Sudden Flurry of Quakes Felt Along New Madrid Fault in Missouri

I have been watching an uptick of activity along the New Madrid Fault in Missouri this week including the largest of the week that felt by many early Saturday morning.

UPDATE: And now, there's just been an even larger 3.2 quake along the New Madrid.

ORIGINAL STORY: I say this all the time, but I won't assume you've read my words before, so I'll say it again. Small earthquakes happen near the New Madrid Seismic Area in Missouri all the time. It's rare that the area goes more than a few days without a measurable quake. That being said, there has been an increase in activity especially Friday and early Saturday there.

Here are the flurry of quakes along the New Madrid that have just happened over the past few days confirmed by the USGS and reviewed by a seismologist.

The largest of this bunch just happened at 7:49am central time Saturday, November 16 which registered a not insignificant 2.8 magnitude quake.

The interesting aspect of these recent quakes is they have occurred over 4 distinct areas of the New Madrid with a handful hugging the Bootheel of Missouri, a couple in Arkansas and Saturday morning's shaker across the Mississippi River in Tennessee.

What do these recent flurry of New Madrid quakes mean?

I would have to defer to my friends at the USGS for that answer since I'm not a seismologist, but I'd guess they'd say this is just normal New Madrid activity. It's an interesting series of quakes, but likely just an isolated happening and not a leadup to a major event - or so we can all hope.