810-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 9,1986
BY KENNETH C. DANFORTH
National Geographic News Service
NEW MADRID, Mo. - A buried
giant sleeps with its feet beneath
Marked Tree, Ark., its head
beneath Cairo, 111., one clenched
fist under Memphis, Tenn.
When sufficiently roused and
it may happen anytime the giant
will rip through the earth to smash
buildings, throw highways aside,
breach levees, and kill thousands.
Geologists know all this. They
speak not of “if,” but of “when.”
Far beneath the peaceful cotton
and soybean fields, the
unimaginable stresses of the New
Madrid Seismic Zone will snap.
The longer they build up, the worse
the devastation will be.
Yet, communities that can ex
pect disaster seem reluctant to
prepare for it. After all, the famous
New Madrid Fault has never been
seen. It is a deep rift valley
covered by thick Paleozoic
limestone plus up to 4,000 feet of
loose sand and clay. You can't fly
over it and photograph it as you
can the notorious San Andreas
Fault in California.
Fatalistic Attitude
“We’ve attempted to have
meetings," says city ad
ministrator Don Lloyd. “We
couldn’t generate any interest.”
“IT’S OUR FAULT!” claims a
T-shirt for sale at the New Madrid
Museum.
“VISIT NEW MADRID (While
It’s Still There),” prompts
another.
“We’ve never been too con
cerned about it,” says Shirley
Perry, president of the New
Madrid Chamber of Commerce.
“If it happens, it happens.”
It happened before three
earthquakes one after the other in
December 1811 and January and
February 1812. Each quake alone
was among the strongest in
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history. The quick repetition of
quakes was unusual and triply
devastating. Geologists reckon
they would have registered 8.6,8.4,
and 8.7 on the Richter scale.
People who lived through them
told of geology gone berserk. The
ground moved in oceanic waves,
and it turned to slush beneath their
feet. Sand spewed out in great
fountains and pelted down upon
them. Cracks opened so wide and
deep that horses couldn’t cross
them, even after the shaking
ceased. Trees splintered. The air
seemed to roar in concert with the
bursting of the earth. For a while
the Mississippi River ran back
ward and swallowed huge hunks of
terrain. Reelfoot Lake in Ten
nessee was created all at once. The
town of New Madrid sank 12 feet,
and the houses fell down.
The San Francisco earthquake of
1906, so infamous that other
tremors are measured by it, was
8.3 on the Richter scale. But there
are significant differences. San
Francisco in 1906 was a densely
populated city; the entire
Mississippi Valley from Natchez to
St. Louis held only 5,000 people in
1811-12. They were self-sufficient
frontiersmen, living in log cabins
and depending on their own skill as
hunters and small farmers. Now
more than 15 million people live in
the hazardous zone.
Traveling Shock Waves
Another difference is in the
earth’s crust. If earthquakes of
equal magnitude hit California and
the Mississippi Valley today, the
crustal rock of California would
limit the area of destruction. In the
soft alluvial soil of the Mississippi
Valley, earthquakes travel much
farther.
“Besides liquefaction of the soil
in the New Madrid Zone, you get
amplification of the seismic
waves,” says Arch Johnston,
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director of the Tennessee Earth
quake Information Center. “The
waves can build up to twice their
original strength.”
The New Madrid quakes caused
topographical changes over 50,000
square miles and shook more than
a million square miles. “In terms
of the ‘felt area’ where the
earthquake is perceptible to
humans the New Madrid quakes
were the largest in American
history. They were felt all the way
to Canada and the U.S. East
Coast,” says Johnston.
New Madrid is not on a plate
boundary, and midplate earth
quakes of the kind that struck
there have yet to be explained in
terms of plate tectonics.
Johnston’s agency, which
monitors seismic activity in the
region, is in Memphis. With a large
number of high buildings down
town, on a bluff over the
Mississippi, Memphis is expected
to suffer more than any other
sizable city in the seismic zone. A
recent engineering study predicts
that a daytime earthquake of 7.6
Richter would kill more than 2,500
people in Memphis and cause $25
billion in property damage.
The study, part of the Central
United States Earthquake
Preparedness Project, tells what
the next big quake in the New
Madrid Seismic Zone can be ex
pected to do to Memphis;
Paducah, Ky.; Carbondale, 111.;
Evansville, Ind.; Poplar Bluff,
Mo.; and Little Bock, Ark. In
chilling, nonemotional detail, the
thick report analyzes everything
from the survivability of blood
banks to the structural soundness
of reservoirs and railroad bridges.
Witnesses Astounded
Eyewitness accounts of the 1811-
12 quakes concentrated on the
natural phenomena, what people
saw happening to the earth and the
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river, the subterranean can
nonading they heard, the sulfurous
fumes they smelled. Accounts of
urban chaos are missing.
In contrast, the drama of a
modem recurrence would center
upon the disruption of society’s
infrastructure. Unreinforced
masonry buildings would collapse.
Gas mains would break. Highways
would buckle. Levees would split.
Food stocks would dwindle.
Hospitals those left standing
would be overwhelmed.
While New Madrid waits
fatalistically behind the levee that
looms above the south end of Main
Street, one dedicated fireman and
Explorer Scout leader in
Blytheville, Ark., 50 miles to the
south, is trying to stir people to
prepare for the worst.
When he isn’t on duty at the fire
station, Bob Edwards spends much
of his time speaking to civic clubs
and other groups all up and down
the threatened area. (He has not
yet been asked to speak in New
Madrid.)
“People don’t want to face
reality,” says Edwards. “I’ve had
two women call me and ask if I was
associated with the devil. Because
I was trying to scare people about
earthquakes. People say, ‘lt’s the
lord’s will. If we’re going to die,
we’re going to die.’ Well, I’m a
survivor.”
Edwards emphasizes practical
preparation; Have fire ex
tinguishers and a good first aid kit
in the house. Know how to turn off
Members of the 4-H Production The next meeting will be held at
Club reported on their foals and the home of Rose Fellenbaum Aug.
their progress. The group will 12 at 6:30 p.m. Members are
show its foals during the 10 a.m. reminded to bring their project
District Show Aug. 14. animals.
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gas and electricity. Strap the
water heater to the wall so it won’t
fall over and spill what may be
your only source of water for days.
Keep fresh batteries in several
flashlights and a portable radio
which may be your only way to get
emergency messages. Store plenty
of blankets and warm clothes in
the car; it isn’t as prone to earth
quake destruction as your house is.
Delay in Outside Help
“The biggest problem,” says
Edwards, “is educating the public
that they’re going to have to take
care of themselves. After a
catastrophic earthquake, the
federal people will not be able to
get into this area from anywhere
from three days to a week. Our
own emergency services will be
overrun. Obviously, big places like
Memphis and St. Louis are going to
get federal priority; they have
more people. The highways into
Blytheville are probably going to
be destroyed, and probably the
runways at Blytheville Air Force
Base. We’re only 10 miles from the
Mississippi, and if the levee breaks
“The earthquake itself is not the
real culprit as far as directly in
juring people. It’s the shattering
glass, flying bricks, gas ex
plosions, live wires, burning
rubble, hazardous-materials spills,
the injuries brought on by panic.
The casualty rate will soar if the
quake hits during school hours.
There is no way we’ll be able to
handle all the wounded. ’ ’
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