Norwich bulletin., 1921-11-08
ODD INCIDENTS IN AMERICAS
 HISTORY
OUR GREATEST EARTHQUAKE

The peculiar formation in many parts of the United States are evil dences that this country in prehis- toric times, must have been the scene of unusual upheavals of the earth; but the greatest earthquake in America, within the knowledge of historians, oc- cured on December Is, 1911.
 This was know as the New Madrid earthquake, and the location was the Great. Central Mississippi Valley In severity and extent this earthquake far surpassed anything of the kind be- fore or since 1911, so far as historical knowledge is concerned, and without great changes in the surface of the Hand
 The Charleston and San Francisco disturbances were national disasters, because they affected the congested population and the structures of two important cities. The New Madrid earthquake left no marked impression on the history of the country, because although far more severe and pro- longed it occurred in a sparsely set l tied and at that time unimportant re- zion.
 The area effected by this earthquake of more than century ago lies irreg- ularly along the Mississippi River, 1 lEOIH NsdlTO SOulH lO Vh6HpnlS. 1ne magnitude of the disturbance will be realized when it is stated that through one-haf of the entire expanse of the l United States the vibrations could be i plainly felt.
 As described by the geographer, | Flint, who visited the area a few years later the country exhibited a melan- choly aspect of chaos, of formerly rich lands, covered two or three feet deep with sand, of trees thrown down or lying tipped at an angle of forty five degrees or split in the middle. Descriptions of the occurrence in a report of the United States geological survey say that the earth rolled in waves several feet high with deep de- pressions between the swells finally bursting and leaving parallel Assures extending for distances IS great as 1 flee miles in some cases and from twenty to thirty feet wide. At one point the Mississippi River was brok- en in two admitting great quantities of water into newly former chasms which immediately closed giving rise to waves of great size. From many oi the Assures sand and water were for cibly extruded.
 Many farms were in whole or in part precipitated into the streams, oth- CTS were covered by extruded waters still others were depressed or sunk and overflower. Great wreckage oc- cured on the Mississippi River, and entire islands disappeared, notably Is- land No. 94, near Vicksburgh. Neal New Madrid fault or land slip oc- cured which stretched entirely across the Mississippi, creating a waterfall from six to eight feet high.
 Prof. Shaler describes depression. in Obion County, Tennessee, 100 feet deep and varying fro m a few feet tt
 100 feet wide. Large areas in what ii known as the St. Francis Basin sanl
 bodily many feet, and they are now
 known as the Sunk Lands" The ia.
 nous Reelfoot Lake and Lake St
 Francis were thus formed.
 The English geologist, Lytell, ant
 others who visited the Sunk Land.
 some years after the earthquake de.
 scribe the submergence of forests O.
 cypress, saying that they could paddl,
 their boat among the branches ant
 that there are large trees of walnut
 white oak and mulberry, such as grow
 on high land, which are now submerg
 ed ten or twenty feet beneath the wa } ter"
 , On the other hand, certain area. : were uplifted, River channels whicf Il were frequented by deep draught boat