3 Missouri Quakes Strike New Madrid Fault in Sudden Burst

After a week or two of relative quiet, the New Madrid Fault has awoken with a mini-swarm of 3 earthquakes all confirmed by the USGS Thursday morning.

UPDATE: 4-5-26 - 3:07pm

The swarm has now grown to FIVE quakes today.

ORIGINAL STORY: This graphic from the USGS immediately caught my eye this morning

It's a mini-swarm of 3 tiny tremors that have all been confirmed by the USGS and they all happened within a very short period of a few hours early Thursday morning. All 3 of these quakes were barely strong enough to even be felt, so no reason for any alarm. I may be the only person who is not with the USGS that knows about them - until now, of course.

The truth is this New Madrid Seismic Zone mini-swarm might be my fault. I was just mentioning to my wife last night how I haven't seen any activity along the fault line in southern Missouri for a week or two and now this. Yes, famous last words.

What does this New Madrid Fault mini-swarm mean?

I hate to sound like a broken record repeating myself, but it's impossible to say that an uptick in earthquake activity means a larger event is coming. If those that follow my earthquake observations learn anything, let it be that we shouldn't worry about strange New Madrid Fault activity, but we should also always be prepared. The major quake event that the USGS says is possible along the southern Missouri boot heel will strike without any warning if it happens at all. If it does, the damage is estimated to be around $300 billion dollars with thousands possibly being left homeless. We can't worry about that, but we can prepare. It might not happen in our lifetime or it might happen today.