New Madrid Shaking – Dozens in Missouri Felt Wednesday Earthquake

It wasn't big enough to cause any damage, but an earthquake Wednesday along the New Madrid Fault was reportedly felt by dozens in Missouri based on initial reports.

This is one of those earthquakes that happens quite frequently along the New Madrid Fault that really aren't big enough to worry about, but they are large enough to be felt by many.

According to the USGS, this New Madrid quake measured 2.8 on the Richter Scale. Although I've heard anecdotal mentions of up to 100 possibly feeling the quake along the southern part of Missouri, there are as of this writing a few dozen official "felt reports" according to the USGS.

The USGS update shows this New Madrid, Missouri quake has been reviewed by a seismologist and is listed as confirmed.

Relatively speaking, the New Madrid Fault has been relatively quiet so far in 2024 with less than 100 quakes as of this writing. Today's quake was one of the more significant quakes since a mini-swarm hit just prior to the total solar eclipse that passed over the fault zone on April 8.

The USGS has done studies about what damage a major 7.7 quake could do, but they only give it a 10% chance of happening over the next 50 years. Today's quake was extremely minor and is likely just an energy release by this highly seismically-active part of Missouri.