Post by Fenlander on Sept 18, 2008 8:27:40 GMT 2
An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi
River to flow backwards.
You have to wonder, before the days of modern science, what
natives and new settlers to our land thought of such cataclysmic
events as earthquakes. Particularly when they ripped open the
earth, tore down their houses, and did the impossible, like
making a river flow backwards.
That was the kind of horror visited upon the few scattered
residents around New Madrid, Missouri in December of 1811. In
the middle of the night, after a mighty roar, the Earth opened
up in several places, including in the middle of the Mississippi
River, then slammed together again, spewing out mud and water,
that not only knocked down acres of trees, but temporarily
changed the course of the river, making it flow backwards.
But it was not the first earthquake, or even the first serious
one noted in that area. The problem was that as a new
settlement, with no schools or other institutions, the area was
largely illiterate, and so few written accounts of seismic
activity in that region survive.
It is known that significant quakes occurred in 1699, 1776,
1779, 1792, 1795, and 1804. But never had they terrified so
many, because the land was not well populated until the 1800s.
By some verbal accounts, over 1800 tremors struck the area
between December 1811 and March 1812. The last major aftershock
in January of 1812, caused most of the residents to flee for
good, their homes gone, and their fear too great to overcome.
Because of the underlying fault in the area, some scientists
predict an upheaval on the average of every 100 years, but the
earth has remained silent and the river has remained on course
for nearly 200 years.