The site investigations have produced a number of scientific papers as well as two completed masters theses by Jason Broughton and Aaron Broughton. Numerous sand dikes, the fissures along which the liquefied sand traveled to the surface, have been found exposed along cut banks of the Wolf River in Shelby County, Tennessee. While most of the features were located within the Memphis City limits, liquefaction was found to be present farther to the east. These sand dikes are thought to have formed in the 1811-1812 earthquakes. Dating of many of the liquefaction features show them to be prehistoric as well as historic in age.
Radiocarbon dating for many of the features is currently in progress.
Sand dike and sand blow exposed along the bank of the Forked Deer River in Tennessee Much of our understanding of the earthquake chronology of the NMSZ has come from detailed investigations of paleoliquefaction at archeological sites in the NMSZ under funding from the MAE Center and the USGS, involving collaborative work with archeologists and geophysicists, as well as the US Army Corps of Engineers. Geotechnical assistance from Dr. Paul Mayne under MAE Center project GT-3 and USGS funding is furthering understanding of the ground motions necessary to have caused liquefaction at these sites. Much remains to be done. The average recurrence estimates are based on only two earthquake cycles and may not fully represent long term behavior of the New Madrid seismic zone. The project aims to push the earthquake chronology back in time in order to obtain a more representative picture of past earthquake activity and to reduce uncertainties in recurrence intervals.