New Madrid Fault Said Merry Christmas, Missouri with a Rumble

It wasn't a life-changing jolt, but more of a "Hello and hope you have a Merry Christmas" type of rumble as the New Madrid Fault woke up a few in southern Missouri on Christmas morning.

While getting up today and waiting for my children to wake up, I checked out the USGS earthquake site which I do pretty much every day. I figured the New Madrid Fault would respect that it's Christmas and remain silent, but I was very wrong. Sure enough, there was a reasonably-sized dot on the southern tip of Missouri as a USGS seismologist confirmed there was a New Madrid quake early Christmas morning.

As I zoomed in closer, I noticed there was an even bigger quake near Cooter, Missouri on Monday, December 23. This one was big enough to be felt, too.

Still, that's not big enough to even rearrange your furniture or break a dinner dish, but it's just another active week along Missouri's southern border which also happens to  be one of the most seismically-active earthquake faults in America.

Let's hope these Christmas week rumbles in the Missouri bootheel are just holiday greetings and not a lead up to a life-changing event. It's Christmas after all.