Trio of New Madrid Quakes Shake Southern Missouri Monday

There's no reason for alarm at all, but if you follow earthquakes in Missouri, you might be interested to know that a trio of New Madrid Fault quakes shook the southern part of the state Monday morning.

Since I am the registered earthquake nerd and unofficial watchman of the New Madrid Seismic Zone, the USGS earthquake map got my attention Monday morning with 3 different Missouri region quakes.

The good news is these 3 tremors were barely large enough to even be felt with none that registered larger than 2.4 on the Richter Scale.

Is there a reason for alarm for the increase in earthquake activity in and near Missouri?

The simple answer is no, but the more complicated answer is no one really knows including the experts at the USGS. There is such a thing as a foreshock which is a smaller quake that leads up to a larger event, but you can't know it was a foreshock until after the larger quake happens. There is no technology that we know of yet that can predict earthquakes, but increased activity like we've seen over the past 3 weeks in southern Missouri bears watching.

We know that sooner or later, there will be a major earthquake event along the New Madrid Seismic Zone. It may or may not happen in our lifetime. Most experts say there's a 30 to 40% chance of a greater than 6 magnitude quake in the region in the next 40 to 50 years. It could be decades from now or it might be tomorrow. We all need to be mentally prepared for it to occur any time and hope we and our children never live to see it.