff the traveler 

sees increased confusion; sharp ridges of earth alternate with deep 

gashes (PI. IV, B), the whole surface locally being broken into a jumble 

of irregular ridges, mounds, and hummocks, interspersed with trench 

or basinlike hollows and other more irregular depressions, continuing 

with increasing frequency to the top of the bluff, along the edge of 

which fault scarps and fissures are of frequent occurrence. Some of 

the depressions, those between parallel fissures, have the same 

canal-like aspect that characterizes those of the river bottoms (p. 48), 

but some are considerably larger, one reported by Safford l being as 

much as 100 feet wide. Speaking of Obion County, Tenn., Shaler 

says 2 "depressions are even now visible [1869] 100 feet deep and 

varying from a few feet to 100 feet wide."

Landslide fissures are best developed on projecting spurs, the main 

cracks crossing them in a direction at fight angles to their axis. 

Where the surfaces had considerable curvature the slumping occurred 

in several directions, giving rise to intersecting fissures with moundlike elevations between.

Although landslides are most strongly developed on spurs, the 

general slopes of the bluffs are far from being free from them, and 

some of the resultant mounds and troughs are of considerable magnitude. One of these troughs, having a depth of between 6 and 8 

feet, is shown in Plate II, B. Water has collected in some of them, 

forming small ponds. The individual troughs are generally of considerable length, often several hundred feet. They begin as very 

slight depressions in the surface of the bluff, which, however, rapidly 

widen and deepen until strong trenches are produced. The troughs 

are usually not exactly parallel to the slope; the bottom descends 

slightly as the trough widens, and it usually has free drainage at the 

low end or that farthest from its point of beginning. The individual 

troughs and ridges are more or less curved or irregular. Many of 

them begin and end abruptly; others divide and subdivide, only to 

reunite again, forming a network of trenches.

The movement in many cases has been such as to cause a tilting 

of the disturbed .masses, the inclination being usually toward the 

bluff. The steep alluvial and debris fans at the mouths of the 

gullies extending back into the bluffs also seem to have afforded very 

favorable conditions for slumping, and many of them, even at the 

present time, exhibit corrugations and low fault scarps due to the 

flowage and slumping of the material toward the lowlands.

Not the least conspicuous feature of the slides is the- tilting of the 

older trees which, at many points, stand sharply inclined to the surface just as they were placed by the earthquake, except for a gradual

1 Safford, J. M., Geology of Tennessee, 1809, p. 113.

2 Shaler, N. S., Earthquakes of the western United States: Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 1869, p. 555.
U. S. GFOLOGICAL SURVEY

A. TREES TILTED BY NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE, CHICKASAW 

BLUFFS, TENN.

H. CY
FAULTS. 61

recovery of the perpendicular by the higher growth. This feature is 

described in detail on a subsequent page (p. 96),, and is illustrated by 

Plate IV, A.

Among the localities in which landslides occurred the east side of 

Reelfoot Lake is the most interesting. Going south from Samburg 

to Push, the traveler has the landslides almost constantly in view. 

Some of the scars on the bluff are from 10 to 20 feet high and 200 

feet long, and faults extending across the fans from the side ravines 

may often be seen. One and one-half miles beyond Push there is a 

landslide of unusually striking character, the road winding about 

among the mounds and ridges and beneath gigantic trees inclined as 

if about to fall (PI. IV, A). Numerous cracks cross an adjacent 

fan and the bluffs above are rent into a tangle of troughs and ridges. 

Near Courtney Springs (Grace post office) another area of especially 

marked disturbance is encountered, sharp ridges formed by the

slump of the hillside alternating with deep trenches in a most confusing manner. This locality is picturesquely called the "Devils 

Hens Nest" by the inhabitants. In one of the landslide trenches is 

a pond, known locally as "Lake in the Hill," about 100 feet long. 

Originally it must have been much longer, but it has been drained 

by the erosion of the barrier by its outflowing waters.

Cause. The cause of the landslides was the disturbance of the 

somewhat delicate equilibrium existing in the bluff by the earthquake. Geologically the bluff consists of a thick series of shaly clays 

extending from below the base upward for some distance, these being 

hi turn overlain by less clayey silts, the Lafayette gravels, and finally 

by the loess. Water soaking downward collected in the more sandy 

beds above the clays, developing a sort of "lubricating action" at the 

clay contact. At the same time it produced, by saturating the base 

of the upper deposits, a zone of easy flowage and slipping. The 

bluffs, formed by undercutting at an ancient stage of the Mississippi, 

had not yet been brought by erosion to their normal angle of repose 

and were in a condition of unstable equilibrium, to destroy which 

only the shock of the earthquake was needed, and then down came 

the material in a body. This, it appears, was their mode of origin. 

It does not mean, however, that no landslides occurred before 1811; 

there probably were some, for it is known that small ones are still 

occurring. From the relative ages of the inclined and straight trees, 

however, it appears that a considerable part of the slipping occurred 

about a century ago, and it is believed to have taken place mainly at 

the time of the New Madrid shocks.
62 THE ]STEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

WARPING. 

UPLIFTS AND DOMING.

The records. Several of the contemporary accounts of the earthquake note the occurrence of uplifts as weh1 as sinking of the land. 

Thus Bryan 1 states that "the numerous large ponds which covered a 

large part of the country were nearly dried up. The beds of some of 

them were elevated above their former banks several feet, producing 

an alteration of 10 to 20 feet from the horizontal surface." A. N. 

Dillard 2 says that "previous to the earthquake keelboats would 

come up the St. Francis River and pass into the Mississippi [through 

Little River] 3 miles below New Madrid. The bayou is now dry 

land." Hildreth 3 describes the heaving of the bottom of the Mississippi as sufficient to turn back the waters. Flint 4 says '' a bursting of the earth just below the village of New Madrid arrested the 

mighty stream in its course," and states further that new islands 

were created. Still others record the formation of rapids by faults 

or doming (p. 58). Lyell,5 who visited the area in 1846, says: 

"From the mouth of the Ohio to that of the St. Francis, including a 

tract 300 miles in length, * * * was convulsed to such a degree 

as to create new islands in the river." In the main, however, he 

regards the action as one of subsidence, stating that "there are no 

protuberances of upraised alluvial soil projecting above the level 

surface of the great plain." In this, however, he was mistaken.

In 1837 Usher 6 described, apparently for the first time, the uplift 

on the south side of the New Madrid bend (Tiptonville dome), giving 

a diagram showing the uplift as continuing to the mouth of the 

Obion River. The best account of this dome, however, is that of 

McGee,7 who bases his belief in its existence upon the height of the 

banks, which are not subject to overflow, and upon the exposure of

the underlying clays, which elsewhere along the Mississippi are below 

water level.

In the course of the writer's studies numerous other elevations 

above the Mississippi flood plains were examined, including the long, 

narrow, north-south prairies shown on Plate I. Two other domelike 

aggregations exist. The larger of these is near Blytheville, in 

northeastern Mississippi County, Ark., and has a diameter of 7 to 10 

miles, while the smaller is on Little River just west of Tyronza 

Lake and has a diameter of only 2 or 3 miles. No sections showing 

the lower clays were observed, but the fact that the elevations lie

1 Bryan, Eliza, quoted in Am. Geologist, vol. 30,1902, p. 78.

2 J. W. Foster, The Mississippi Valley, Chicago, 1869, pp. 9-22.

3 Hildreth, S. P., Original contributions to the American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1844, pp. 34-35. 

* Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last ten years, Boston, 1826, p. 224.

5 Lyell, Charles, Principles of geology, vol. 1, London, 1875, pp. 452-453.

6 Usher, F. C., Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 31,1837, p. 296.

i McGee. W J, Bull. Geol. Soc. America, vol. 4,1892, pp. 411-412.
UPLIFTS AND DOMING. 63

athwart the courses of the streams, in positions which apparently 

indicate that they can not be the result of differential erosion, gives 

weight to the,doming hypothesis. The three uplifts may be termed, 

according to the location, the Tiptonville, Blytheville, and Little 

River domes.

Tiptonville dome. The Tiptonville dome, so far as can be determined from the sections along the river bank and from the descriptions of Usher 1 and McGee,2 extends from the vicinity of New Madrid 

southward to the vicinity of Caruthersville, a distance of 15 miles, 

and from a point west of the Mississippi to Reelfoot Lake, a distance 

of 5 to 8 miles. The maximum doming appears to lie in a relatively 

narrow belt, extending from near the south side of the Mississippi at New 

Madrid a little east of south to a point 2 or 3 miles south of Reelfoot 

Lake. The uplift in this belt has been sufficient to raise the surface 

above the reach of the highest floods. The' structure of the dome is 

shown on the banks of the Mississippi where the river cuts the higher

portion. The upper 20 feet or so is composed of the sandy loam, clays, 

quicksand, etc., which everywhere characterize the alluvial deposits of 

the Mississippi, below which is exposed a thickness of several feet of 

stiff bluish-green clays that nearly everywhere underlie the alluvium. 

These clays are not exposed elsewhere along the Mississippi, although 

they are encountered in numerous wells.

The configuration of the dome, as pointed out by McGee, 2 indicates 

that it was 

originally a part of the broad flood plain extending from the mouth of the Ohio to the 

Gulf, and its exceptional altitude and general conformation suggests a localized uplift. Moreover, several of the dry bayous enter Reelfoot Lake squarely or obliquely, 

and when this occurs there is no trace of delta building, and both channel and natural 

levees may be traced for long distances in the lake; indeed, for some distances they may 

be traced throughout their extent and found to connect in the form of a fairly definite 

drainage system. This absence of deltas indicates that the uplift or deformation 

occurred suddenly. Furthermore, it is found that while great cypresses, sycamores, 

and poplars, sometimes two or three centuries old, grow over the general surface of 

the dome, no trees older than 70 or 75 years grow within the unoccupied bayous; from 

which it may be. inferred that the uplift occurred at least 70 or 75 years ago, and probably not much earlier.

The amount of uplift, judging from the fact that the land is only 

10 to 15 feet above high-water mark, could not have been over 15 or 

20 feet. Some of the uplift was almost certainly due to the earthquake of 1811, but if Little Prairie, on which New Madrid is situated, 

is a part of the dome, the uplift will have to be referred to an earlier 

date, as New Madrid village previous to the shock was on high land, 

never covered by the floods.

Blytheville dome. This dome, which, as previously stated, is 7 to 

10 miles in diameter, has the same general characteristics as the

i Usher, F. C., loc. cit. * McGee, W J, loc. cit.
64 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

Tiptonville dome, just described, with the exception that its continuity 

is broken by valleys formed by the meanders of Pemiscot River and 

by indentations due to former swings of the Mississippi, the position 

of which is now marked by the bayous known as Clear and Flat 

lakes. The elevation, if actually a dome as there is good reason to 

believe, didnot result from the shock of 1811,for the Mississippi, which 

has manifestly had a part in shaping its outline, has not flowed against 

it since that date. The widening of the Pemiscot Valley by the 

meandering of the stream is likewise an earlier feature, relatively 

little change having taken place since 1811. The total uplift is 

probably not over 10 or 15 feet.

Little River dome. Little River dome does not differ in general 

character from the two just described, but has suffered probably less 

change in outline than the others, the oval shape being still very 

distinct. Little River meanders indiscriminately through high and 

low ground in a manner likely to result only from superimposition or 

from doming of the strata beneath its established bed. The depression through its center seems to be an original one and not the result 

of erosion. In this locality there is no reason to doubt that the 

doming was the result, in part at least, of the earthquake of 1811. 

The uplift was probably not more than 5 or 10 feet.

Other domes. Besides the more notable domes just described there 

are several low elevations in the vicinity of the sunk lands which may 

be of similar character. Near the outlet of Big Lake, in Mississippi 

County, Ark., just south of the Missouri line, especially, the topography seems to indicate that the subsidence of the lake basin was 

accompanied by a corresponding elevation immediately to the west, 

which shut off to a certain extent the original drainage, and gave 

rise to the present lake. 1

Cause of uplifts and doming. The hypothesis that the writer 

regards with most favor as an explanation of the uplifts and doming, 

although it must be held as largely lacking in definite proof, assumes 

a lateral movement of the deposits of the central part of the embayment area toward a fault having the direction and position indicated 

by Plate I. This movement took place by virtue of a subsidence of 

the "Mississippi trough," and formed the corrugations represented 

by the domes and basins shown in figure 18 (p. 108). The matter 

is further discussed on pages 105 to 109.

DEPRESSION "SUNK LANDS."

No other feature of the New Madrid region is so conspicuous and 

striking or so widely known as the so-called "sunk lands," resulting 

from the local settling or warping of the alluvial deposits of western

* Morgan, A. E., and Baxter, O. G., Report on the St. Francis Valley drainage project; Bulk Oflace 

Exper. Sta. No. 230, U. S. Dept. Agr., pt. 1, p. 11.
1). S. GEOLOGICAL SURVE

-1. WATER WEEDS OF SHALLOWER LAKES OF THE SUNK LANDS, VARNEY RIVER, MO.

H. RIVER-SWAMP TYPE OF SUNK LANDS FORMED BY NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE, VARNEY

RIVER, MO.
DEPRESSION" SUNK LANDS. 65

Tennessee, southeastern Missouri, and northeastern Arkansas by the 

action of the earthquake of 1811. The accounts of eyewitnesses are 

particularly vivid and tell not only of the major alterations, which can 

still be recognized after the lapse of a hundred years, but of many 

minor changes now difficult to distinguish from the normal irregularities of the Mississippi bottoms.

TYPES.

The sunk lands may for convenience be divided into (1) those 

marked by sand sloughs, (2) those characterized by river swamps, 

and (3) those covered with lakes of standing water.

The sand sloughs, which are elsewhere described (p. 83), are broad, 

shallow troughs, generally of considerable length, several feet in depth, 

and marked by more or less extensive, well-denned ridges covered by 

extruded sand interspersed with depressions in which the timber has

been killed by standing water (PI, IV, B).

The river swamps include the depressed are#s along certain of the 

streams (fig. 9), the level of which is such that water stands over 

them for considerable periods, but does not cover them so deep as to 

prevent the growth of timber. They are therefore characterized 

by wet-land timber, most of which is young growth, although it may

Original level of crest of stream bank pi nf at-rpam bea 5^---- - .------ ~ ------------- ^ outside of "sunK area" SI .or. stream, 5=4. ^r=^ ^-Lgye). of tMrtiroiftg r- 50pg-ideneg^~ *?-.- -,--.---------- 

- - - ie vej_ pt stream .bed. I n/'sun_K.area. --

FIGURE 9. Longitudinal section along stream crossing sunk lands.

include living trees antedating the New Madrid earthquake (PI. V, A). 

Often the stumps of characteristic upland varieties of trees killed 

by the subsidence may be seen. The stream banks in these areas, 

although, submerged for long periods, are often above water during 

the dry seasons of the year.

The sunk-land lakes are broad, shallow, and essentially permanent 

bodies of water occurring in depressions of the bottom lands near 

the Mississippi and other streams or along the depressed channels of 

streams like the St. Francis. They are simply a stage beyond the 

river swamps, the water in the lakes being sufficient to cover the 

banks of the streams, except in seasons of unusual drought, and to 

prevent the growth of timber in the deeper parts. In the more 

extensive lakes considerable areas of open water, obstructed only by 

stumps of the timber killed by the submergence, are frequently 

found, but in the narrower fluvio-lacustrine types a growth of water 

weeds often covers the surface. Most of the lakes grade outward 

into swamps, and there is often a considerable encroachment of young 

cypress at the sides (PI. V, A), but the centers of many will probably remain practically free from timber for at least another century. 

Even where the water weed is most abundant the original channel 

can usually be traced by a line of open water.

9800° Bull. 494 12 5
66 THE NEW MAJDKID EARTHQUAKE.

FORM AND TREND.

There is considerable diversity in the form of the sunk-land areas. 

A few are short and oval, as are Flag Lake, northeast of .Kennett 

(PL I), and Flag Prong or Sunk Land Lake (fig. 7), but most of them 

are long and narrow. Thus Lake St. Francis, although in most places 

less than half a mile wide, is nearly 40 miles long. The swampy

sunk lands west of the 

lake are of about the 

same length, though 

none are more than 2 

or 3 miles broad. Buffalo Creek slough, between the lake and the 

prairie, is at few places 

more than about onefourth of a mile wide, 

but is practically continuous for 35 miles or 

more. Broader and 

shorter sunk areas are 

found at Big Lake and 

in the East Swamp a 

few miles east of Campbell, but even in these 

the linear character is 

still conspicuous.

Although generally 

linear the sunk-land 

areas are not straight,

but are invariably

more or less crooked 

and usually dendritic, 

many narrow arms 

branching out and returning, forming a network of channels. This 

is especially well shown 

in the St. Francis sunkland district represented in figure 10 and is in marked contrast to the isolated crescentic 

forms characterizing the lakes and swamps occupying bayous of the 

Mississippi, represented in figure 11.

The most irregular of the sunk-land lakes is Reelfoot, which is 

marked by numerous long points projecting from its shores and by 

the large bays between them (fig. 12). Its form is probably due to

Lakes andrivers Swamps in'stmk-land' channels - 

FIGURE 10. Form of channels in sunk-land district along St. 

Francis River.
DEPRESSION- -" SUNK LANDS/' 67

the fact that the basin occupied by the lake is not entirely a structural depression, but includes land over which the waters of the lake 

were ponded back by an uplift at its southern end.

An examination of Plate I will show that practically without exception the sunk lands have a northeast-southwest trend, the bearing 

being not far from N. 30° E., agreeing essentially with the trend of

FIGURE 11. Forms of bayou-channels and bayou-lakes near Mississippi River.

Chickasaw Bluffs, Mississippi River, the Tiptonville-Blytheville line 

of doming, the prairie elevations, and Crowley Ridge, thus paralleling 

both the structural and the topographic features of the region.

AMOUNT OF SUBSIDENCE.

In the sense in which the word subsidence is used in this report it 

signifies the difference in elevation between the bottoms of the sunk 

lands and the surrounding alluvial flats, the possibility of elevation 

of the alluvial flats being for the moment disregarded. The smaller 

sand sloughs, swamps, and ponds, as in the case of the sand slough 

leading southwest from Lake St. Francis and the small ponds in 

sees. 3 and 4 in T. 9 N., R. 5 E. (fig. 7), are often depressed only 

2 or 3 feet with reference to the surrounding areas. The lower 

swamps are not infrequently depressed 5 to 10 feet below the general 

level of the bottoms, and it is probable that in Lake St. Francis and in 

other large lakes the depression reaches 15 or 20 feet in places. Certainly the water stands from 6 to 10 feet deep over the original flood
68 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

plain at many points or from 20 to 30 feet or more over the bottom 

of the original channel. The deeper parts of Reelfoot Lake, including 

the channels of the old Reelfoot and Bayou du Chien creeks and the 

depressions known as basins (fig. 12), are reported to be from 14 to 

20 feet deep at low water. It is probable that in this lake the water 

stands from 2 to 10 feet, or possibly even more locally, over the 

original land surface.

