USGS

There was a trio of quakes that did get October off to a bang in the Missouri Bootheel.

There's a whole lot of shaking going on along the southern border of Missouri as the New Madrid Fault has suddenly become busy with nearly a quake happening every single day.

You don't see earthquakes in this part of Illinois very often.

Well, this is a new one. Missouri has quakes along the New Madrid Fault all the time, but it's not often that you see one which was centered just to the west of the St. Louis area Thursday morning. It's been confirmed by the USGS and was felt by hundreds.

It's been said about life that if you blink, you'll miss it. That's true for Missouri earthquakes, too, that happen all the time and rarely does anyone notice. That's exactly what happened in a tiny Missouri town on Thursday.

It's hard to judge the status of what's happening in southern Missouri along the New Madrid Fault by looking at just one day. That's why when a new month starts that I like to take a look back at the past month of seismic activity and Missouri sure was shaking a lot in August.

Southern Missouri is one of the most seismically-active areas in America, so it's not strange for earthquakes to happen in that region. They happen all the time, but I cannot remember one centered in Bull Shoals Lake in Missouri like the one that just hit late Saturday night.

This is not a breaking news item. As a matter of fact, if I didn't show you what's been happening along the New Madrid Seismic Zone over the past few days, there's almost no way you would have noticed. But, there has been a mini-swarm of interesting activity.

As an earthquake nut, I thought I had seen it all. An earthquake Friday proves that I still haven't. The USGS has confirmed there was an earthquake under Lake Michigan Friday which was felt by many in Wisconsin.

I've been fortunate to get to know USGS personnel over the years and I think most of them would agree that earthquake science is still a developing process. I think they would also see July along the New Madrid Seismic Zone as a curious month where there were more measurable quakes than you probably think.