Residents in portions of Missouri have been feeling the ground move as a large US fault line has been raising concerns. On Tuesday, several small earthquakes were recorded near the New Madrid Fault Line in southeastern Missouri, with the strongest registering with a magnitude of 3.0.
Most of the earthquakes had a magnitude of less than 2.5 which is generally too low to be felt by humans, but can still be detected by seismograph. Cities these earthquakes were recorded in include Marston, Howardville, Matthews and Hayward, Missouri., as well as Ridgley, Tennessee. According to Michigan Technological University, millions of these small earthquakes occur each year.
In North America, the New Madrid Fault Line is one the most seismically active regions, however, earthquakes of large magnitude have not been common in the area for a long time. It has been over one hundred years since the fault has produced devastating earthquakes, with a sequence of them occurring between 1811 and 1812. The earthquakes during this time occurred in the central Mississippi Valley, but were felt as far away as New York City, Boston, Montreal and Washington D.C. After the earthquake, the Mississippi River reportedly began to flow backwards for several hours.
For a list of recently occurring earthquakes, visit https://sema.dps.mo.gov/earthquake_preparedness/earthquake_map.php.
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