DISTRIBUTION.

The known sunk lands are practically limited to the flat bottom 

lands of Mississippi, Little, and St. Francis rivers, and those on each 

of these streams are found between structural or topographic ridges of 

greater elevation; the easternmost between the Chickasaw Bluffs and 

the Tiptonville-Blytheville line of Homing, the second between the 

dome mentioned and the prairie ridge extending from Big Lake to 

beyond Maiden, and the third between the prairie indicated and 

Crowley Ridge. Sinking doubtless occurred at many other points, 

as, for instance, at New Madrid, but in general its occurrence can now 

be recognized only on the bottom lands where the obstruction of 

drainage makes it apparent.

The general distribution of the sunk-land areas between the structural and topographic ridges has been indicated in the preceding 

paragraph and it only remains to present a few descriptive notes on 

the occurrences at various points.

On Plate I are shown a considerable number of sunk-land areas in 

the St. Francis basin, while a smaller number between Campbell and 

Cairo are also indicated. The sinking in the latter region was much 

less than in the region south of Campbell and New Madrid, but the 

fact that the areas indicated occur within the region of marked disturbance, as evidenced by the numerous sand blows and by the 

fissures, the latter of which occur at least as far as Charleston (PL III), 

and by agreement in general characteristics with the known sunk 

lands (fig. 10) rather than with the swamps of the bayou type (fig. 11), 

leads the writer to class them as sunk lands. In general, however, 

there is far less water than hi the southern sunk lands, and little 

timber was killed by submergence.

The most northern locality at which conspicuous examples of sunk 

lands have been reported is in the vicinity of New Madrid. Hildreth i 

states that the site of the town was originally 15 or 20 feet above the 

floods of the river, but sank so low at the time of the earthquake that 

the next rise covered it to a depth of 5 feet. According to Bryan 2 

the settling amounted to 15 feet, although half a mile below town 

there was no change in the banks whatever. Bradbury 3 says that

1 Hildreth, S. P., Original contributions to the American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1844, p. 35.

2 Bryan, Eliza, quoted in Am. Geologist, vol. 30, pp. 77-78.

a Bradbury, John, Early western travels, Cleveland, 1904, vol. 5, p. 210.
DEPRESSION " SUNK LANDS/' 69

2 Miles

Blue BanFTobstruction to Reeifoot Creek

FIGUEE 12. Map of Beelfoot Lake and its submerged drainage channels.
70 THE NEW MADRID EAETHQtJAKE.

the greater part of the plain on which the town was situated became 

a lake.

Lyell, who visited the region in 1846, when the evidences were 

much clearer than at present, says of the district west of New Madrid:

The largest area affected by the convulsion lies 8 or 10 miles westward of the Mississippi and inland from the town of New Madrid, in Missouri. It is called the "sunk 

country" and is said to extend along the course of the White Water (Little River?) 

and its tributaries for a distance of between 70 and 80 miles north and south and 30 

miles or more east and west. Throughout this area innumerable submerged trees, 

some standing leafless, others prostrate, are seen; and so great is the extent of the lake 

and marsh that an active trade in the skins of muskrats, minks, otters, and other wild 

animals is now carried on there. In March, 1846, I skirted the borders of the sunk 

country nearest to New Madrid, passing along the Bayou St. John and Little Prairie, 

where dead trees of various kinds some erect in the water, others fallen and strewed 

in dense masses over the bottom, in the shallows, and near the shore were conspicuous. 1

Farther south similar conditions exist. Dillard 2 says:

I have trapped there [in the region of the St. Francis] for 30 years. There is a 

great deal of sunken land caused by the earthquake of 1811. There are large trees 

of walnut, white oak, and mulberry, such as grow on high land, which are now seen 

submerged 10 and 20 feet beneath the water. In some of the lakes I have seen 

cypresses so far beneath the surface that with a canoe I have paddled among the 

branches.

The most northern point at which these sunk lands west of the 

Mississippi were examined in detail by the writer was near Kennett, 

Mo., where a trip was-made by dug-out on Varny River, a tributary 

bayou of the St. Francis. Along this river are considerable stretches 

of water destitute of timber, except for an occasional dead or nearly 

dead cypress, but covered with a dense growth of water weed, through 

which a narrow but deep channel meanders (PI. V, A). Working the 

boat through the tangle of weeds, it is found that the water about the 

gaunt dead trunks (PI. IV, B] is many feet deep. Nothing can be 

seen of the enlarged butts which normally characterized the cypress 

trunks from the water surface upward for several feet, but on sounding with an oar the enlargements may be detected.

As the water was, at the time of the writer's visit, at its usual 

height, it is apparent that there must have been a rise in its normal 

level of 5 to 8 feet or more since the trees were young. In fact, the 

original banks of the river appear to be submerged several feet below 

the water, even in dry seasons, while the average submergence may be 

as much as 10 or 15 feet. The greater part of the timber in Varny 

River sunk lands has long since fallen and been covered by the waters, 

though some dead or nearly dead trees (PI. V, A) remain. The latter 

apparently stand in relatively shallow spots where the submergence 

was not sufficient to kill the cypress immediately, the trees lingering

1 Lyell, Charles, Principles of geology, vol. 1, London, 1875, p. 253.

2 Foster, J. W., The Mississippi valley, Chicago, 1869, p. 21.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

A. YOUNG GROWTH ALONG EDGES OF SUNK LANDS, VARNEY RIVER, MO.

K. CHANNEL OF VARNEY RIVER, MO.
DEPRESSION SUNK LANDS/' 71

for years, some even to the present time, before succumbing to their 

changed environment. Along the edges of the submerged lands the 

young trees form a dense wall of timber (PL VI, A), invariably 

characterized by enlarged butts and contrasting strongly with the 

straight trunks of submerged trees (PI. IV, B). This young growth 

has sprung up since the shock and is rapidly encroaching on the 

swamp (fig. 13). The sharp line of demarcation is shown in Plate 

VI, B, in which the young growth to the right is contrasted to the 

'open portion in which the timber was killed to the left. On nearer 

approach the details shown by Plate V, B and VI, A are observed, 

the enlargements of the butts above the water being especially noticeable in contrast with the straightness of the older trunks at the 

water's edge.

Apparent evidences of faulting in this region have been cited by 

Prof. E. M. Shepard, who, describing a trip made several years ago 

into the swamps, states that a to the east of a north and south line 

at one point in the swamp the timber grows tall and erect, while to the

lYoung cypress Submerged 

Present water level________ h cypress

FIGURE 13. Section showing cypress killed by submergence and young growth springing up in the less 

deeply submerged areas. The present water level shown Is that of normal high water.

west it appears to be submerged to a depth of from 10 to 15 feet." 1 

The present writer was unable to verify the occurrence of this supposed fault, and no such features were noted by him in any of the 

other lakes or sunk-land swamps examined.

Near Caruthersville there was considerable local sinking and-a 

number of small sunk areas occur, but many were filled or rendered 

unrecognizable by the overflow of the Mississippi before the construction of the levees. Walnut stumps are said to be found just below the 

surface in swamps along the railroad.

In the "Lake Nicormy swamps," a few miles west of Caruthersville, the conditions are said to be similar to those near Varny River, 

but the submergence appears to be less and more of the old timber 

has survived, especially near the edges.

Big Lake, located in Mississippi County, Ark., near the Missouri 

line and south of Varny River, presents all the usual evidences of 

forest and other features characteristic of sunk lands submergence. 

The bottom of the lake is covered with a fallen forest of hardwood of 

varieties that commonly grow on dry ground, the prostrate trunks of 

which nearly all he in the same direction. According to the engineers

1 Shepard, E, M., The New Madrid earthquake: Jour. Geology, vol. 13, p. 50.
72 ' THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

in charge of the St. Francis Valley drainage project, this lake is the 

most obvious example of sunk lands in eastern Arkansas, although 

the ponding of the water was probably in part due to an uplift crossing 

the old drainage lines.1

On the Hatchie Coon Sunk Lands, stretching along the St. Francis 

in Craighead County, Ark., oak, cypress, sweet gum, etc., are found 

standing in water up to their branches and in some places buried in 

sand, etc.; it is said that the roots are 50 feet below the surface. All 

are dead. Elsewhere, especially near Lake City, considerable ex-' 

panses of water entirely open except for the water weed were noted, 

the original timber having fallen long ago. Where the water is shallower, however, great trunks, most of them lifeless, still rise to considerable heights, indicating that many of them must have survived 

long after the submergence due to the earthquake. Plate IV, B, 

shows two of these trunks rising straight from the water with no sign 

of the enlarged butts, which, however, were detected with an oar a 

number of feet below the water surface. The encroachment of the 

young growth is not so conspicuous as on Varny River. The original 

flood plain lies deep beneath the waters, except in periods of extreme 

drought, when the waters subside so that they barely show at the 

surface. At a similar stage of water outside the sunk area the trunks 

would be normally many feet above the water level.

In Lake St. Francis, a continuation of the enlargement of St. 

Francis River, just south of the Hatchie Coon Sunk Lands, the conditions are very similar to those just described. The growth, so far as 

it exists in the lake, is reported to be young, consisting of wet-land 

varieties which have sprung up since the high-land species were killed 

by the submergence. Old cypress stumps and submerged trees projecting from the water are said to be found for a distance of one-half 

to.l mile from shore.

Submerged trees over which one may float in a canoe are reported 

in Golden Lake, near Wilson, Mississippi County, Ark., and in other 

lakes in that vicinity. In Lake Tyronza submerged timber is also 

common, as it is along Tyronza River for several miles northeast of 

Tyronza village. Dead Timber Lake, a depressed stream channel 

connected with Tyronza River, is an open lake with water 6 to 8 feet 

deep from Tyronza to Deckerville. At times of low water stumps as 

numerous as the trees in the thickest forest are said to be visible 

along its bed.

.In addition should be mentioned Flag Prong and Sunk Land Lake, 

sees. 3 and 4, T. 9 N., R. 5 E. (fig. 7). The former is a straight sunk 

trough about half a mile long, in which stand submerged stumps of 

mulberry and other highland species. The new growth is mainly

1 Morgan, A. E., and Baxter, 0. G., Kept, on the St. Francis drainage project: Bull. Office Exper. Sta., 

U. S. Dept. Agr., No. 230, PL I, p. 10.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 494 PLATE VII

A. STUMPS OF TIMBER KILLED BY SUBMERGENCE CAUSED BY THE NEW MADRID 

EARTHQUAKE, REELFOOT LAKE, TENN.

IS. ELEVATED CYPRESS NEAR SOUTH END OF REELFOOT LAKE, TENN.
DEPRESSION " SUNK LANDS. ** 73

flags. In Sunk Land Lake the conditions are essentially the same. 

Log Lake seems to be a depressed bayou as it is much wider than the 

ordinary channel of the St. Francis and too small to be a Mississippi 

bayou. No sunk timber is reported in it, but living cypress trees 

hundreds of years old stand in its bottom. If it is to be regarded as 

sunk land it must be referred to an earthquake long antedating the 

New Madrid shocks of 1811. Willow Pond, in sec. 6 of the same 

township, was marked as sunk land by the land survey of 1845-46, 

but no stumps are now visible. The bottom is very sandy and supports only flags and willows. The absence of cypress timber, which . must have obtained a foothold if the pond was much older than 1811, 

suggests that notwithstanding the absence of stumps it is to be classed 

with the sunk lands produced by the New Madrid shock.

The most typical sunk land of the whole earthquake area is Reel- \\ 

foot Lake in Tennessee. This lake is 8 or 10 miles in length and 2 or 

3 in breadth (early statements gave it lengths up to 75 miles and 

widths of 5 to 10 miles). McGee 1 in a description of the lake says:

Here and there, particularly toward the western side, groves of sickly cypresses 

spring from its bottom and half shadow the water surface with puny branches and 

scant foliage, and here and there throughout all portions of the water body, save in 

the channels of the old bayous, gaunt cypress trunks with decaying branches stand, 

sometimes a dozen to the acre, numbering many thousands in all. Moreover, between the decaying boles, rising a score to a hundred feet above the water, there are 

ten times as many stumps, commonly of lesser trees, rising barely to low-water level.

Reference to figure 12, compiled from information collected by the 

writer, will bring out clearly the shape and general conditions at the 

lake. On it will be seen the positions of the submerged channels of 

Bayou du Chien and Reelfoot Creek, at the junction of which an old 

sycamore stump, many feet in diameter, once standing on high 

ground, and marking a corner of one of the old Spanish land grants, 

can still be seen. Here and there are the basins, probably representing, as McGee suggests, old Mississippi bayous or the "lakes" of 

the inhabitants.

The submergence in Reelfoot Lake ranges from 5 to perhaps 20 

feet, although greater depths are reported. The submerged area 

was well wooded, much of it being covered with species characteristic 

of dry situations. Most of the timber remained upright after the 

shock but was gradually killed by the rising waters. The trunks 

retained their branches for a time, but these gradually dropped away. 

The better timber was cut off, as shown by the lower stumps in Plate 

VII, A, but the poorer trees were allowed to stand until they finally 

broke off, leaving the shattered stumps shown by the view. Throughout practically the whole extent of the lake stumps may be seen 

projecting above the water, or the remains of old logs may be detected

i McGee, W J, A fossil earthquake: Bull. Geol. Soc. America, vol. 4.1892.
74 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

beneath the surface. Over large areas the trunks are upright, projecting above the surface by thousands as shown in Plate VII, A, 

from a view taken near Samburg. The visible stumps, however, 

represent but a small part of the whole, thousands having rotted or 

broken off below the surface. Many are charred as if burned off. 

Owen,1 in fact, says that fires frequently swept from the shores 

outward through the closely crowded dead timber of the lake. So 

thick and high was this dead timber as recently as 1855 that Safford 2 

stated that even where the lake could not be seen its outline could be 

traced when looking out over the forest by the lines of dead cypress 

around its borders. As in the case of the Missouri and Arkansas 

swamps the difference between the old and young growth is distinct 

and unmistakable, old straight-sided submerged trunks being frequently seen side by side with a younger growth with the characteristic enlarged butts.

FIGURE 14. Section across submerged channel of Reelfoot Creek, showing tilted trunks along old banks 

upright trunks on old bottoms, and living cypresses on slightly submerged natural levees.

Near the submerged channels of Reelfoot and Bayou du Chien 

creeks the stumps are inclined (fig. 14), their slant being apparently due to the slumping of the banks of the natural levees from 

which they grew. In other places the timber over large areas was 

completely prostrated, and where the water is shallow hundreds of

trunks may be seen lying below the surface or barely projecting 

above it. New growth is starting in the shallow parts of the lake, 

especially along the old natural levees, which are relatively near the 

surface. Along Reelfoot Creek the land was low and swampy before 

the earthquake, and cypress constituted the predominating timber. 

On the higher ground, however, walnut, ash, oak, elm, catalpa, 

mulberry, etc., abounded, and then- stumps may still be recognized 

among those in the lake.

CAUSE OF SINKING.

The sunk lands may be divided for convenience into local and 

general areas. The former, commonly known as sloughs, are nearly 

always associated with extrusion of sand and may have resulted from

> Owen, D. D., Kept. Geol. Survey Kentucky, 1854-1855. 

2 Safford, J. M., Geology of Tennessee, 1869.
DEPRESSION " SUNK LANDS." 75

undermining incident to the ejection of the quicksand beneath the 

upper alluvial beds or from the contraction of this sand caused by 

its agitation and readjustment by the earthquake vibrations and the 

loss of its water. The more extensive sunk lands, however, especially 

when taken collectively (as the St. Francis group), seem to require 

a more potent cause, there being far too little extruded matter to 

account for the depressions. This cause is presumably allied to those 

producing the doming, which are considered in connection with that 

phenomenon (pp. 64 and 106). In brief, the sunk lands probably 

resulted from a warping and lateral movement incident to a subsidence in the floor of the basin, approximately along the line of the 

faulting that gave rise to the earthquake.

In the formation of Reelfoot Lake, the best known of the sunkland areas, there appear to have been several contributing causes. 

Several of the earlier writers mention the extrusion of sand along 

the lower part of Reelfoot Creek in amounts sufficient to clog "the 

channel and obstruct the drainage, and this may have assisted in 

ponding the waters. The land at the south or lower end of the lake, 

however, now stands from 10 to 25 feet above the level of the lake 

bottom, although both appear to have been originally a part of the 

same approximately level surface. Both sinking and uplift seem to 

have taken place. The land about Reelfoot Lake has undoubtedly 

sunk, giving an increased gradient and acclerated velocity to the 

little streams entering from the east, with the result that the old 

valleys and fans have been trenched in many places by small but sharp 

channels. On the other hand, the bottom of Reelfoot Creek channel 

is a number of feet higher in what was originally the lower part of its 

course than in the old upper part now covered by the lake. Again, 

south of Reelfoot Lake cypresses with fully developed knees, such as 

develop only in water, are found on the high land not now flooded, 

pointing to a differential elevation of this region. The main movement along the lake appears to have been downward and was due in 

part to a general depression and in part to faulting. Several of the 

faults are mentioned on page 58. The uplift at the foot of the lake 

seems to have formed a part of the general uplift of the Tiptonville 

dome. The line between the uplifted and submerged lands at the 

south end of the lake is so sharp that it suggests faulting or at least 

a very sharp flexure.

West of the Mississippi the conditions were essentially the sarnie, for 

although, as in the Reelfoot region, the land was low and wet before 

1811-12, the waters were much deeper after the earthquake, the 

ponding being a result of subsidence and the formation of basins 

combined with a certain amount of drainage obstruction due to local 

elevation.
76 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

EXTRUSION. 

RECORDS.

That the phenomena of extrusion, including the ejection of water, 

sand, mud, and gas, were among the most noticeable features of the 

earthquake is shown by all published accounts, and this has been 

fully substantiated by the writer's studies of the extrusion deposits 

represented by the sand blows and sloughs.

Probably the most reliable account is that of Bringier, the engineer, 

who says * that the water forced its way through the surface deposits 

blowing up the earth with loud explosions. It rushed out in all quarters, bringing 

with it an enormous quantity of carbonized wood, reduced mostly into dust, which 

was ejected to the height of from 10 to 15 feet, and fell in a black shower, mixed with 

the sand, which its rapid motion had forced along; at the same time the roaring and 

whistling produced by the impetuosity of the air escaping from its confinement seemed 

to increase the horrible disorder * * *. In the meantime the surface was sinking 

and a black liquid was rising to the belly of my horse.

