In the winter of 1811-1812, the heartland of the United States was rocked by a series of earthquakes produced along the New Madrid Fault. Their scale ranged from 7.0 to 8.1 on the Richter Scale. The first two of these occurred on December 16, 2011. As we commemorate the 200th anniversary of these historic events, join us from the Saint Louis University Earthquake Center to investigate the science behind earthquakes, both causes and effects.

Perhaps no other American earthquakes except the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 have received as much attention as the New Madrid quakes of 1811-1812. Church bells were reported to ring as far as Boston, Massachusetts and York (now Toronto), Ontario, and stories of “the Mississippi River running backward” were spread far and wide. In this program, we separate fact from fiction of these historic quakes as students interact with geologists and seismologists at the Saint Louis University Earthquake Center. We learn about the history of the Earthquake Center, see historic and current seismic equipment, look over seismograms of earthquakes, find out the prospects for “predicting” future earthquakes, and investigate the potential effects of earthquakes on the scale of 1811-1812 if they happened in the same area today.

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