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Television trucks parked near Main Street, New Madrid, Missouri on Sunday, Dec. 2, 1990. Members of the media are in New Madrid, Mo., for the Iben Browning projected earthquake on December 3. (AP Photo/James A. Finley)
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Wayne Viitanen, a doctoral candidate at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, holds a map in 1972 showing the primary areas of damage during the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12. He was studying them for his dissertation. (Post-Dispatch)
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Residents flee their collapsing cabin in New Madrid, Mo., early on Dec. 16, 1811, during the first of what became known as the New Madrid earthquakes. The last major shake was on Feb. 7, 1812. The first wrecked many of the cabins in the village, namesake of the fault line. In St. Louis, it shook residents awake and caused minor damage. The drawing was an illustration in an 1854 book, Historical Collections of the Great West. (Missouri History Museum)
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The New Madrid fault has had lesser shakes since 1811 and makes minor ones every few months. Scientists assume it will be the site of another major one someday. In 1990, Iben Browning, a scientist in New Mexico, predicted a 50-50 chance of one on Dec. 2-3. Widely scoffed, the prediction drew many reporters to New Madrid, Mo. The waiting was reduced to this — reporters interviewed Joe Brasher, a folk musician from nearby Malden, Mo., who had joined the fun. Nothing else happened but brisk sales at local businesses. (Wendi Brown/Post-Dispatch)
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A detailed map of the area of the New Madrid fault in Missouri and Arkansas, prepared in 1905 with information on the landscape by the Mississippi River Commission. (Missouri History Museum)
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A climatologist predicted 29 years ago that our earthquake alley had a 50-50 chance for a big one, a megaquake maybe on the order of the horrific seismic jolts that dismantled the area in 1811-12.