Bradbury 2 records a case reported to him by an observer of a 

chasm which on closing threw water to the height of a tall tree. 

Similar statements are made by Hildreth,3 Foster,4 and Lloyd,5 but 

are apparently based on current reports rather than on observation.

The quantity of water extruded was enormous. In the vicinity of 

Little Prairie (Caruthersville), according to Flint,6 the amount was 

sufficient to cover a tract many miles in extent from 3 to 4 feet deep. 

Some districts were still covered at the time of his visit seven years 

later.

Several writers record the extrusion of gas besides the sand, mud, 

and water. Hildreth 7 says:

The sulphurated gases that were discharged during the shocks tainted the air with 

their noxious effluvia and so strongly impregnated the water of the river to the distance 

of 150 miles below that it could hardly be used for any purpose for a number of days.

CHARACTER OF EJECTED MATERIAL.

As to the nature of the ejected material there are several lines of 

evidence. On one hand its character is mentioned in nearly all 

accounts of the disturbance and careful contemporary examinations 

were made and recorded, while on the other we have at the present 

time evidences of its nature in the sand blows, sand dikes, and in the 

material brought up by wells and springs. The material ejected 

everywhere consisted of sand, -with a certain admixture of carbonai Bringier, L., Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 3,1821, pp. 15-46. 

 2 Bradbury, John, Early western travels, Cleveland, 1904, vol. 5, p. 209.

3 Hildreth, S. P., Original contributions to the American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1844, pp. 34-35. 

«Foster, J. W., The Mississippi Valley, Chicago, 18G9, pp. 19-25.

5 Lloyd, J. T., Lloyd's steamboat directory, Cincinnati, 1856, p. 325.

6 Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last ten years, Boston, 1826, p. 222. 

' Hildreth, S. P., op. cit., p. 35.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVE ULLETIN 494 PLATE VII)

PW*; V'^ '" -<f " ^ ^"^p^ 

SAND CONTAINING LIGNITE PARTICLES FROM DEEP WELL AT MEMPHIS, TENN.

IS. SAND CRATERLETS FORMED NEAhl SAN FRANCISCi; ,!, \,\i_ EARTHQUAKE OF 1906, SHOWING 

ORIGINAL APPEARANCE OF SAND BLOWS OF THE TYPE ILLUSTRATED IN PLATE IX.

Photograph by Everett P. Carey.
EXTRUSION. 77

ceous material, and an occasional foreign fragment, such as the 

cranium of the extinct musk ox (Bootherium bombifrons) later donated 

to the Lyceum of Natural History of New York.

The sand, which always constituted by far the greater part of the 

ejected material, consisted, as testified by the sand blows and craterlets, mostly of quartz with a certain admixture of clay and of lignitic 

and other organic material, which possibly gave rise to the "sulphurous" odors described. Afterward the clay and carbonaceous material was washed out and the sand became bleached nearly white, 

forming the characteristic white patches and belts that contrast so 

strongly with the ordinary black soil of the bottoms. The sand seems 

to have ranged from coarse to fine, a medium grain predominating.

Most of the contemporary accounts speak of the carbonaceous 

material as "coal," but others speak of it as "carbonized wood" or 

lignite. The material seen by Lyell near New Madrid is described in 

one place as bituminous coaly shale (clay), such as outcrops in the 

river bank and is found in shallow wells 35 feet or so below the 

surface, and in another as lignite. The best description of its behavior on combustion is given by Mifcchill, who examined samples submitted by a correspondent.1

I found it very inflammable; it consumed with a bright and vivid blaze. A copious 

emoke was emitted from it, whose smell was not at all sulphurous, but bituminous in 

a high degree. Taken out of the fire in its ignited and burning state, it did not immediately become extinct, but continued to burn until it was consumed. While blowed 

upon, instead of being deadened it became brighter by the blast. The ashes formed 

during the combustion were of a whitish color and when put into water imparted to 

it the quality of turning to a green the blue corolla of a phlox whose juice was subjected to ite action.

Some specimens of the lignitic matter were coated with a whitish 

or yellowish substance, suggesting sulphur, but it was probably the 

sulphate of iron common in lignite and certain coals. Wood not lignitized was also reported by some observers.

The .largest pieces of lignite observed by the writer were from £ 

inch to 1 inch in length and were obtained from the sand dike at 

Beachwell near Campbell, described on page 54 and illustrated in 

figure 8. More commonly the lignite occurs as minute particles 

mixed with the sand grains, as illustrated by. Plate VIII, A, which 

shows the appearance of Tertiary sands from a well at Memphis, as 

they appear when greatly enlarged under a microscope. The samples 

were furnished by Prof. E. M. Shepard.

TEMPERATURE OF EJECTED WATER.

Most witnesses say nothing of the temperature of the ejected 

waters, but positive statements are made by one or two. For

' Mitchill S. L., Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 1, p. 298.
78 THE NEW MADE-ID EARTHQUAKE.

instance, both Godfrey Lesieur 1 and a correspondent of Mitchill 2 

report lukewarm water extruded from the cracks in the New Madrid 

area. The extrusion of warm water is also reported by Haywood. 3 

This presumably arises from the subterranean warmth at even moderate depths. The mean annual temperature of the region is about 

54°, which would be approximately the temperature of the groundwater at the depth of no variation, say 50 feet below the surface. 

Water of this temperature emerging on a cold December night would 

be almost sure to feel warm. If it came from any considerable depth 

the temperature would be about 1° higher for every additional 50 

feet of the depth of its source.

ESCAPE OF GAS AND WATER AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE.

In a few places the ejection of water and gas continued for some 

time after the cessation of the earthquake shocks.

Foster in 1869 4 notes that " blasts of air and gas yet found their 

way to the surface through many of the half-filled fissures," and more 

recently Shepard has maintained that subterranean waters in the 

form of springs are still being forced up. He says:

A careful study of these streams, especially along the St. Francis, the Little Tyronza, 

and the Big Bay reveals the fact of the constant escape of water from small openings 

surrounded by little cones of sand. . This is noticeable for miles along the St. Francis 

and in the Big Bay district, especially on the bluff side of the streams. Deep-seated 

water, then, is constantly coming to the surface, bringing with it fine sand from below.

FiGtJBE 15. Diagram showing normal movements of ground water, such as give rise tosmall springs along

streams.

The writer visited the region in company with Prof. Shepard, but 

reached altogether different conclusions. The " small openings surrounded by little cones of sand" are minute springs from 1 to 4 inches 

in diameter, which, as-the writer's hydrologic studies lead him to conclude, differ in no way from the springs that everywhere rise in the 

bottom of streams under similar conditions. The volume of a single 

spring is only a fraction of a gallon a minute, and the whole flow of 

the streams depending upon the springs for their supply was well

i Lesieur, Godfrey, quoted in Am. Geologist, vol. 30,1902, pp. 79-80.

2Mitchill, S. L.,loc.cit.

a Haywood, John, The natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee, Nashville, 1823, introductory chapter.

'Foster, J. W., op. cit., p. 25.
SAND BLOWS. 79

under a second-foot. Moreover the numerous wells in the region 

show that although the water is under artesian pressure it lacks 

sufficient head to lift it to the surface. The springs can not, therefore, 

be artesian in nature, and are not of deep-seated origin, but represent rather the water fed from the water table in the ordinary manner as indicated in figure 15.

RESULTING FEATURES. 

SAND BLOWS.

Nature. The term "sand blows" is applied to the low patches of 

white sand which dot the dark alluvial surface of certain parts of the 

Mississippi and St. Francis bottom lands in the New Madrid earthquake area, the name being derived from the fact, according to statements handed down from the witnesses of the earthquake, that they 

were the result of extrusions or blows of sand from fissures produced 

by the shock. The normal blow is a patch of sand nearly circular iu 

shape, from 8 to 15 feet across and 3 to 6 inches high (PL VIII, B). 

Some of the blows are much larger, reaching a diameter of 100 feet or H

c

FIGURE 16. Profiles of sand blows and prairie mounds: o, Sand blow with crater depression; 6, sand 

blow of rounded type; c, prairie mound.

more in the case of the circular types, or lengths of about 200 feet 

and breadths of 25 to 50 feet irTthTlinear varieties. Many of the larger 

ones are a foot high, and some may be more. Usually the blows have a 

low, rounded profile with concave slopes but without trace of a central 

depression, although crater-like depressions were noted in rare 

instances. (See fig. 16.) It is assumed that they were all originally 

connected with fissures, some of which are now closed and afford 

-little evidence of their former existence, although others are still 

marked by notable dikes or stringers of sand. (PL III.)

The material is mainly a medium-white quartz sand, which forms 

a striking contrast with the dark mucky alluvium on which it rests. 

With the sand, however, is a greater or less number of particles or 

chips of lignite, which must originally have given it a somewhat grayish cast. In some instances there seems to have been more or less 

of a stiff, dark, lignitic clay, practically a shale, brought up with the 

sand, but this does not appear to be common.

It is desirable to emphasize at this point that the sand blows have 

no relationship to the prairie mounds, regarding which there has
80 THE NEW MADEID EARTHQUAKE.

recently been much discussion (fig. 16), although the two have been ^ 

sometimes confused. The sandjblows are confined to the NewJMadrid 

area of disturbance, are found only on the lowest of the Mississippi 

bottoms, are formed of loose white sand without soil, are only a few 

inches in height, are connected with sand dikes in the underlying 

alluvium, have concave instead of convex slopes; and some of them 

have basin or crater-like depressions in their tops. The prairie 

mounds, on the other hand, are found from Texas to Minnesota, occur 

on the high terraces and prairies or even on stony hillsides (as at 

Little Rock), but practically never on the lower floodplains, are 

composed of loam only slightly sandier or coarser than the underlying 

soil, are covered by several inches of soil, are often from 1 to 3 or even 

4 feet in height, are characterized by convex tops, are unconnected 

with sand dikes, and have no crater depressions at their crests. One 

familiar with the two types can distinguish them at a glance.

Situation. So far as seen the sand blows are limited to the low 

alluvial lands subject to overflow from the Mississippi or from the 

St. Francis River. They seldom occur on the higher parts of the 

bottoms, being generally absent from the Tiptonville, Blytheville, and 

Tyronza domes or uplifts. They do not occur at all on the prairie 

ridges, such as those southwest of Charleston, between Sikeston 

and New Madrid, and east of Lake St. Francis, nor upon the narrow 

prairie belt along the east side of Crowley Ridge north of Nettleton. 

Neither are they found on the highlands of Crowley Ridge or Chickasaw Bluffs. Another peculiarity of their distribution is their general 

absence along the Mississippi, none being noted within 3 or 4 miles 

of the river bank. This may be due in part to their obliteration by 

overflowing waters, but this appears hardly probable,°and apparently 

adequate reasons for their absence is afforded by the conditions of 

their formation (p. 87).

Distribution. The distribution of the sand blows is indicated on 

the accompanying earthquake map (PL I), that part west of the 

Mississippi being based mainly on field observations of the writer, 

and that east of the river on previously published reports. The principal area is oval in shape and extends from a point north of New 

Madrid on the north to beyond Lake St. Francis on the south. Its 

shorter diameter reaches from Crowley Ridge on the west to Mississippi River on the east. The area measures 65 miles in length 

and 25 miles in breadth and has an area of about 1,420 square miles.

The most northern point at which blows were observed was along 

the railroad between New Madrid and Campbell. They are, however, 

less conspicuous here than farther south, apparently indicating less 

intense disturbance. No distinct blows were observed on the railroad 

from Sikeston to Dexter a few miles north, although a few indefinite
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

A. PRESENT APPEARANCE OF SAND BLOW OF CRATERLET TYPE IN THE ARKANSAS 

AREA OF DISTURBANCE.

JS. COALESCENT OR LINEAR BLOWS OBSTRUCTING DRAINAGE IN THE ARKANSAS

DISTRICT.
SAND BLOWS. 81

sand patches, possibly representing extrusions, were seen. In the 

vicinity of Campbell, Mo., 15 miles southwest, however, especially 

between this town and the settlement of Beechwell, a few miles 

northeast, they are very numerous and of large size. One covering 

one-fourth of an acre and from 2 to 3 feet high afforded a site for 

a house. . South of the village of Lilbourn, a few miles west of New Madrid, 

to Caruthersville blows are moderately thick. They are first seen 

rather sparingly near Marston, becoming more numerous at Conran 

and still more so at Portageville, where the fields are sometimes 

dotted with them. At Delisle strong blows are seen, continuing, 

where the conditions are favorable, to Hayti. Between Hayti and 

Caruthersville they again decrease in number, apparently indicating 

that their eastern limit is being approached. On the lowlands in the 

vicinity of Stubtown, just west of Caruthersville, however, a considerable number of blows both of the linear and circular types occur. 

In several places the blows so obstruct the drainage as to cause the 

water to collect in shallow pools throughout the wet season. One 

or two with faint crater-like depressions were observed (PL IX, A).

On the railroad from Hayti to Kennett fairly strong blows are 

seen at Pascola and again in weaker development between Lake 

Nicormy and Kennett. North of Kennett to Campbell the land is 

somewhat higher than the average, and few blows are seen except 

beyond Gibson.

Going southward from Caruthersville to Blytheville the railroad 

runs at no great distance from the eastern limit of the sand-blow 

area and the extrusions are relatively inconspicuous. On the lowlands near Pemiscot Bayou, west of Blytheville, one linear and 

several circular blows were seen. Elsewhere the blows were so 

thick as to touch, giving rise to many irregular depressions, in some 

of which considerable pools of water accumulate (PL IX, B]. Where 

the blows were still thicker the whole surface was covered with a 

continuous sheet of extruded sand. A few weak blows were observed on the outskirts of the Blytheville dome. East of the town 

there were few blows, their place being taken by the sinks of the 

type described elsewhere (p. 87).

From Blytheville northwest along the railroad to Paragould blows 

are constantly in evidence. A short distance west of Chickasawba a 

fine symmetrical circular blow 100 feet in diameter, 1 foot high, and 

with a circular depression 15 feet across in the center may be seen. 

Beyond Pemiscot River sand blows are very numerous and rather 

weak, but become rapidly larger, higher, and .better defined farther 

west until some fields are reached that are one mass of small, low, 

sandy mounds. At Hornersville the blows are likewise very numerous, and many lie in a north-south linear arrangement, although not 

9800° Bull. 494 12 6
82 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

in absolutely straight lines. Elsewhere their distribution is entirely 

irregular. Many of the blows of this vicinity are marked by barren 

spots in the corn and cotton fields. Blows are well developed again 

at Cardwell and Bertig.

North of the railroad from Caruthersville and Paragould sand 

blows are numerous in the sand-slough region between Grand Prairie 

and the extension of Lake St. Francis and also, it is said, between the 

lake and Crowley Ridge as far north as Campbell.

On the railroad running westward from Blytheville to Jonesboro 

blows are seen at short intervals for the whole distance, especially 

between Blytheville and Lake City. From Blytheville to Chickasawba the blows are relatively scarce, but near Rozelle they begin 

to be thicker. Between Chicago Mill and Manila a very good crater 

depression in one of the blows was noted. At Black Oak and Monette 

the blows are particularly numerous, hundreds of small sand mounds 

standing out strongly against the dark soil. Some are arranged in 

long rows as if marking extrusions from a single crack. At Poplar 

Ridge some blows are seen on relatively high ground. West of St. 

Francis Lake, between Lake City and Jonesboro, sand is abundant 

nearly to the edge of the prairie terrace near Nettleton, and low 

mounds, probably blows, are seen at short intervals.

On the railroad running south from Jonesboro toward Memphis 

strongly developed blows are seen about Big Bay and Culberhouse, 

although they are not so conspicuous as in some other localities owing 

to the fact that here the whole soil is sandy and there is little contrast 

in color between the blows and the surrounding material. Blows are 

common also along the St. Francis and Tyronza rivers, where they 

range from a few feet to one-fourth of an acre in size, and extend, 

according to reports of surveyors, from the vicinity of Marked Tree 

northward and northeastward to the railroad extending from Blytheville to Jonesboro.

Although the greater part of the evidences of blows still remaining 

are included in the area described above and outlined on Plate I, 

they are by no means confined to this area but are found at many 

points outside its limits. Bryan* describes the extensive extrusion 

of sand in the New Madrid region. Flint 2 speaks of whole districts 

in this vicinity which were so covered with sand as to become 

uninhabitable. Lyell 3 mentions the extruded sand and shale at the 

edges of fissures. Bringier 4 thus describes the occurrence of blows 

in the same region:

The whole surface of the country remained covered with holes, which, to compare 

small things with great, resembled so many craters of volcanoes, surrounded with 

a ring of carbonized wood and sand. * * * I had occasion a few months after

1 Bryan, Eliza, quoted in Am. Geologist, vol. 30,1902, p. 77.

2 Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last ten years, Boston, 1826, p. 223. 

» Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States, vol. 2, p. 235. 

« Bringier, L., Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 3, pp. 15-46.
SAND SLOUGHS. 83

to sound the depth of several of these holes, and found them not to exceed 20 feet, 

but I must remark the quicksand had washed into them. The country here was 

formerly perfectly level and covered with prairies of various sizes dispersed through 

the woods. Now.it is covered with slashes (ponds) and sand hills or montecules, 

which are found principally where the earth was formerly the lowest; probably because 

in such places the water broke through with more facility.

Blows are not uncommon east of the Mississippi. Haywood says: 1

The earth in> the western parts of west Tennessee opened in several places, and 

white sand issued from the apertures * * *. Where the white sand was blown 

up, it lay around the hole in a circular form * * * hillocks of white sand of the 

size of potato hills. These are all through the Chickasaw country.

In the vicinity of Chickasaw Bluffs, according to Safford,2 "sand, 

fine gravel, and fragments of lignite ('coal') were 'blown up' through 

the fissures and are now found in little ridges or hillocks."

Data collected by the writer leads to the belief that they were 

found southward nearly to the mouth of the Obion River.

SAND SLOUGHS.

Nature. Sand sloughs (the word is invariably pronounced "sloos" 

in the New Madrid region) are linear depressions usually 3 to 5 

feet, occasionally more, below the general level of the bottom lands. 

They are normally characterized by low somewhat ill-defined ridges 

of sand parallel to one another and to the trend of the depression alternating with shallow troughs, and they collect water into 

long narrow pools, the largest and deepest of them giving rise to 

ponds or lakes. The ridges and depressions are as a rule only a few 

inches in height or depth, but they have had a marked effect on the 

timber growth. Thus many of the sandy ridges practically refuse 

to support vegetation and open strips tend to result as the old trees 

die without their places being taken by younger growth. In the 

pools much of the old timber, which was largely of highland varieties, was killed. The stumps are still visible in many places, but as 

yet a new growth has failed to obtain a foothold, although the ponds 

are often surrounded by willows. The sand sloughs are not infrequently a mile in width, and may be considerably greater. They 

grade into what may be termed "sand scatters" in which the whole 

surface of the higher as well as the lower portions of the bottoms is 

covered with a thin sheet of sand. The material is the same as that 

of the blows, being a medium white quartz sand, containing a few 

particles of lignite or chips of a hard shaly clay.

Situation. The sand sloughs are limited even more strictly than 

the blows to the lower lands, apparently representing the concentration of the phenomena of which the blows are isolated units. 

Since depressions are necessary for the production of the phenomena,

1 Haywood, John, The natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee, Nashville, 1823, introductory chapter.

2 Safford, J. M., Geology of Tennessee, Nashville, 1869, p. 113.
84 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

it follows that the sloughs are always found on the lowest ground 

and are most conspicuous in the broad, flat bottoms nearest the 

uplands, rarely near the Mississippi.

Distribution. The sand sloughs and allied phenomena occur in 

three main belts, the most extensive being in the St. Francis Valley 

between Crowley Ridge on the west and the prairie ridge extending 

from Big Lake on the south to beyond Maiden on the north. This 

area is shown on the general map (PI. I), and in more detail in figure 

10. A second belt almost as extensive, but less strongly developed, 

lies east of the prairie ridge mentioned and west of the uplift marked 

by the Tiptonville, Blytheville, and Little River domes. The third 

belt lies between the Tiptonville dome and the Chickasaw Bluffs, 

mainly in the Reelfoot Lake region. The first may be called the St. 

Francis, the second the Little River, and the third the Reelfoot area.

In the St. Francis area the slough extending southwest from Lake Xy " °

St. Francis to the Big Bay'at the St. Francis (PL I) was examined 

in 1904. It is a broad sandy belt, some 2 miles in width, occupying 

a low depression in the bottom lands, marked by numerous long 

narrow pools, often several to a mile, and characterized by stumps 

of dead timber. Near Marked Tree several sand sloughs, with the 

timber either wanting or of small size, are found, but the absence of 

old stumps suggests that the depression occurred before 1811. The 

scarcity of young timber is due to the continued presence of the 

water.

Unfortunately, owing to the high water existing during the more 

detailed field work in the spring of 1905, the St. Francis sloughs 

farther north were entirely submerged, and no opportunity for their 

detailed examination presented itself. From the information that 

could be collected, however, it appears probable that the sloughs 

are of much the same character as in the southern part of the area,

but with a general increase in the amount of the sand to the north. 

The sloughs, which are generally associated with the belt of sunk 

land swamps, are, as shown by the map, much more numerous at the 

northern end of the area.

In the Little River area, sand sloughs occur in the Big Lake and 

Lake Nicormy districts, and in the East swamp region east of the 

West and Rosebriar prairies near Maiden. As in the St. Francis area 

the amount of sand increases toward the north.

In the Reelfoot district, sand probably resulting from extrusion 

is said to be found at several points beneath the water of the lake, 

most of them away from the beds of the submerged creeks. Sand 

ridges several feet in height and surrounded by muddy bottoms are 

reported by fishermen. At times of flood strong currents from the 

Mississippi River flow through the lake, however, and are known to 

have scoured great quantities of sand from the lower end and spread
BULLETIN 494 PLATE X

A. STUMPS OF TREES KILLED BY DEPOSITS OF SAND.

B. TREES WITH DOUBLE SETS OF ROOTS AT SOUTH END OF REELFOOT LAKE, TENN.
CAUSE OF EXTBUSION. 85

it over the flats to the south, forming tfie so-called scatters, and it is 

not impossible that the submerged ridges mentioned are due to the 

same general cause. There was, however, a considerable extrusion 

of sand outside of the submerged area, and local sand sloughs doubtless occur.

SAND SCATTERS.

The term "sand scatters" is here applied to the thin surface covering of sand, which can not be differentiated into individual blows or 

sloughs. The' scatters are most commonly developed on low ground, 

but are also found at higher levels. In composition they are similar 

to the blows and sloughs, but generally contain less lignite. They 

are probably of diverse origin, some probably representing confluent 

blows, others expanded sloughs, and still others the recent wash 

from the streams. The scatters leading southward from the foot 

of Reelfoot Lake are of the latter type. In the northern part of the 

area the so-called scatters are often only sandy phases of the alluvium. 

This seems to be true in general of the part of the earthquake area 

north of New Madrid.

The Reelfoot scatters are the most conspicuous and are still in active 

process of construction or modification. Leading southward from 

the "Washout" at the extreme southern end of the lake, a broad 

belt of sand, with occasional pebbles of bronzed gravel resembling 

the Lafayette, extends southwestward to the Mississippi below 

Caruthersville, a distance of about 15 miles. Near the lake the sand 

is in places from 5 to 8 feet in thickness, and has so deeply buried 

the trees as to destroy them, the dead stumps now projecting from 

the sand (PI. X, A). At other points, where the sand bed was only 2 

or 3 feet thick, roots have been sent out near the new surface and the 

trees have survived. In some places a shifting of the currents has 

removed the sand, showing the trees with two sets of roots, one at 

the present surface and one at the former level of the sand (PI. X, B). 

Over much of the area the sand is destitute of vegetation, barren tracts 

several acres in extent, marked by large wind ripples and drifting 

dunes, being not uncommon.

The sand of the scatters has come largely from the "Washout" 

at the south end of the lake. This is a sharp trench from 15 to 40 

feet deep, one-fourth of a mile wide, and a mile or two in length. Great 

as the trench is, however, it does not seem competent to have furnished all the material of the scatters, and it is suggested that some of 

the sand may have been scoured from the lake bottom, leaving 

certain of the supposed ridges of extruded sand.

CAUSE OF EXTRUSION.

The extrusion appears to be of two general types, the first of 

which may be characterized as violent ejections and the second as
86 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

quiet extrusion. To the first type belongs the jets described by 

Bringier,1 Le Sieur,2 and other contemporary writers, and to the 

second the more slow and quiet extrusion giving rise to the sand 

blows and sloughs. 

In regard to the cause, Bringier says:

The violence of the earthquake having disturbed the earthy strata impending over 

the subterraneous cavities, existing probably in an extensive bed of wood, highly 

carbonized, occasioned the whole superior mass to settle. This, pressing with all its 

weight upon the water that filled the lower cavities, occasioned a displacement of 

this fluid, which forced its passage through, blowing up the earth with loud explosions.

Le Sieur, on the other hand, ascribes the ejection to the bursting 

of the swells or earth waves which progressed across the surface. 

Bradbury records extrusions due to the sudden closing of fissures,3 

and several other writers are inclined to similar views.

Of the later writers, Shaler has advanced the theory that "many 

of the fissures were produced by the escape of gases, which broke 

forth with all the violence of volcanic eruptions, throwing out great 

quantities of sand and water." 4

Extrusion due to the closing of fissures is probably the true explanation of most of the more violent ejections, as it agrees with what 

would be expected in the case of earth fissures in a thin layer of 

alluvium resting on a bed of quicksand opening and closing on the 

passage of large earth waves. It is, moreover, in harmony with the 

observations of reliable observers in several other more recent shocks. 

The explosive escape of gases generated by the decay of buried 

organic matter and disturbed by the earthquake vibrations is a 

competent and probable supplementary cause of the violent ejections.

The quiet extrusion appears, on the other hand, to be due to the 

local and temporary development of true artesian conditions, presumably by the unequal settling of the deposits and the production 

of differential pressures. Although longer-lived than the extrusions 

described above, they generally last only a few minutes or hours. It 

is the outflow of waters by quiet extrusion that has carried the sand 

of the blows and sloughs.

The absence of the blows on the higher lands, such as the prairie 

ridges, appears to be due in part to the greater thickness of the 

deposits above the quicksand beds and their greater resistance to 

fissuring, to their incoherent sandy character which tended to take 

up the earthquake movements by general readjustments among the 

grains rather than by fissuring, and'to the fact that the head of the

1 Bringier, L., Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 3,1821, pp. 15-46.

2 Le Sieur, Godfrey, printed in Am. Geologist, vol. 30,1902, pp. 79-80.

3 Bradbury, John, Early western travels, Cleveland, 1904, vol. 5, p. 209.

4 Shaler, N. S., Earthquakes of the western United States: Atlantic Monthly, November, 1869, p. 555.
UNDERMINING. 87

water was generally insufficient to lift it to the higher surface, 

especially where numerous fissures in the adjacent bottoms afforded 

lower outlets. The absence of blows in the vicinity of the Mississippi River appears to be due to the fact that the waters and quicksands found an escape by lateral flowage to the stream rather than 

by extrusion at the surface of the ground.

UNDERMINING.

Fault trenches. The fault trenches, or canal-like depressions 

resulting from the settling of a fault block between two adjacent 

fissures, have been fully described elsewhere (p. 57). As there 

pointed out, it is probable, especially in the case of the larger trenches 

at right angles to the streams, that the dropping was permitted by 

an undermining due to flowage of the underlying quicksands toward 

the rivers, the channels of which were in many places cut below the

quicksand level.

Sand sloughs. These broad shallow troughs, as has also been 

pointed out in another place (p. 83), are always marked by extensive 

accumulations of sand, and their formation, even when due to more 

general causes, has doubtless been assisted by local undermining due 

to the extrusion of the sand.

Sinks. Sinks are among the most conspicuous yet among the 

rarest of the material phenomena of the New Madrid earthquake, 

being reported principally in the vicinity of New Madrid. They may 

be described as circular depressions in the alluvium, originally from 

a few feet up to 15 yards or more in diameter and from 5 to 30 feet 

in depth. Lyell, in his account of his second visit to New Madrid,1 

says:

Hearing that some of these cavities still existed near the town, I went to see one of 

them, three-quarters of a mile to the westward. There I found a nearly circular hollow, 10 yards wide and 5 feet deep, with a smaller one near it, and I observed, scattered 

about over the surrounding level ground, fragments of black bituminous shale, with 

much white sand. Within a distance of a few hundred yards were five more of these 

sand-bursts, or sand blows, as they are sometimes termed here, and, rather more than 

a mile farther west, near the house of Mr. Savors, my guide pointed out to me what 

he called "the sink hole where the negro was drowned." It is a striking object, 

interrupting the regularity of a flat plain, the sides very steep, and 28 feet deep from 

the top to the water's edge. The water now standing in the bottom is said to have 

been originally very deep, but has grown shallow by the washing in of sand, and the 

crumbling of the bank caused by the feet of cattle coming to drink. I was assured 

that many wagon loads of matter were cast up out of this hollow, and the quantity 

must have been considerable to account for the void; yet the pieces of lignite and the 

quantity of sand now heaped on the level plain near its borders would not suffice to 

fill one-tenth part of the cavity. Perhaps a part of the ejected substance may have 

been swallowed up again, and the rest may have been so mixed with water as to have 

spread freely like a fluid over the soil.

\ » Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States of North America, London, 1849, vol. 2, pp. 232-233.
88 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

Similar sinks are also mentioned by Le Sieur. 1 Still another 

description is by Bringier,2 who says:

The whole surface of the country remained covered with holes, which, to compare 

small things with great, resembled so many craters of volcanoes, surrounded with a 

ring of carbonized wood and sand, which rose to the height of about 7 feet. I had 

occasion a few months after to sound the depth of several of these holes, and found 

them not to exceed 20 feet; but I must remark the quicksand had washed into them.

The writer in going through other parts of the region saw nothing 

comparable to the sinks of New Madrid or those described by 

Bringier, although near Caruthersville the remains of small craterlets 

were observed in the open fields (PL IX, A) and small circular depressions 10 feet or so in diameter and 1 to 2 feet deep were noted at one 

point in the forest. As it was circular and not irregular in shape 

and was not associated with any mound it can not be referred to the 

uprooting of a large tree. The feature to which the term sand blow 

is now applied is a low patch or ridge of sand, apparently extruded 

at the time of the earthquake, but not usually associated with any 

recognizable trace of the opening from which the sand came.

The fact that carbonaceous matter, which must have been extruded 

from the ground, occurs about the sinks near New Madrid points 

to their being the orifices "where the principal fountains of mud and 

water were thrown up" as stated by Bringier, the engineer, to Lyell.3 

As Lyell has pointed out, the sand heaped up about their borders 

would fill but a small part of the cavity and it is not impossible that 

the ejected material was so mixed with water as to spread freely like 

a fluid over the soil. That this was the case with much of the material 

extruded at the more recent Charleston earthquake was made apparent to the writer from his examination of the earthquake craterlets 

in 1905.

There is, however, another explanation which the writer would 

Suggest. This is as follows: At the start, the water in the underlying 

quicksand, which was under temporary pressure due to disturbance 

of the alluvium by the earth waves, rose through cracks or craterlets 

and spread sand and carbonaceous materials over the ground. 

Later, as the pressure was removed, the water subsided and the 

caving walls filled the cavity produced by the removal of the sand 

brought to the surface and obliterated the original fissures. Ordinarily the story ended here; but, where the semifluid quicksand outcropped in a near-by river bank, as is the case at New Madrid, 

there is a possibility of undermining through the flowage of the 

quicksand toward the stream. The resulting caving tended to be 

localized where the" crust was already broken by fissures, although 

such localization is not necessary. The fact that the sinks are 

found only near the river and under conditions similar to those postulated seems to point to the possibility of such an origin. Evidence

i Le Sieur, Godfrey, op. cit., p. 80. > Bringier, L., loc. cit. 8 Lyell, Charles, op. cit., p. 231.
AGITATION OF WATER SURFACES. 89

supporting this hypothesis is presented by similar sinks under like 

conditions in the alluvial deposits of Minnesota and other regions 

which we have no reason to think have been disturbed by earthquakes

HYDROLOGIC PHENOMENA.

Among the hydrologic phenomena associated with the New Madrid 

earthquakes may be mentioned the extrusion of water from the 

fissures, the agitation of the water surfaces, the disturbances affecting navigation, and the increase or decrease in the flow of springs. 

The first of these is properly a phenomenon of extrusion and has 

been discussed at length under that head. The others, relating 

more to surface waters, are considered below.

AGITATION OF WATER SURFACES.

Among the phenomena of the earthquake most appalling to the 

inhabitants of the New Madrid region was the behavior of the liver 

at the time of the shock,. and a number of graphic accounts of it 

have been handed down. As usual, one of the best descriptions is 

by the English naturalist Bradbury, who states that he was awakened at the time of the first shock 

by so violent an agitation of the boat that it appeared in danger of upsetting. * * * 

I could distinctly see the river agitated as if by a storm. * * * Immediately the 

perpendicular surfaces [banks], both above and below us, began to fall into the river 

in such vast masses as nearly to sink our boat by the swell they occasioned. * * * 

The river was covered with foam and drift timber, and had risen considerably.

* * * Two canoes floated down the river. * * * We considered this as a 

melancholy proof that some of the boats we passed on the preceding day had perished. Our conjectures were afterwards confirmed.

Capt. Nicholas Roosevelt, already quoted, reported the river 

unusually swollen and turbid.1

Just below New Madrid, according to Lloyd, a flatboat belonging 

to Richard Stump was swamped and six men drowned.

At times the waters of the Mississippi were seen to rise up like a wall in the middle 

of the stream and suddenly rolling back would beat against either bank with terrific force. Boats of considerable size were often cast high and dry upon the shores 

of the river * * *. A man who was on the river in a boat at the time of one of 

the shocks declares that he saw the mighty Mississippi cut in twain, while the waters 

poured down a vast chasm into the bowels of the earth. A moment more and the 

chasm was filled, but the boat which contained this witness was crushed in the 

tumultuous efforts of the flood to regain its former level.2

Hildreth, in relating the experiences of an eyewitness who was 

on the river 40 miles below New Madrid at the tune of the earthquake, says: 3

In the middle of the night there was a terrible shock and a jarring of the boats

* * *. Directly a loud roaring and hissing was heard, like the escape of steam

1 Latrobe, C. J., The rambler in North America, London, 1836, vol. 1, pp. 107-108.

2 Lloyd, J. T., Lloyd's steamboat directory, Cincinnati, 1856, p. 325.

»Hildreth, S. P., Original contributions to the American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1844, pp. 34-35.
90 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

from a boiler, accompanied by the most violent agitation of the shores and tremendous boiling up of the "waters of the Mississippi in huge swells, rolling the waters 

below back on the descending stream, and tossing the boats about so violently that 

the men with difficulty could keep upon their feet * * *. The water of the 

river, which the day before was tolerably clear, being rather low, changed to a 

reddish hue, and became thick with mud thrown up from its bottom; while the surface lashed violently by the agitation of the earth beneath, was covered with foam, 

which, gathering into masses the size of a barrel, floated along on the trembling surface * * *. From the temporary check to the current, by the heaving up of the 

bottom, the sinking of the banks and sand bars into the bed of the stream, the river 

rose in a few minutes 5 or 6 feet, and, impatient of the restraint, again rushed forward with redoubled impetuosity, hurrying along the boats, now set loose by the 

horror-stricken boatmen, as in less danger on the water than at the shore where the 

banks threatened to destroy them by the falling earth or carry them down into the 

vortices of the sinking masses. Many boats were overwhelmed in this manner, and 

their crews perished with them. It required the utmost exertions of the men to 

keep the boat of which my informant was the owner in the middle of the river as 

far from the shores, sand bars, and islands as they could. At New Madrid several 

boats were carried by the reflux of the current into a small stream that puts into the 

river just above the town, and left on the ground by the returning water a considerable distance from the Mississippi. A man who belonged to one of the company 

boats was left for several hours on the upright trunk of an old snag in the middle of 

the river, against which his boat was wrecked and sunk. It stood with the roots a 

few feet above the water, and to these he contrived to attach himself, while every 

fresh shock threw the agitated waves against him, and kept gradually settling the 

tree deeper into the mud at the bottom, bringing him nearer and nearer to the deep 

muddy waters, which, to his terrified imagination, seemed desirous of swallowing 

him up. While hanging here, calling with piteous shouts for aid, several boats 

passed by without being able to relieve him, until finally a skiff was well manned, 

rowed a short distance above him, and dropped downstream close to the snag, from 

which he tumbled into the boat as she floated by.

Bryan 1 says:

At first the Mississippi seemed to recede from its banks, its waters gathered up like 

mountains, leaving boats high upon the sands. ^ The waters then moved inward with 

a front wall 15 to 20 feet perpendicular and tore boats from their moorings and carried them up a creek closely packed for a quarter of a mile. The river fell as rapidly 

as it had risen and receded within its banks with such violence that it took with it a 

grove of cottonwood trees. A great many fish were left upon the banks. The river 

was literally covered with the wrecks of boats.

An informant of Mitchill,2 who was on the Mississippi River, 87 

miles below the Ohio, stated that the stream rose 6 feet from its 

former level and acquired three times its former velocity. William 

Shaler, also quoted by Mitchill, 3 says of the experiences of a friend:

He immediately cut his cable and put off into the middle of the river, where he soon 

found the current changed, and the boat hurried up, for about the space of a 

minute, with the velocity of the swiftest horse; he was obliged to hold his hand to 

his head to keep his hat on. On the current's running its natural course, which 

it did gradually, he continued to proceed down the river, and at about daylight he

i Bryan, Eliza, quoted in Am. Geologist, vol. 30, 1902, pp. 77-78.

4 Mitchill, S. L., Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 1, pp. 281-307.

s Idem, p. 300.
AGITATION OF WATER SURFACES. 91

came to a most terrific fall, which, he thinks, was at least 6 feet perpendicular, 

extending across the river, and about half a mile wide. The whirls and ripplings 

of this rapid were such that his vessel was altogether unmanageable, and destruction 

seemed inevitable; some of the former he thinks, were at least 30 feet deep, and seemed 

to be formed by the water's being violently sucked into some chasm in the river's 

bottom. He and his men were constantly employed in pumping and bailing, by 

which, and the aid of Providence, he says he got safe through. As soon as he was able 

to look round he observed whole forests on each bank fall prostrate, to use his own 

comparison, like soldiers grounding their.arms at the word of command. On his 

arrival at New Madrid he found that place a complete wreck, sunk about 12 feet below 

its level, and entirely deserted; its inhabitants with those of the adjacent country, 

who had fled there for refuge, were encamped in its neighborhood; he represents their 

cries as truly distressing. A large barge, loaded with 500 barrels of flour and other 

articles, was split from end to end and turned upside down at the bank. Of nearly 30 

loaded boats only this and one more escaped destruction; the water ran 12 feet perpendicular, and threw many of them a great many rods on shore; several lives were lost 

among the boatmen.

Flint,1 in describing the earthquake, says:

A bursting of the earth just below the village of New Madrid, arrested this mighty 

stream in its course, and caused a reflux of its waves, by which in a little time a great 

number of boats were swept by the ascending current into the mouth of the bayou, 

carried out and left upon the dry earth, when the accumulating waters of the river had 

again cleared their current.

Haywood 2 says that on the first shock the 

waters in the Mississippi near New Madrid rose in a few minutes 12 or 14 feet and then 

fell like a tide. * * * Spouts of water 3 or 4 inches in diameter sprang from the Mississippi to a great height. In some parts of the Mississippi the river was swallowed up 

for some minutes by the seeming descent of the water into some great opening of the 

earth at the bottom of the river. Boats with their crews were engulfed and never 

more heard of.

Disregarding the element of fantasy in these descriptions, there 

is little room to doubt that the earthquake produced water waves 

of considerable size on the Mississippi. They doubtless started from 

the sides, for the most part, and meeting in the middle produced the 

sharp wall-like "chop" described at this point. As usual, it was the 

return wave which did the damage along the shore. That there were 

upheavals of the bottom is certain, as has been indicated in the discussion of faults and domes, and it is not unlikely that the water was 

thrown back, giving the appearance of a chasm. There is also no 

reason to doubt that fissures opened and closed beneath the water 

as they did on the land, giving rise to large waves by the ejection of 

water. That waves of great size moved upward against the current 

is certain, and that the movement of the water was retrograde for the 

moment, at least in shallow water, is probable. The rise in the river 

about which there is universal agreement was probably due in part 

to the waves moving upstream, and in part to a temporary ponding 

due to local uplifts of the river channel.

i Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last ten years, Boston, 1826, p. 224.

* Haywood, John, The natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee, Nashville, 1823, pp. 30-33
92 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

Not only were the water surfaces agitated by the severe shocks, 

but in some localities, even to the east of the Mississippi, the preliminary tremors and minor vibrations produced noticeable effects 

on quiet surfaces. Thus Hay wood says, "the ponds of water, where 

there was no wind, had a troubled surface the whole day preceding 

any great shock." *

The same feature was also observed by Jared Brooks, of Louisville, 

who, more than anyone else, paid careful attention to the earthquake 

phenomena. He says 2 he ,

stopped on the bank of a deep pond, the surface of which was a perfect mirror to 

appearance, overhung by lofty trees; it instantly assumed the dull complexion and 

seemingly the roughness of a file; converging waves were soon raised by the quick 

motion of the shores, and, contending with each other, caused a curious commotion. 

The noise produced by the agitation of the trees resembled that of a shower of small 

hail in the forest.

Further away from the center of disturbance the action was less 

severe. .Describing the trip of Capt. Nicholas Roosevelt, of New 

York, from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, Latrobe says 3 that while 

loading the boat from a vein of coal near Yellow Banks, Ind., the 

voyagers 

were accosted in great alarm by the squatters of the neighborhood, who inquired if 

they had not heard strange noises on the river and in the woods in the course of the 

preceding day and perceived the shores shake, insisting that they had repeatedly felt 

the earth tremble.

It should be stated, however, that nothing is said of any agitation 

of the waters at this point.

EFFECT ON NAVIGATION.

The conditions of navigation on the Mississippi were much changed 

by the earthquake. The river was temporarily covered with wreckage and debris, snags and sawyers multiplied, the banks caved, and

islands disappeared.

Caving of banks. Of the caving of the river banks the best account 

is afforded by Bradbury,4 who states:

Immediately the perpendicular banks, both above and below us, began to fall into 

the river. I now saw clearly that our lives had been saved by our boat being moored 

to a sloping bank. Mr. Bridge, who was standing within the declivity of the bank, 

narrowly escaped being thrown into the river as the sand continued to give way under 

his feet; the banks in several places fell within our view.

Capt. Roosevelt, from the deck of the pioneer steamer New Orleans, 

as he was passing down the Ohio along the Indiana shore 

ever and anon heard a rushing sound and violent splash, and saw large portions of the 

shore tearing away from the land and falling into the river. It was, as my informant 

said, an awful day; so still that you could have heard a pin drop on the deck.

1 Hay wood, John, op. cit., p. 124.

» McMurtrie, H., Sketches of Louisville and its environs, Louisville, 1819, Appendix by Jared Brooks, 

p. 253.

« Latrobe, C. J., The rambler in North America, London, 1836, vol. 1, p. 107. 

< Bradbury, John, Early western travels, Cleveland, 1904, vol. 5, pp. 204-210.
EFFECT .ON" NAVIGATION. 93

Madrid

They had usually brought to under the shore, but everywhere they 

saw the high banks disappearing, overwhelming many a flatboat and 

raft, from which the owners had landed and made their escape. Here 

they lay, keeping watch on deck during the long autumnal night, 

listening to the sound of the waters which roared and gurgled horribly around them, and hearing from time to time the rushing earth 

slide from the shore, and the commotion as the falling mass of earth 

and trees was swallowed up by the river.

On reaching the Mississippi they found the channel unrecognizable, 

everything being changed by the action of the shock. Lloyd,1 in 

describing the experiences of another voyager, says that "during the 

various shocks the banks of 

the Mississippi caved in by 

whole acres at a time.'' Flint2 

says the graveyard at New 

Madrid was precipitated into 

the river.

At New Madrid, according 

to Lyell,3 the caving of the 

river was such at the time of 

the earthquake and in the 

following years that at the 

time of his visit the river was 

flowing over the site of the 

town. (See fig. 17.)

Disappearance of islands. 

Many islands in the Mississippi disappeared at the time 

of the earthquake. Hildreth 

says 4 "the sand bars and 

points of islands gave way, 

swallowed up in the tumultuous bosom of the river." Latrobe,5 describing the trip of the first steamer on the river, says: 

"The pilot, alarmed and confused, affirmed that he was lost, as he 

found the channel everywhere altered * * * .A large island in 

mid-channel, which was selected by the pilot as the better alternative 

[for anchoring!, was sought for in vain, having disappeared entirely." 

Dow ° reports the washing away and disappearance of two islands 

in the New Madrid area. Broadhead 7 quotes from the St. Louis

1 Lloyd, J. T., Lloyd's steamboat directory, Cincinnati, 1856, p. 325.

* Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last ten years, Boston, 1826,-pp. 222-228.

* Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States, vol. 2, pp. 228-229.

* Hildreth, S. P., Original contributions to the American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1844, pp. 34-35. 

6 Latrobe, C. J., The rambler in North America, London, 1836, p. 108. 

8 Dow, Lorenzo, quoted in Am. Geologist, vol. 30, p. 77. 

, i Broadhead, G. C., Am. Geologist, vol. 30, p. 83.

FIGURE 17. Sketch showing changes in channel of Missis 

sippi River at New Madrid after the earthquakes of 

1811-12.
94 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

Globe-Democrat of March, 1902, an article from the papers of Aug. 

Warner on the disappearance of Island No. 94: "This island was 

in the lower Mississippi, not far from Vicksburg. * * * In the 

night the earthquake came, and next morning, when the accompanying haziness disappeared, the island could no longer be seen 

it had been utterly destroyed."

The disappearance of the islands, which were usually only a few 

feet above the water, seems to be due partly to washing and partly 

to the flowage of the loose, incoherent, water-saturated sands of 

which they were composed.

Snags and sawyers. Besides the permanent changes in the banks, 

islands, and channels, the number of the snags and sawyers was 

increased or their position shifted. The snags or planters, consisting 

of partly or wholly grounded wreckage generally tree trunks and 

the sawyers, or those tree trunks grounded at one end while the 

other rises and falls or sways from side to side in the current, were 

always dangerous to navigation and were particularly so in the few 

months following the earthquake. Hildreth 1 states that: "Numerous boats were wrecked on the snags and old trees thrown up from 

the bottom of the Mississippi, where they had rested for ages. * * * 

A man who belonged to one of the company boats was left for several 

hours on an upright trunk of an old snag in the middle of the river." 

The pilot of the New Orleans found, according to Latrobe,2 the 

"channel everywhere altered, and where he had hitherto known deep 

water there lay numberless trees with their roots upward."

Floating wreckage. Another cpnspicuous result of the earthquake 

was the increase in floating wreckage. Bradbury 3 describes the 

river as full of drift timber after the shock. He found the Devils 

Channel impassable "from the trees and driftwood that had lodged 

during the night against the planters fixed in the bottom of the river."

One correspondent of Mitchill 4 describes how "the trunks of trees, 

bedded in the bottom, suddenly rose in great numbers to the surface," 

during the shock, while Daniel Bedinger wrote to him "of the elevation of innumerable logs and trees from the bottom of the Mississippi." William Shaler, also quoted by Mitchill, mentions "a great 

multiplication of sawyers." 5

Combining the partly buried trunks set free by the agitation of 

the river bottom by the earthquake with the thousands of trees 

swept into the river by waves or by the caving of the banks, as 

described on page 96, the floating timber must have been enormous, 

adding greatly to the difficulties of navigation.

1 Hildreth, S. P., op. cit., p. 130.

a Latrobe, C. J., The rambler in North America, London, 1836, vol. 1, p. 108. 

a Bradbury, John, Early western travels, Cleveland, 1904, vol. 5, pp. 206-207. 

« Mitchill, S. L., Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 1, p. 293. 

6 Idem, p. 302.
THE 3STEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE. 95 

CHANGES IN SPRINGS.

Among the phenomena of the earthquake were certain changes in 

the character of particular springs, often at distances remote from 

the center of disturbance. Col. Samuel Hammond, in a letter to 

Mitchill, 1 states:

In the county of Christian, Ky., a fine and fresh spring of water was observed to 

run very muddy for several hours. On examining it, after the feculence had settled, 

he found it to be strongly impregnated with sulphur, so much so that it was spoiled 

for domestic uses. Indeed, it had been converted to one of the strongest brimstone 

springs he ever met with.

P. H. Cole, also writing to Mitchill, says:

In the month of September I visited a spring of about the distance of 14. miles from 

my residence. It was situated on the bank of a creek that issued forth strong sulphurous water. The smell was evident to a considerable distance. It received its 

sulphurous impregnation from a very heavy earthquake that occurred in January.

Before that event it was a limestone water. On that occasion a new limestone spring 

broke out about 20 feet above the original spring, and to this day the respective fountains pour forth their calcareous and sulphurous waters in distinct currents. Some 

springs ceased to run for some time, and others ran muddy several hours after the earth 

had been convulsed.

In many places in west Tennessee, according to Haywood,2 old 

sulphur springs have commenced running again, which some years 

before were dried up, while several new permanent springs of sulphur 

water broke out.

ACTION OF THE EARTHQUAKE ON FORESTS.

The modification of the forests of the Mississippi Valley by the 

New Madrid earthquake was extensive and important, and included 

the splitting and overturning of trees, their uprooting by landslides 

and caving banks, their destruction by rushing waters, the uplifting 

of wet-land species to high and dry positions, and the submergence 

of highland species.3

SPLITTING OF TREES.

The splitting of trees is noted in two of the contemporary descriptions, Bringier describing " trees being blown up, .cracked, and split 

and falling by thousands at a time," and Dillard stating "I have 

seen oak trees which would be split in the center for 40 feet up the 

trunk, one part standing on one side of a fissure and the other part 

on the other, and trees are now standing which have been cleft in 

this manner."

1 Mitchill, S. L., op. cit., p. 292.

2 Haywood, John, The natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee, Nashville, 1823, introductory chapter. 

»Fuller, M. L., Earthquakes and the forest: Forestry and Irrigation, vol. 12,1906, pp. 261-267.
96 THE NEW MADEID EARTHQUAKE.

DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS BY WAVES AND CAVING BANKS.

The best account of the destruction by waves is that of Bryan, who 

mentions the falling of trees and describes how an unusual wave of 

the river in receding "took with it the grove of cottonwoods which 

hedged its borders. They were broken off with such regularity that 

in some instances persons who had not witnessed the fact could with 

difficulty be persuaded that it was not the work of art." Lorenzo 

Dow adds that thousands of willows were swept off like pipestems 

about waist-high. Hildreth, in describing the convulsion on the 

Mississippi, says: "The sand bars and points of islands gave way 

* * * carrying down with them the cottonwood trees cracking 

and crashing, tossing their arms to and fro." Bradbury, who was on 

a boat on the Mississippi, says he could distinctly hear the crash of 

falling trees, while Devils Channel "appeared absolutely impassable 

from the quantity of trees and driftwood that had lodged there during 

the night. * * * The banks in several places fell in, within our 

view, carrying with them innumerable trees, the crash of which, falling 

into the river, mixed with the sound attending the shock * * * 

produced an idea that all nature was in a state of dissolution." A 

later shock likewise threw great numbers of trees into the river. 

The effect on the river is also brought out by Latrobe, who, in describing Capt. Roosevelt's trip, says that after the shock the latter found 

the "channel everywhere altered, and where he had hitherto known 

deep water there lay numberless trees with their roots upward," 

while the "trees were seen waving and nodding on the bank, without 

a wind."

OVERTHROW OF FORESTS BY LANDSLIDES.

Besides the prostration of the forests by the caving of banks along 

the river, many trees were overthrown by landslides on the steep hillsides, especially along the face of the Chickasaw Bluffs, which border 

the Mississippi lowlands in western Tennessee. These bluffs are 

exceptionally steep, largely composed of clay, and when saturated 

with water, as they often are, present especially favorable conditions 

for landslides. Their fronts for miles are marked by landslip scars. 

A study of the age of the trees shows that the greater part of the 

upright growth on the disturbed surfaces is fairly uniform and a little 

less than 100 years of age, trees of greater age being in general tilted 

and partly overthrown. From this it seems clear that the main 

slides took place about 100 years ago, presumably at the time of the 

New Madrid shocks. The record of the action of the landslides is 

still preserved, as indicated, in the older trees as well as in the landslip 

features. The face of the bluff, which was already nearly as steep as 

the material could stand, seems to have literally crumble.d under the
ACTION OF THE EAKTHQUAKE ON FORESTS. 97

action of the earthquake, great masses slipping downward, carrying 

with them the immense primeval trees which covered the surface, 

mingling trees and earth in a confused jumble. Plate IV, A, shows 

trees partly overthrown by the landslides at this time. In this case 

the original trees survived, gradually straightening until their upper 

parts again reached an' upright position, while the lower parts 

remained inclined. In other instances, where the original tree was 

snapped off by the shock, the main trunk has rotted away in the 

course of years, while a new tree, developed from one of the old limbs 

or shoots, has taken its place.

GENERAL PROSTRATION OF FORESTS BY VIBRATIONS.

A

Besides the destruction of the forests by water, landslides, etc., 

there seems to have been a general prostration in certain localities 

due to the vibrations alone. For instance, William Shaler, in describing a friend's experiences, says he saw "whole forests on each bank 

fall prostrate * * * like soldiers grounding their arms at the 

word of command."

Bringier, in describing his experiences to Lyell, 1 said that in some 

of the severest shocks, as the waves advanced, he saw the trees bond 

down and often, the instant afterwards, when in the act of recovering 

their position, meet the boughs of other trees similarly inclined, so as 

to become interlocked, being prevented from righting themselves 

again. In a published account the same observer 2 tells of "the 

horrible disorder of the trees, which everywhere encountered each 

other, being blown, cracking and splitting, and falling by thousands 

at a time."

Very similar conditions in the vicinity of Little Prairie (Caruthersville) are reported by James.3 "The forest adjoining the settlement 

at Little Prairie, below New Madrid, presents a singular scene of confusion, the trees standing inclined in every direction and many having 

their trunks and branches broken."

That such prostration occurs was substantiated by the writer's 

observations at Reelfoot Lake, over extensive areas of which 'the 

trunks are prostrate, although elsewhere standing as upright and stiff 

as before the shock. As there was no water in the region at the time, 

and as the land was nearly flat, only the vibrations or accompanying 

earth waves remain to account for their destruction. In places 

dozens, if not hundreds, of prostrate trunks can be counted. For 

comparison, reference should be made to Plate VII, A, which shows 

the upright stumps normally found.

1 Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States, vol. 2, p. 231. 

» Bringier, L., Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 3,1821, pp. 15-40.

> James, Edwin, Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Philadelphia, 

1823, vol. 2, p. 326.

9800° Bull. 494 12 7
98 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

DEAD TREES.

A phenomenon of special interest, but somewhat puzzling, is 

described by Lyell. 1 Skirting the Bayou St. John, he observed 

a great many fallen trees and others dead and lifeless but standing erect. * * * 

He took me to part of the forest, on the borders of what is called the " sunk country,'' 

where all the trees prior to 1811, although standing erect and entire, are dead and leafless. They are chiefly oaks and walnuts, with trunks 3 to 4 feet in diameter, and 

many of them 200 years old. They are supposed to have been killed by the loosening 

of the roots during the repeated undulations which passed through the soil for three 

months in succession.

UPLIFTED TREES.

The uplifted trees, which are occasionally seen in the Reelfoot 

Lake district, are of special interest because of their rarity, the phenomena of subsidence being much more common. In Plate VII, B, 

however, is represented an old cypress with a fuU development of 

knees, denoting formation in water, the tree being now on high and 

dry grassy ground, entirely above the reach of the water, except possibly in the time of the highest floods.

SUBMERGED FORESTS.

The phenomena of submerged forests are among the most striking 

of the earthquake features, and were the subject of some of the most 

graphic descriptions of the early writers. Even to-day they constitute one of the most conspicuous classes of evidence of the shocks. 

The best developments are found in the sunk lands of the Varney 

River in Missouri Big Lake and Lake St. Francis in Arkansas, and in 

Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee. Many other localities exhibit similar 

features on a smaller scale. In fact, probable examples may be found 

in nearly all of the bayous and sloughs connected with the St. Francis River, and their occurrence can not be better seen than by reference to the accompanying map (PI. I), which shows -the swamps 

and submerged lands as determined by the Mississippi River Commission and verified by the field work for the present report. Reference should be made to the section.on "Sunk lands" (p. 64) for 

detailed descriptions of the phenomena.

AREA OF DESTRUCTION.

Over how great an area the forests were destroyed it is difficult to 

say at the present time. Reelfoot Lake alone probably originally 

covered 75 square miles of forest, and the swamps formed at that 

time west of the Mississippi probably covered 125 square miles 

more. These two localities alone would comprise more than 125,000

i Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States, vol. 2, pp. 234-236.
EFFECT ON ABT1FICIAL STRUCTURES. 99

acres that were destroyed. The amount of timber lost by the 

caving of river banks and by the overwhelming of the islands 

would probably bring the total to 150,000 acres. To this amount 

still further additions must be made of the areas in which the timber 

was overthrown by landslides or other related causes. No estimate 

of the latter can now be made but it was undoubtedly considerable. 

That the total destruction was sufficient to give earthquakes a place 

among the enemies of the forest can not be disputed. 1

EFFECT ON ARTIFICIAL STRUCTURES. 

NEW MADRID REGION.

Relatively few details have been preserved in regard to the action 

of the earthquake upon buildings in the New Madrid region, the 

natural phenomena evidently making a far greater impression on 

the minds of the observers than the action on artificial structures. 

It is known, however, that at the first shock chimneys and other 

structures of like nature and all loose objects were thrown to the 

ground, while the damage even to the low cabins was such that it 

became dangerous to remain in them, and the inmates were obliged 

to rush out of doors. The larger and more pretentious houses fared 

quite as badly. Many of the poorly built cabins and houses were 

destroyed and many fences were thrown down even by the first 

shock, while certain of the later shocks were even more destructive 

because of the weakening that all structures had suffered from the 

preceding shocks.

Flint 2 states that at New Madrid most of the houses were thrown 

down in an hour, the crumbling being particularly severe during the 

passage of the large earth waves. As the earthquakes constantly 

recurred people no longer dared to dwell in houses or to use chimneys, but passed that winter and those succeeding in light bark huts, 

tents, and other temporary shelters, using camp fires or low ovens 

to cook their food. The Little Prairie settlement (now Caruthersville) was broken up and the Great Prairie settlement was practically 

demolished.

According to Stoddard 3 the town of New Madrid was "originally 

so laid out as to extend, as the French express it, 40 acres in length 

along the river; the back part was contracted to 20 acres on account 

of some swamps, and the depth was 16 acres. It contained 10 streets 

running parallel with the river, and 18 others crossing at right angles. 

The former were 60 feet and the latter 45 feet in breadth. Six 

squares were also laid out and reserved for the use of the town, 

each of which contained 2 acres. * * * A street of 120 feet in

' Fuller, M. L., Earthquakes and the forest: Forestry and Irrigation, vol. 12,1906, pp. 261-267.

3 Flint, Timothy, Recollections of the last ten years, Boston, 1826, p. 222.

s Quoted by Beck, L. C., Gazetteer of the States of Illinois and Missouri, Albany, 1823, pp. 299-300.
100 THE NEW MADKID EARTHQUAKE.

breadth was likewise reserved on the bank of the river." In 1799 

the town had upward of 800 inhabitants, but at one time after the 

earthquake only two families remained, the remainder having fled. 

The public works and several streets were carried away by the caving of the river banks and "houses, gardens, and fields were swallowed 

up." The formation of ponds and the extrusion of sand and water 

from fissures added to the ruin.

That the destruction was no greater in view of the severity of the 

shocks was due to the character of the buildings. Speaking of the 

destruction Flint says:*

I infer that the shock of these earthquakes in the immediate vicinity of the center 

of their force must have equaled in their terrible heavings of the earth anything of 

the kind that has been recorded. I do not believe that the public have ever yet had 

any adequate idea of the violence of the concussions. We are accustomed to measure 

thia by the buildings overturned and the mortality that results. Here the country 

was thinly settled. The houses, fortunately, were frail and of logs, the most difficult 

to overturn that could be constructed.

DISTANT LOCALITIES.

The destruction by the earthquake, though much less than at the 

center of the disturbance near New Madrid, extended many hundred miles. Some of the more definite reports of injuries, mainly 

based on reports of Mitchill, 2 are given below.

St. Louis, Mo. Several chimneys were overthrown and a number 

of stone houses split.

Herculaneum, Mo. Brick and stone chimneys were injured and 

some broken off and thrown down by the stronger shocks.

Cape Cfirardeau, Mo. Several houses were thrown down. 3

Natchez, Miss. The plastering in some houses was cracked.

Carthage, Tenn. Bricks were thrown from chimne}^ and several 

were broken and overthrown; the brick courthouse was cracked to 

the foundation and otherwise injured.

Clarksville, Tenn. Many chimneys were injured.

Henderson County, Ky. Nearly every brick or stone chimney in 

the county was overthrown.

Red Bank (150 miles below Louisville}. Several chimneys were 

thrown down and others damaged so as to be dangerous.

Louisville. The damage by the first shock was considerable, gable 

ends, parapets, and chimneys of many houses were thrown down. 

Similar destruction was produced by each of the three shocks of 

" great severity" recorded by Jared Brooks for the week ending 

December 22, by one in the week ending January 26, one in that ending February 2, and three in that ending February 9. 4

1 Flint, Timothy, loc. cit.

2 Mitchill, S. L., Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 1, pp. 281-307.

a James, Edwin, Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Philadelphia, 1823, 

vol. 2, p. 326. 

4 Casseday, Ben, History of Louisville, Louisville, 1852, pp. 121-126.
NOISES. 101

Cincinnati, Ohio. The tops of several chimneys were thrown off 

in town at the time of the first shock, while similar results probably 

attended the equally violent shocks of January 23 and 27. On 

February 7 more chimneys were thrown down and wide fissures 

made in brick walls. 1

South Carolina. Cracked and started chimneys were reported at 

Laurens and Newberry.

Georgia. Bricks are reported to have been thrown from chimneys.

OTHER PHYSICAL PHENOMENA. 

NOISES.

The noises accompanying the more important shocks are among 

the most noticeable features of the earthquake. Bradbury tells of 

being "awakened by a tremendous noise" at the time of the first

shock and noted that "the sound, which was heard at the time of 

every shock, always preceded it at least a second and uniformly 

came from the same point and went off in the opposite direction." 

Audubon, speaking of one of the more severe shocks, describes 

the sound as like "the distant rumbling of a violent tornado." 

Bringier does not mention the subterranean noise, but describes the 

"roaring and whistling produced by the impetuosity of the air 

escaping from its confinement" in the alluvial materials. A similar 

roaring and hissing, like the escape of steam from a boiler, is also 

described by Hildreth. Eliza Bryan describes the sounds of the 

shock itself as "an awful noise resembling loud and distant thunder 

but more hoarse and vibrating." Flint compares the sound of the 

ordinary shocks to rumbling like distant thunder, but mentions 

the fact that the vertical shocks were accompanied by "explosions 

and a terrible mixture of noises." Linn describes the phenomena 

as beginning with "distant rumbling sounds, succeeded by discharges, 

as if a thousand pieces of artillery were suddenly exploded," and 

notes the hissing sounds accompanying the extrusion of the water. 

In Tennessee, as described by Haywood, 2 "in the time of the 

earthquake a murmuring noise, like that of fire disturbed by the 

blowing of a bellows, issued from the pores of the earth. A distant 

rumbling was heard almost without intermission and sometimes 

seemed to be in the air." Explosions like the discharge of a cannon 

a few miles distant were also recorded, and " when the shocks 

came on the stones on the surface of the earth were agitated by a 

tremulous motion like eggs in a frying pan, altogether made a noise 

similar to that of the wheels of a wagon in a pebbly road."

1 Drake, Daniel, Natural and statistical view or picture of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 1815, pp. 233-235.

2 Haywood, John, Natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee, Nashville, 1823, opening chapter.
102 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

In the more distant localities we must again rely on the compilation of Mitchill. 1 At Herculaneum, Mo., the noise was described as 

a roaring or rumbling resembling a blaze of fire acted upon by wind; 

at St. Louis before the shocks "sounds were heard like wind rushing 

through the trees but not resembling thunder," while more considerable noises accompanied the shocks. At Louisville the noise 

was likened to a carriage passing through the street; at Washington, 

D. C., the sound was very distinguishable, appearing to pass from 

southwest to northeast; at Richmond similar noises were heard, but 

they appeared to come from the east;, at Charleston there was "a 

rumbling like distant thunder which increased in violence of sound 

just before the shock was felt;" while at Savannah the noise was 

compared to a rattling noise like "that of a carriage passing over a 

paved road."

From the above it would appear that earth noises were heard at 

most points where the earthquake was felt. In the region of marked 

disturbance there were the additional noises made by escaping air, 

water, crashing trees, and caving river banks. According to the 

best information the sound in the Mississippi Valley was a somewhat dull roar, rather than the rumbling sound of thunder with 

which it was compared at certain of the more remote localities. In 

reality, as has been stated to the writer in regard to the recent 

Jamaica earthquake, although suggesting many of the common 

noises, it was essentially unlike anything ever heard by the observers 

before.

OKIGIN AND CAUSE OF THE NEW MADRID 

EARTHQUAKES.

POPULAR BELIEFS.

Of the various explanations offered by those who speculated on the 

causes of the shock the volcanic theory was, as usual, by far the most 

popular. The general nature of volcanic manifestations was more or 

less understood by everybody, while relatively few had heard of the 

slower processes of warping and folding and the occurrence of faulting 

and even those who had seldom appreciated their importance. It is 

but natural, therefore, that they should turn for an explanation to 

the known cause which seemed to explain the phenomena best. It is 

probably to this general belief in the volcanic origin of the shock that 

the stories of the emission of sparks and similar phenomena are to be 

attributed.

Even at the time, however, there were some who did not accept the 

volcanic theory. James, 2 who accompanied Long's expedition to the 

Rocky Mountains, says:

1 Mitchill, S. L.,loc. cit.

2 James, Edwin, Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Philadelphia, 1823, 

vol. 2, pp. 325-326.
CAUSE OF THE EARTHQUAKES. 103

It has been repeatedly asserted that volcanic appearances exist in the mountainous 

country between Cape Girardeau and the Hot Springs of the Washita, particularly at 

the latter place; but our observation has not tended to confirm these accounts, and 

Hunter and Dunbar, who spent some time at the Hot Springs, confidently deny the 

existence of any such appearances in that quarter. Reports have been often circulated, principally on the authority of hunters, of explosions, subterranean fires, blowings and bellowings of the mountains, and many other singular phenomena said to 

exist on the Little Missouri of the Washita and in other parts of the region of the Hot 

Springs, but it is easy to see that the combustion of a coal bed or something of equal 

insignificance may have afforded all the foundation on which these reports ever 

rested.

Speaking of the New Madrid shock Bringier says:*

Several authors have asserted that earthquakes proceed from volcanic causes, but 

although this may be often true the earthquake alluded to here must have had another 

cause. Time perhaps will give us some better ideas as to the origin of these extraordinary phenomena. It is probable that they are produced in different instances 

by different causes and that electricity is one of them; the shocks of the earthquake 

of Louisiana in 1812 produced emotions and sensations much resembling those of a 

strong galvanic battery. It will perhaps be pertinent to observe that this earthquake 

took place after a long succession of very heavy rains, such as had never been seen 

before in that country.

Nuttall,2 on the other hand, refers the earthquake to "the decomposition of beds of lignite or wood coal saturated near the level of the 

river and filled with pyrite."

In the light of our present knowledge of earthquake causes in general and of the nonvolcanic nature of any of the adjacent regions 

the theory of volcanic origin can be dismissed without further consideration. Electricity can likewise be rule$ out as a cause, 

although certain electrical [and magnetic phenomena appear to be 

associated with most great earthquakes. Aside from the absence 

of records, geologic or other, of any extensive expulsion of gas we 

have the testimony of all eyewitnesses to the effect that the expulsion of gases and the associated water was the result and not the 

cause of the disturbance.

EVIDENCE OF ORIGIN.

One of the best evidences of the origin of the New Madrid earthquake is the nature of the vibrations. If they had resulted from a 

disturbance within the alluvial deposits themselves, it could have been 

only from such causes as the expulsion of water and gases, the caving 

of banks, the slipping of landslides, etc. In regard to the first, it need 

only be repeated that there is no evidence that any extrusions of 

water or gas, except those arising in consequence of disruptions 

brought about by (not causing) the shocks. Of the caving of banks 

it may be said that had the shores of the Mississippi caved from source

1 Bringier, L., Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 3,1821, p. 20.

2 Nuttall, Thomas, quoted by James, loc. cit.
104 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

to mouth the vibrations would have been felt only a few hundred feet. 

Similarly in regard to the landslides. Although the faces of the Chickasaw Bluffs were affected for miles, it was by slipping and not by direct 

fall, and the jar, if any was produced at all, could have been felt only 

a short distance. The vertical vibrations accompanying several of 

the shocks were of a nature differing from any which we can conceive 

as developing in the unconsolidated deposits themselves.

The best evidence of origin is that afforded by the distance to which 

the vibrations were felt. It does not seem possible to conceive of a 

shock originating in soft embayment deposits being transmitted to 

the hard rocks and thence across the Appalachians to the Atlantic 

coast on the east and across the central coal basin to Chicago, Detroit, 

and Canada. The fact that the shocks were strongly felt at these 

localities seems to point conclusively to a deep-seated origin in rigid 

rocks. A faulting in the hard Paleozoic rocks seems, therefore, to be 

the only probable explanation.

LOCATION OF CENTRUM.

Faults, some apparently of relatively recent date, are common in 

the Ozark Mountains which border the New Madrid area on the northwest and in the southern Illinois and northwestern Kentucky region 

on the northeast, and the thought naturally suggests itself that some 

movement in these regions, either a new or the readjustment of an old 

fault, may have been the cause of the shock. This view was advocated by Prof. Shepard, 1 and was accepted by the writer in an earlier 

paper.2 Further study in the field, however, has brought out the fact 

that the region of marked disturbance is confined to a certain definite 

area extending from southeastern Missouri to the latitude of Memphis 

and from St. Francis River on the west to Chickasaw Bluffs on the 

east, and nowhere reaching within many miles of the edge of the 

embayment area of soft deposits, as would have been the case if the 

shock had originated in the hard rocks outside this area. The general trend and shape of the area, taken in connection with the direction of the earth waves, points to a centrum of the original shock 

along a line having the position indicated on Plate I that is, a northeast-southwest line extending from a point west of New Madrid to a 

point a few miles north of Parkin, Ark. The centrum of the heavier 

subsequent shocks seems also to have been along essentially the 

same line.

The location of the centrum of some of the later and lighter 

shocks may have been elsewhere. The motion of one of the shocks 

at Detroit, for instance, is described as "a pounding up and down 

instead of oscillating," 3 which could hardly have been the case if

i Shepard, E. M., The New Madrid earthquake: Jour. Geology, vol. 13,1905, p. 61.

* Fuller, M. L., Science, new ser., vol. 21,1905, pp. 349-350.

s Mitchill, S. L., Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 1, p. 297.
SIGNIFICANCE OF DOMING. 105

the shock originated at so great a distance as New Madrid. Similar 

vertical shocks at Louisville are recorded by Brooks. 1 Drake also 

notes 2 that during the second year of the earthquake shocks the 

center of disturbance " seems to have ascended the Mississippi to the 

Ohio and then advanced up that river about 100 miles to the United 

States Saline, at which place shocks have been felt almost every day 

for nearly two years." It is also important in this connection to note 

that many of the later shocks, while not materially more severe than 

the first in the New Madrid region, were notably stronger in the more 

remote regions and were recorded at points in the east, from which no 

report of the first shock was made.

It seems not improbable, then, that there was more than one 

center of disturbance northeast of New Madrid in the years following 

the first shock, probably resulting from disturbance of the local 

equilibrium by the vibrations originating in the New Madrid area.

ULTIMATE CAUSE.

As shown elsewhere (pp. 109-110), the New Madrid earthquake was 

but one of a series that is still unfinished, indicating that in all probability it resulted from causes th at are still active. Inasmuch as the center of activity of the primary shocks is within the embayment area 

and well removed from the surrounding areas of consolidated rocks, it 

seems clear that the ultimate cause lies in forces operating beneath 

the embayment deposits. The action may be associated either with 

the processes of folding or warping or incident to a depression and 

deepening of the basin. In this connection the phenomena of uplift 

and doming are of the greatest significance and may be reviewed and 

summarized to advantage.

SIGNIFICANCE OF DOMING.

It is of interest to note that a line drawn through the Tiptonville, 

Brytheville, and Little River domes agrees in trend with each of the 

major features of the earthquake region (PI. I), paralleling the line 

of the Chickasaw Bluffs and the direction of the Missisippi River on 

the east and the lines of the prairie ridges, sunk lands, and Crowley 

Ridge on the west. If the uplift were a few feet higher, a long ridge 

analogous to the prairie ridges and simulating on a small scale the 

larger Crowley Ridge would result, suggesting the possibility of a common relationship due either to structure or to erosion.

The Little Prairie Ridge, extending from New Madrid northward 

for nearly 25 miles, is a direct continuation topographically of the 

Tiptonville dome, and inasmuch as the river banks near New Madrid

1 Brooks, Jared, in History of Louisville by Ben Casseday, 1852, pp. 121-12G.

2 Drake, Daniel, Natural and statistical view or picture of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 1815, p. 237.
106 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

show a doming of the alluvial deposits parallel to the trend of the 

prairie, there are good reasons for thinking that the latter may represent the structural as well as the topographic continuation of the 

dome mentioned. If this is so, it follows that the similar prairie 

extending from Big Lake to beyond Maiden may likewise be of 

structural origin. On this assumption there would be, beginning on 

the east, a structural trough occupied by Mississippi River and Reelfoot Lake, a structural ridge marked by the Tiptonville, Blytheville, 

and Little River domes, a second structural trough occupied by Little 

River, Big Lake, and Lake Nicormy, a second ridge represented by the 

Big Lake-Kennett-Malden Prairie, and a third trough occupied by 

St. Francis River and Lake. Still west of this is the topographic 

elevation of Crowley Ridge and the basin of Black River. In other 

words, there is a parallel series of four troughs and three ridges, all 

of which but one ridge and one trough are believed to be primarily 

structural in nature. The question arises, may not the two latter 

be also of structural origin, even if their magnitude is considerably 

greater? If we disregard the loess of Crowley Ridge a considerable 

part of the height is taken away, and we have a ridge only about 100 

feet high at the most and differing in no way except in size and the 

extent of its erosion from the lower prairie ridges, and it does not 

require a great effort to imagine a similar origin for the major ridge. 

Crowley Ridge has been greatly altered by erosion. Black and other 

livers on the west have deepened the associated basins, thus accentuating the elevation of the ridge, and a similar work has been performed by St. Francis, Little, and Mississippi rivers on the east.

The writer does not wish at this time to urge a structural origin for 

Crowley Ridge, but simply desires to call attention to the occurrence 

of smaller parallel lines of uplift and depression due to relatively

recent warping and to suggest that an earlier and stronger warping

of the same nature and in the same direction might have produced 

a similar uplift along the Crowley Ridge axis, which determined the 

direction of drainage and the position of the resulting erosion remnant. 

If this is true, we have the beginning in Mississippi Valley at this 

point of what may ultimately develop into a synclinorium of great 

geologic importance.

CAUSE OF UPLIFT AND DOMING.

The uplifts may be conceived as (1) representing the surface indications of disturbances originating in the underlying hard rocks; 

(2) due to unequal subsidence resulting from undermining; (3) due 

to horizontal flow of certain of the underlying deposits; and (4) having 

resulted from lateral movements tending to produce compression.

That the uplift and doming is due to local arching of the bottom 

of the basin in which the embayment deposits occur is believed to be
CAUSE OF UPLIFT AND DOMING. 107

unlikely, as such movements if communicated through a thousand 

feet or more of sediments as they needs must be, would be likely to 

be of more general extent. Moreover, such arching of the hard rocks 

is a very slow process, while there is reason to believe that the doming 

'took place with considerable suddenness, possibly to a considerable 

extent during a single period of earthquake disturbance.

Undermining, which may be conceived as resulting from the extrusion of sand from the fissures or by flowage toward the rivers, seems 

to be even more improbable. It is true, as described elsewhere, that 

immense amounts of sand were extruded at the time of the shocks; 

enough, in fact, to cover nearly the entire surface over hundreds of 

square miles. The layer, however, is usually only 3 to 6 inches deep, 

and is entirely insufficient to account for the subsidence which in 

many places amounts to several feet. Locally there was doubtless 

considerable flowage of the substratum of quicksand toward the 

streams, but there was no general choking of the rivers from the cause, 

as would have been the case if amounts sufficient to account for the 

subsidence had entered them. If there is no adequate basis for the 

theory of undermining, the latter can not be considered as a cause 

of differential movement such as might have given rise to domes by 

the subsidence of the surrounding material.

Horizontal flowage within the substratum of quicksand undoubtedly 

took place locally, as where there were general movements of the river 

borders toward the channels, and it is conceivable that movements 

on a much larger scale may have occurred. Under this hypothesis 

the domes are to be considered as correlatives of the sunken areas, 

both being due to movements within the semifluid quicksand. The 

size of the domes and troughs seems to demand the differential movement of material equivalent to a body of sand 10 feet thick (hah6 of 

the amount of the difference of surface elevation) for distances amounting to many miles, the distances of the axes of the domes from the 

adj acent trough axes being from 5 to 10 miles or more. Such a transfer of material is believed to be improbable, although perhaps not 

impossible. The movement of the quicksand is thought by the 

writer to have been limited, in most places at least, to half the wave 

length of the surface undulations accompanying the shocks. In 

other words, the movements of the quicksand during the shocks are 

thought to have been similar to the water movements in ordinary 

waves, the sand particles moving in orbits of similar form without 

much lateral displacement.

If the doming had been produced by lateral thrust communicated 

from the hard-rock borders of the basin, we should expect some signs 

of warping in the broad Tertiary plateau, especially on the east side 

of the Mississippi, but nothing of the sort is known. If, however, 

the cause originated immediately under the Mississippi bottoms, the
108 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

alluvial deposits might be considerably affected without there being 

any appreciable effect 011 the uplands. On this point we have the 

evidence of the earthquake shock, which points to a seftt of disturbance along a northeast-southwest line a few miles to the west of the 

Mississippi. If the fault giving rise to the earthquake was simply 

the outward expression of a movement of subsidence, as it may well 

have been, we may conceive of conditions similar to those shown in 

figure 18, in which D represents a depression formed either through 

the influence of the faulting or giving rise to it. The result of such 

a depression would be a settling of the overlying deposits accompanied by a general lowering of the surface about it and a lateral movement in the direction of the arrows toward the center of disturbance, 

the result of which movement would be the formation of corrugations 

such as are represented by the domes and allied uplifts. As suggested 

on page 106, even Crowley Ridge may have originated from similar

FIGURE 18. Diagram illustrating possible cause of doming in the New Madrid area.

causes, although its present relief is due largely to erosion. This 

hypothesis explains the position of the domes and their absence from

other areas on the east and west, the anticlinal nature of the disturbance, and accounts for the general preponderance of subsidence over 

uplift. On the whole it seems to be the most probable of the hypotheses suggested to account for the phenomena of warping and for the 

earthquakes, which appear to be an incident rather than a general 

cause of the changes going on.

Although the general movement along the Mississippi is downward, 

at least differentially, the movement is not continuous. It is probable that as late as the deposition of the Lafayette gravels, in late 

Pliocene or early Quaternary times, the land stood relatively lower 

than at present, the deposits named being laid down across the 

embayment area at an elevation of many feet above the present 

flood-plain. The distribution of loess affords some reason to think 

that similar conditions existed nearly down to the time of the 

Wisconsin glacial stage. If so, there has been removed in relatively
POSSIBILITIES OF FUTURE DISTURBANCES. 109

recent times a very considerable load from the area, as a result of 

which the crust would tend to rise until an equilibrium was reached. 

It is even possible that the shocks of 1811-12 were incidents of an 

uplift rather than of depression.

CONTEMPORANEOUS DISTURBANCES.

The years 1811, 1812, and 1813 were characterized by unusual 

seismic activity in many other parts of the Western Hemisphere, as 

well as at New Madrid. On March 26, 1812, a terrific earthquake 

occurred at Caracas, throwing down churches and other buildings 

and destroying 10,000 persons. A little over a week later another 

heavy shock produced geologic effects of considerable magnitude, 

over 300 feet of the top of one of the mountains being lost by a landslide. Other shocks were felt at New Grenada and other of the West 

India islands, while a very important earthquake occurred in California at about the same time. Volcanic action was similarly active. 

On April 27 the eruption of St. Vincent Soufriere began. During the 

year preceding more than '200 earthquake shocks presumably of volcanic origin had been felt. Farther away, the island of Sabrina in the 

Azores was built up to a height of over 300 feet above the sea by a 

submarine eruption.

A comparison of the dates of the great South American earthquakes with those in Mississippi Valley does not suggest any direct 

connection. Neither March 26 nor April 5, the dates on which the 

principal shocks occurred, was characterized by any pronounced disturbance at New Madrid; in fact, both days were unusually quiet.

There is a tendency after aiiy great disturbance to produce readjustments to new conditions in surrounding areas, and a series of 

shocks may be expected to follow in other parts of the same geologic 

province. There seems, however, to be no possible connection 

between the New Madrid and Caracas regions, the geologic provinces 

being entirely unrelated. That the disturbances may each be a surface expression of a single deep-seated cause, such as a general crustal 

or subcrustal readjustment, nevertheless, is not altogether improbable.

POSSIBILITIES OF FUTURE DISTURBANCES.

In another part of this report a list of the earlier shocks experienced 

in the New Madrid region is given, and evidences are presented of 

the existence of earthquake cracks antedating those of 1811 (pp. 11 

 to 13). In connection therewith should be mentioned the corroborative evidence afforded by Indian tradition, which tells of a great 

earthquake that had previously devastated the same region.1

i Lyell, Charles, A second visit to the United States, vol. 2, p. 238.
110 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

We have also subsequent to the shock of 1811 records of a long 

line of minor disturbances continuing to the present time, showing 

that the crust is even now hi unstable equilibrium. In other words, 

the 1811 earthquake was simply one of a series, and further disturbances are still to be expected. Shaler, writing hi 1869, said "analogies indicate the probability of its recurrence within a century, 

since in all those countries which have been visited by great convulsions, where observation has extended over a great length of time, it 

has been found that their visits may be expected as often as once in 

a hundred years." l Fortunately this prediction has not yet been 

fulfiHed. Any prediction as to when a repetition of the shocks will 

take place is futile, and it is even possible that no more disturbances 

will occur for many centuries.

Any severe earthquake originating at or near the center of the 1811 

disturbance would be disastrous to such towns as Hickman in Kentucky; Caruthersville, New Madrid, Campbell, and others in Missouri; 

and Jonesboro, Marked Tree, Osceola, and others in Arkansas, all of 

which are in or near the area of greatest intensity. The damage 

would be far greater than from the earlier shocks, owing to the prevalence of brick buildings, and the loss of life would be considerable. 

The larger cities of Cairo and Memphis would also suffer severely. 

Memphis, which is within 35 miles of some of the largest fissures hi the 

whole region, namely, those north of Parkin (p. 55), is situated 

on a loess plain terminating in a bluff about 50 feet high facing the 

Mississippi River and underlain at water level by a bed of sand 

saturated with water. These conditions are similar to those which 

gave rise to the especially heavy destruction at New Madrid, and 

owing to the greater height of Memphis above the river the danger is 

accentuated. Cairo, situated on a point between the Ohio and 

Mississippi, is likewise in an especially dangerous position as regards

earthquakes. Such points of land were the very first to give way hi 

the New Madrid shock and to be swallowed by the river, and it is 

almost certain if a severe shock were to be experienced the danger 

along the water front would be great. St. Louis would also probably 

be severely shaken, but it is built on firmer ground and its buildings 

are less liable to destruction from a shock originating in the New 

Madrid area because of the remoteness of the point of disturbance. 

Judging from the action at Herculaneum, however, many structures 

probably would be seriously damaged, and considerable loss of life 

might result.

i Shaler, N. S., Earthquakes of the western United States: Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 1869, p. 559.
THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE. Ill 

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

The following bibliography includes the more important and most 

trustworthy accounts of the earthquake that have been seen by the 

writer:

. Audubon, John James. Audubon and his journals, New York, 1897, vol. 2, 

pp. 234-237.

Gives an account of a shock experienced in Kentucky in November, 1812 

(probably a mistake in date).

Beck, Lewis Caleb. Gazetteer of the States of Illinois and Missouri, Albany, 1823, 

pp. 299-300. *

Quotes Bringier, Drake, and Nuttall and describes the plat of New Madrid 

and tells the effect of the earthquake upon the town.

^Bradbury, John. Early western travels, 1748-1846; Bradbury's travels in the 

interior of America, Cleveland, 1904, vol. 5, pp. 204-210.

Gives a detailed account of his experiences on a boat descending the Mississippi and describes the destruction of the forests and the caving of the banks. 

.{Bringier, L. Notices of the geology, mineralogy, topography, production, and 

aboriginal inhabitants of the regions around the Mississippi and its confluent 

waters, Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser. vol. 3, 1821, pp. 15^16.

Gives a description of his experiences in the New Madrid earthquake and of 

the extrusion of water and other phenomena.

vBroadhead, G. C. The New Madrid earthquake: Am. Geologist, vol. 30, 1902, 

. pp. 76-87.

Quotes at length many of the old accounts of the earthquake, but the value 

of the paper is much impaired by imperfect and incomplete references. 

Brooks, Jared. In the "History of Louisville from its earliest settlement till the 

year 1852," by Ben Casseday, Louisville, 1852, pp. 121-126.

Describes the earthquake phenomena at Louisville and gives a list and classification of the shocks.

 . In " Sketches of Louisville and its environs," by H. McMurtrie, Louisville, 

1819, appendix, pp. 233-255.

Gives a complete list of observed shocks, pendulum observations, weather 

conditions, etc., at Louisville from December 16, 1811, to May, 1812. 

'Bryan, Eliza. The New Madrid earthquake, abstract by G. C. Broadhead: Am. 

Geologist, vol. 30, pp. 77-78.

See also Dow, Lorenzo.

Carr, Lucien. American commonwealths; Missouri, a bone of contention, Boston, 

1888, pp. 108-112.

Gives an account of the New Madrid earthquake compiled from old narratives, without credit, and describes frauds following the action of Congress in 

granting new lands to sufferers.

Casseday, Ben. The history of Louisville from its earliest settlement till the year 

1852, Louisville, 1852, pp. 121-126,

See Jared Brooks. 

Cramer's Navigator, Pittsburgh, 1821, p. 243.

Notes that the river bank for 15 miles above New Madrid sank 8 feet. 

1 Dillard, A. N. In "The Mississippi Valley, its physiography," by J. W. Foster, 

Chicago, 1869, pp. 19-22.

Relates a number of incidents of the earthquake and describes the phenomena 

of the submerged lands. 

Dow, Lorenzo. . "Lorenzo Dow's works" (not seen), Cincinnati, 1850.

Prints a letter from Eliza Bryan giving detailed description of the earthquake 

and attendant phenomena.
112 ' THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

I/ Drake, Daniel. Natural and statistical view or picture of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 

1815, pp. 233-244.

Includes a chronological list of the shocks, a classification by intensities, a 

general summary of the history of the earthquake, an account of previous disturbances, and a discussion of the contemporary electrical and physical phenomena and the state of the atmosphere at the time of the principal shocks.

M Flint, Timothy. Recollections of the last ten years * * * in the valley of the 

Mississippi, Boston, 1826, pp. 222-228.

Gives a graphic story of the New Madrid shocks and remarks on the conditions 

existing on his visit seven years later. < 

 . A condensed geography and history of the western States in the Mississippi 

Valley, Cincinnati, 1828, 2 vols. 

Gives same account as in "Recollections of the last ten years."

 . Extract from travels of Mr. Flint: Am. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 13, 1829, 

pp. 366-368. 

An abstract of the account in "Recollections of the.last ten years."

The history and geography of the Mississippi Valley, Cincinnati, 1832, 2d

edition, vol. 1.

See "Condensed geography," by Flint.

<i Foster, J. W. The Mississippi Valley, its physical geography, Chicago, 1869, pp. 

19-25.

Quotes the accounts of A. N. Dillard and Timothy Flint at length, appending 

a few original paragraphs. (See Dillard, A. N., and Flint, Timothy.) 

v Fuller, Myron L. The New Madrid earthquake, by Edward M. Shepard: Am. Geologist, vol. 35,1905, pp. 180-181. Review of a paper in Jour. Geology, vol. 13,1905, 

pp. 45-62. ' 

/. . Causes arid"1 periods of earthquakes in the New Madrid area, Missouri and

Arkansas: Science, new ser., vol. 21, 1905, pp. 349-350. 

V . Comparative intensities of the New "Madrid, Charleston, and San Francisco

earthquakes: Science, new ser., vol. 23, pp. 917-918.

 " . Our greatest earthquakes: Pop. Sci. Monthly, July, 1906, pp. 76-86. 

Describes phenomena of New Madrid earthquake and compares them to those 

of Charleston and San Francisco. >

v . Earthquakes and the forest: Forestry and Irrigation, vol. 12,1906, pp. 261-267. 

Describes the destruction of forests by overthrow, submergence, etc., by the 

New Madrid earthquake of 1811-12.

Goodspeed Publishing Co. History of southeastern Missouri, Chicago, 1888, pp. 

53-55; 304-307.

Quotes accounts by Godfrey Lesieur and Eliza Bryan and an unsigned letter in 

the Louisiana Gazette. 

Halstead, Murat. The world on fire, etc., International Publishing Co., 1902.

Quotes previous descriptions of New Madrid earthquake and gives references 

to places of publication.

Haywood, John. The natural and aboriginal history of Tennessee up to the first 

settlement therein by the white people, in the year 1768, Nashville, 1823.

Contains an especially graphic account of the New Madrid earthquake in the 

opening chapter (not included in some other editions of same work). For abstract, 

see Safford, James M., Geology of Tennessee, pp. 124-125. 

Hildreth, Samuel Prescott. American Pioneer, vol. 1, 1842, pp. 139 et seq. (not

seen).

 . Original contributions to the American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1844, pp. 34-35. 

(Reprint from American Pioneer.)

Gives a detailed account of the experiences of a party descending the Mississippi 

on a flatboat.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 113

Ho we, Henry. Historical collections of the great West, Cincinnati, 1851, vol. 2, pp. 

243-246.

Gives Flint's description without specific credit (see Flint, Timothy). 

Humboldt, Alexander von. Cosmos, translated by E. C. Ott6, London, 1849, vol. 1, 

p. 207.

. Refers to the New Madrid earthquake as one of the few instances of successive 

shocks throughout long periods in regions remote from volcanoes. 

/James, Edwin. Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains 

under the command of Maj. Stephen H. Long, Philadelphia, 1823, 2 vols., vol. 1, 

p. 272; vol. 2, pp. 325-326.

Describes the effect of the earthquake on Indians of the upper Missouri country 

and gives an account of one of the later shocks at Cape Girardeau. The nonvolcanic origin of the shocks is affirmed.

</Latrobe, Charles Joseph. The rambler in North America, second edition, London, 1836, vol. 1, pp. 107-108.

Gives an account of the trip of Capt. Nicholas Roosevelt, who was taking the 

New Orleans the first steamer on the river down the Ohio and Mississippi at 

the time of the shock.

Lesieur, Godfrey. (The New Madrid earthquake.) Abstract in " History of southeastern Missouri," Goodspeed Publishing Co., Chicago, 1888.

Abstract in Switzler's "Illustrated history of Missouri from 1541 to 1877," W. F. 

Switzler, St. Louis, 1879.

Abstract in "The New Madrid earthquake," C. C. Broadhead, Am. Geologist, 

vol. 30, pp. 79-80.

Linn, Lewis F. (Letter to chairman of committee on Commerce, U. S. Senate) in 

. "Gazetteer of the State of Missouri," Alphonso Wetmore, St. Louis, 1837, pp. 

131-142.

Gives a graphic account of the earthquake and its effects.

Lloyd, James T. Lloyd's steamboat directory and disasters on the western waters, 

Cincinnati, 1856, p. 325.

Gives a general description of the earthquake and some of its associated phenomena.

 . Letter from Cape Girardeau, Louisiana Gazette (Feb. or Mar.?), 1812.

Describes phenomena and destruction resulting at Cape. Girardeau from the 

shocks of Jan. 23 and Feb. 7.

)( Lyell, Sir Charles. A second visit to the United States of North America, London, 

1849, vol. 2, pp. 228-239.

Gives a graphic account of the sinks, fissures, sunk lands, drained lakes, and 

prostrated forests in the vicinity of New Madrid.

 . Principles of geology, 12th ed., London, 1875, vol. 1, pp. 452-453.

Abstract of the account appearing in the preceding publication. 

</ McGee, W J. A fossil earthquake: Bull. Geol. Soc. America, vol. 4,1892, pp. 411-413. 

Gives a detailed account of the uplift and dome west of Reelfoot Lake, the 

submerged timber of the region, and the fissures in the face of Chickasaw Bluff. 

McMurtrie, H. Sketches of Louisville and its environs, Louisville, 1819, pp. 233-255. 

Gives an appendix containing complete records of earthquakes by Jared Brooks. 

See Brooks, Jared.

Mitchill, Samuel Latham. A detailed narrative of the earthquakes which occurred 

on the 16th day of December, 1811: Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, vol. 

1, pp. 281-307.

A compilation of reports of the earthquake from all parts of the United States, 

especially from the eastern cities. 

9800° Bull. 494 12 8
114 THE NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE.

Musick, John R. Stories of Missouri, American Book Co., New York, 1897, pp. 

143-150.

Contains a detailed account of the New Madrid earthquake compiled from 

early descriptions, but without specific credit being given.

Nuttall, Thomas. A journal of travels into Arkansas, Philadelphia, 1821, pp. 46- 

47, 58.

Gives an account of a visit to the earthquake region in 1818 and notes the 

frequency of shocks at that time. Describes the destruction at New Madrid, 

Little Prairie (Caruthersville), and Big Prairie.

Owen, David Dale. Report of the geological survey in Kentucky, made during 

the years 1854 and 1855, Frankfort, 1856, pp. 117-119. 

Gives descriptions of earthquake features in the vicinity of Reelfoot Lake.

 First report of a geological reconnaissance of the northern counties of Arkansas, 

made during the years 1857 and 1858, pp. 31, 203.

Notes the occurrence of numerous earth cracks, sand blows, and associated 

lignite in Poinsett County, and of earth cracks in Greene County, due in part 

to the shrinking of the underlying argillaceous strata and in part to the slumping 

effects of former earthquake action. 

PerMns, J. H. Annals of the West, Cincinnati, 1846, pp. 520-524.

Quotes in full the account of Hildreth (see Hildreth, S. P.) and mentions that 

the first steamboat on the Mississippi (see Latrobe, C. J.) was nearly overwhelmed. 

Saflord, James M. Geology of Tennessee, Nashville, 1869.

Gives an account of earthquake features especially landslides in western 

Tennessee and reprints an account of the earthquake and its phenomena. 

Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate. Earthquakes of the western United States: Atlantic 

Monthly, November, 1869, pp. 549-559. '

Quotes Bradbury's description and gives Drake's list of shocks at Cincinnati. 

States that centrum moved during continuance of shocks from west of the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wabash River. Mentions fissures 100 feet deep in 

Obion County, Tenn.

 Kentucky, Boston, 1885, p. 44.

Contains a brief and somewhat inaccurate description of the New Madrid 

earthquake.

 Notes on the bald cypress: Memoirs Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 16, No. 1, 1887, 

pp. 1-15.

Notes death of cypress when water covers knees and quotes Reelfoot Lake, 

Tenn., as an example, the submergence being due to the New Madrid earthquake. Many trees are living whose knees are nearly but not quite submerged.

Shaler, William. (Letter to S. L. Mitchill): Trans. Lit. and Philos. Soc. New York, 

vol. 1, pp. 300-302.

Gives an account of the experiences of a friend on board a boat on the Mississippi.

Shepard, E. M. The New Madrid earthquake: Jour. Geology, vol. 13, 1905, pp. 

45-62.

Quotes several of the early accounts, describes the earthquake features as now 

existing, and discusses their relation to artesian conditions, concluding that the 

sinking was due to undermining by circulating earth waters.

Smith, Edward Darrell. On the changes which have taken place in the wells 

situated in Columbia, S. C., since the earthquakes of 1811-12: Am. Jour. Sci., 

1st ser., vol. 1,1818, pp. 93-95.

Failure began after dry seasons and the year after shock, the loss being only 

partly restored in the following wet seasons. Author does not assume earthquake to be the cause.
BIBLIOGBAPHY. 115

Switzler, W. F. Switzler'8 illustrated history of Missouri from 1541 to 1877 (not 

seen), St. Louis, 1879.

Reprints a graphic account of the earthquake and earthquake phenomena by 

Godfrey Lesieur. 

/Usher, F. C. On the elevation of the banks of the Mississippi in 1811: Am. Jour.

Sci., 1st ser., vol. 31, 1837, pp. 294-296.

Warner, Aug. (Disappearance of Island No. 94), St. Louis Globe-Democrat in 

March, 1902, quoted by Broadhead, G. C., Am. Geologist, vol. 30, p. 83.

Describes the disintegration of the island during the shock.

Wetmore, Alphonso. Gazetteer of the State of Missouri, St. Louis, 1837, pp. 131-142. 

Prints a long letter by Lewis F. Linn, United States Senator, giving a graphic 

account of the earthquake and its results and gives a few original remarks stating 

that earthquakes were still felt every two weeks or so.

INDEX.

A. Page. 

Acknowledgments........................... 7-9

Activity, periods of, by hours................ 35-36

periods of, by weeks..................... 33-34

Area affected, extent of.................... 7,16-17

Arkansas, effects of shocks in................ 21

Atmosphere, phenomena of.................. 44-47

Audubon, John J., on nature of the vibrations ............................ 31

B. 

Baily, C. B., acknowledgments to............ 8

Bayou channels and lakes, forms of, figure

showing......................... 67

Barometric pressure, distribution of shocks

withreferenceto................. 36-37

Barton, William, on an earthquake in 1796... 11 

Beechwell, Mo., fissure at, figure showing... 54 

Bibliography.............................. 111-115

Big Lake, description of..................... 71-72

Blytheville dome, age of..................... 12

Boston, tremors felt in...................... 17

Bradbury, John, on agitation of water surfaces ............................ 89

on caving of river banks................. 92

on nature of the vibrations.............. 32

Bringier, L., on cause of the earthquake...... 103

on extrusion............................. 76,86

on nature of the vibrations.............. 31

on sand blows........................... 82

on sinks................................. 88

on splitting of trees....................... 95

Broadhead, G. C., on caving of Island No. 94.. 43

Brooks, Jared, on agitation of water surfaces.. 92

on intensities of the shocks............... 33

on nature of the vibrations............... 32-33

record kept by.......................... 22-26

Bryan, Eliza, on agitation of water surfaces.. 90 

Buildings, effect on......................... 99-101

C. 

Canada, tremors felt in...................... 17

Cape Girardeau, Mo., destruction at......... 100

Carrigan, John, on the earthquake in South

Carolina and Georgia............. 30-31

Caruthersville. See Little Prairie.

Carthage, Term., effects of the shocks at.... 21,100

Casseday, Ben, on nature of the vibrations... 31 

Cause of earthquake, evidence as to.... 103-104,105

volcanic theory of..................... 102-104

Caving of river banks, records of............. 92-93

Centrum of earthquake, location of.. 14-16,104-105 

Charleston, S. C., effects of the shocks at..... 30

Chickasaw Bluffs, landslides on.............. 59-60

Christian County, Ky., effects of the shocks in 21 

Cincinnati, Ohio, destruction at............. 101

record of the shocks at................... 26-27

Page. 

Circleville, Ohio, effects of the shocks at..... 28

Clarksville, Term., effects of the shocks at.. 21,100

Coal. See Lignite.

Cole, P. H., on changes in a spring........... 95

Columbia, S. C., effects of the shocks at...... 30

Columbia, Tenn., darkness at................ 45

effects of the shocks at................... 21

D.

Darkness, prevalence of...............:..... 44-45

Dillard, A. N., on splitting of trees.......... 95-96

on sunk lands........................... 70

Dome, Blytheville, description of............ 63-64

Blytheville, records of................... 62

Little River, description of.............. 64

records of............................ 62-63

Tiptonville, description of............... 63

records of............................ 62

Doming, cause of....................... 64,106-109

possible cause of, diagram showing....... 108

records of................................ 62-64

significance of......................... 105-106

Drake, Daniel, on nature of the vibrations.. 32

on previous recorded earthquakes........ 11-12

record kept by........................... 26-27

E.

Earthquake, activity of, by hours of the day,

diagram showing................ 36

activity of, by intensities, diagram showing.............................. 35

by phases of the moon, diagram showing............................... 38

by weeks, diagram showing.......... 34

Earthquake disturbances, extent of, map

showing......................... 8

Earthquake features of the New Madrid district, map showing.............. 8

southwest of Lake St. Francis, map showing.............................. 50

Earthquakes, contemporaneous, record of. .. 109 

earlier, in the Mississippi valley, geologic

evidence of...................... 12-13

in the Mississippi valley, records of.. 11-13 

future, possibilities of................. 109-110

Extrusion, cause of.......................... 85-87

material brought out by.............. 76-77,78

records of............................... 76,78

F.

Fault trenches, cause of.

diagram showing....

plate showing.......

Faults, location of.......

cause of.............

87

48

12

58

59

117
118 INDEX:

Fissures, arrangement of.................... 49

bluff, production of...................... 56

cause of................................. 56-58

compound, production of................ 57-58

depth of................................. 51

direction of.............................. 49-50

fillings in................................ 51-52

plate showing....................... 52

form of.................................. 48-49

intervals of.............................. 49

length of................................ 51

localities of.............................. 53-56

objects swallowed by.................... 52

plan of, figure showing.................. 54

production of............................ 47-48

sand blow and sand slough, production of 57

situation of.............................. 52-53

types of................................. 48

Flint, Timothy, on agitation of water surfaces. 91

on nature of the vibrations.............. 32

on severity of the shocks............... 17,100

Flowage, limited effect of.................... 107

Forests, action on........................... 95-99

destruction of, area of.................... 98-99

by landslides........................ 96-97

by vibrations........................ 97

by waves and caving banks......... 96

submerged, occurrence of................ 98

See also Trees.

Foster, J. W., on the nature of the vibrations. 31-32

Fuller, Myron L., other publications by..... 9

G. 

Gas, extrusion of............................ 76,78

Georgetown, S. C., effects of the shocks at... 30 

Government, relief by......:................ 43-44

H.

Hammond, Samuel, on changes in a spring. . 95 

on darkness at Herculaneum ............ 44

Harshman, W. S., acknowledgment to. ..... 37

Hatchie Coon Sunk Lands, description of. ... 72

Haywood, John, on agitation of water surfaces............................ 91

on nature of the vibrations .............. 31

on sand flows. .......................... 83

Heckewelder, John, on an earthquake in 1776. 11 

Henderson County, Ky., effects of the shocks

in.............................. 28,100

Herculaneum, Mo., darkness at. ............. 44

destruction at. .......................... 100

Hildreth, S. P., on agitation of water surfaces. 89-90 

on extrusion. ............................ 76

Hours of the day, distribution of shocks by. . 35-36

I.

Indian tradition of an earthquake. .......... 12

Intensities of the shocks, classification of. .... 33

Islands, disappearance of ................. 43,93-94

James, Edwin, on cause of the earthquake. 102-103 

Jeffersonville, Ind., effects of the shocks at... 27 

Johnston, John, on an earthquake in 1804. ... 12

Knoxville, Term., effects of the shocks at.... 21 

L.

Lake St. Francis, description of.............. 72

Land claims, speculation and fraud in....... 44

Landslide trench and ridge, plate showing... 12 

Landslides:

cause of.................................. 61

character of.............................. 59-61

conditions for............................ 59

location of........... 1................... 59-61

overthrow of forests by.................. 96-97

Latrobe on noises and tremors at a distance.. 92 

Lebanon, Ohio, effects of the shocks at...... 28

vibrations at, direction of................ 41

Le Sieur, Godfrey, on nature of the vibrations. ........................... 31

Life, effect of the earthquake on............. 42-43

Light flashes and glows, reports of........... 46-47

Lignite, extrusion Of................ 76,77,79,83,88

sand containing, plate showing.......... 76

Linn, Lewis F., on light flashes.............. 46

Little Prairie, destruction at................. 17

Little River dome, age of.................... 12

Lloyd, J. T., on agitation of water surfaces.. 89 

Louisville, Ky., destruction at............... 100

distribution of shocks at................. 33-40

record of the shocks at................... 22-26

Lyell, Charles, on dead trees................. 98

on earlier earthquakes................... 12

on sinks................................. 87

on sunk lands........................... 70

visit of, to scene of earthquake........... 10

M.

McGee, W J, description of Reelfoot Lake by. 73 

on the Tiptonville dome................. 63

McMurtrie, Henry, records published by.... 22

Mississippi River, changes in the channel of,

sketch showing.................. 93

Mitchill, S. L., on effects of the shocks in the

Atlantic coastal plain............ 29-31

Moon, phases of, distribution of shocks with

reference to...................... 37-39

Musk ox. cranium of, extrusion of........... 77

N.

Natchez, Miss., effects of the shocks at...... 21,100

Navigation, effect of earthquake on.......... 92-94

New, Anthony, on shocks at Red Bank..... 28

New Madrid, layout of..................... 99-100

population of............................ 100

New Orleans, tremors felt in................. 17

New Orleans (steamer) voyage of............ 92-93

Noises, records of............................ 101

Norfolk, Va., effects of the shocks at......... 29

Number of the shocks, table showing........ 17-20

Nuttall, Thomas, on cause of the earthquake.. 103

O.

Observers, educated, locations of............ 9-10

Odors, production of........................ 45-46

Omori, observations of...................... 39
INDEX. 119

P. Page. 

Periods of activity........................... 33-34

Pineville, S. C.. effects of the shocks at...... 30

Piney River, Tenn., effects of the shocks at.. 21 

Pittsburgh, Pa., effects of the shocks at...... 28

Portsmouth, Va., effects of the shocks at.... 29

R.

Raleigh, N. C., effects of the shocks at....... 29

Red Bank, Ind., effects of the shocks at. 27-28,100 

Red River settlements, tremors felt in....... 17

Reelfoot Lake, description of................ 73-74

landslides near.......................... 61

submerged channels in, map showing.... 69

section across, figure showing............ 74

Richmond, Va... effects of the shocks at...... 29

Riddick, Mr., on light glows................. 46

Roosevelt, Capt., voyage of.................. 92-93

St. Genevieve, Mo., effects of the shocks at.. 22 

St. Louis, Mo., effects of the shocks at...... 22,100

Sand, extrusion of............!........ 76,77,80-85

Sand blows, coalescent, plate showing....... 80

distribution of........................... 80-83

fissures of............................... 57

original appearance of, plate showing.... 76

present appearance of, plate showing.... 80

profiles of, figure showing............... 79

nature of................................ 79-80

situation of.............................. 80

Sand scatters, nature of..................... 85

Sand sloughs, cause of....................... 85,87

distribution of........................... 84-85

fissures of............................... 57

nature of................................ 83

situation of.............................. 83-84

Savannah, Ga., effects of the shocks at....... 30

Sawyers, disturbance of..................... 94

Severity of the shocks, testimony to......... 17

Shaler, N. S., on character of the earthquake. 7 

on position of the centrum............... 14,15

Shaler, William, on agitation of water surfaces 90-91 

Shepard, E. M., acknowledgments to........ 7-9

on later extrusion of water............... 78

publication by.......................... 9

Sinks, description of......................... 87-88

production of............................ 88-89

Smoke-house incident, account of............ 55

Snags, disturbance of........................ 94

South Carolina, destruction in............... 101

Springs, changes in.......................... 95

movements of ground water producing,

diagram showing................ 78

Summary of earthquake..................... 10-11

Sunk lands, cause of......................... 74-75

distribution of........................... 68-74

Page. 

Sunk lands, form and trend of............... 66-67

form of channels in, figure showing...... 66

nature of................................ 64-65

river swamp, type of, plate showing..... 64

stream crossing, section of, figure showing. 65 

subsidence of, amount of................ 67-68

types of................................. 65

water weeds in, plate showing........... 64

young growth in, plate showing......... 70

T.

Thrust, lateral, effect of................... 107-109

Time of shocks, reports of................... 13-14

Tiptonville dome, age of..................... 12

Trees, dead, occurrence of................... 98

elevated, plate showing.................. 72

in sunk lands................... 70-71,72,73-74

killed by deposits of sand, plate showing. 84 

killed by submergence, plate showing.... 60,72

figure showing....................... 71

splitting of.............................. 95

tilted by earthquake, plate showing..... CO

tilted on landslides...................... 60-61

uplifted, occurrence of................... 98

with double sets of roots, plate showing.. 84 

See also Forests. 

Turner, George, on an earthquake in 1795.... 11

U.

Undermining, effects of................. 87-89,107

Uplifts, cause of........................... 100-109

records of................................ 62-63

V.

Vapors, escape of............................ 45-46

Varney River, channel of, plate showing..... 70

Vibrations, destruction of forests by......... 97

direction of.............................. 40-42

nature of................................ 31-33

Vincennes, Ind., effects of the shocks at...... 28

Volcanic action, contemporaneous, record of.. 109

W.

Washington, D. C., effects of the shocks at... .17,29

Water, extruded, records of.................. 76,78

extruded, temperature of................ 77-78

surface of, agitation of................... 89-92

Weather, condition of, before earthquake..... 13

relation of the earthquake to............. 39-40

Whistler, Capt. William, on an earthquake in

1804............................. 11

Witherall, James, on effects of the shocks at

Detroit.......................... 28

Woodward, A. B., on effects of the shocks in

Michigan and Canada.............. 28

Wreckage, floating........................... 94

o