Significant earthquakes of 1812

January 23, 1812 Earthquake: New Madrid, Missouri, United States

January 23, 1812 · M7.3

A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck New Madrid, Missouri, United States on January 23, 1812 at 15:00 UTC. It caused a tsunami.

Map

Where it struck, with the other significant earthquakes within 200 km. Circles are sized and colored by magnitude; select one for its page.

The earthquake

Date
January 23, 1812
Time
15:00 UTC
Place
New Madrid, Missouri, United States
Magnitude
7.3 (Mw)
Magnitude scales
Mw 7.3 · Ms 8.4 · Mfa 7.1
Intensity
X, extreme shaking, on the Modified Mercalli scale
Epicenter
36.300° N, 89.600° W
Region
North America and Hawaii

Mw: moment magnitude, based on the slip on the fault and the area that slipped. Ms: surface-wave magnitude. Mfa: computed from the felt area, for earthquakes before seismic instruments were in general use. NCEI’s headline magnitude is the best of these for the earthquake.

The toll

Damage
Severe (about $5 to $25 million)

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

Five scientific studies between 1996 and 2011 have assigned Mw magnitudes from as low as 6.9 (2011) to as high as 7.8 (1996) for this earthquake. The 2014 edition of the National Seismic Hazard Map has adopted Mw 7.3 as the best average magnitude, based on these studies.

Abridged from Documentation for the 2014 Update of the United States National Seismic Hazard Maps, by Mark D. Petersen, Morgan P. Moschetti, Peter M. Powers, Charles S. Mueller, Kathleen M. Haller, Arthur D. Frankel, Yuehua Zeng, Sanaz Rezaeian, Stephen C. Harmsen, Oliver S. Boyd, Edward H. Field, Rui Chen, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Nico Luco, Russell L. Wheeler, Robert A. Williams, and Anna H. Olsen (2014), U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2014-1091.

This is the third (now second, see note below) principal shock of the 1811-12 sequence. The first earthquake of this series on December 16, 1811, was located in northeastern Arkansas. It is difficult to assign intensities to the principal shocks that occurred after 1811 because many of the published accounts describe the cumulative effects of all the earthquakes. Using the December 16 earthquake as a standard, however, a comparison between it and the shock on January 23 indicates that the intensities were about equal at similar locations. The area of maximum damage was characterized by general ground warping, ejections, fissuring, severe landslides, and caving of stream banks. (Ref. 143, 301, 353, 473. 529.)
Maximum observed Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) XI

Abridged from Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), by Carl W. Stover and Jerry L. Coffman, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527, United States Government Printing Office, Washington: 1993.

Note: Current research considers this to be the second principal earthquake of the 1811-1812 series because the second ("dawn") event on December 16 is now considered to be an aftershock.

This is one of the Largest Earthquakes in the United States (M>=7.0) and is the largest earthquake located within the State of Missouri. [Note that the epicenter of the M 7.5 earthquake on Dec 16, 1811 plots on the Arkansas-Missouri state line, but it is considered an Arkansas earthquake].

From the USGS event page for official18120123150000000. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Magnitude estimates

The magnitudes the USGS catalog lists for this earthquake, by scale and by who computed them. NCEI’s own scales are in the table above.

Mag.ScaleComputed byNotes
7.3Mw, momentUSGS, official solutionPreferred · Reviewed
7.56Mw, momentUSGS historic United States catalogFinal

References for the magnitude and location

The USGS’s notes on how this earthquake’s official magnitude and location were set.

Official Magnitude updated 30-Jun-2022
Reference: Petersen, M.D., Moschetti, M.P, Powers, P.M., Mueller, C.S., et.al. (2004),
Documentation for the 2014 Update of the United States National Seismic Hazard Maps,
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2014-1091.
Official Location updated 19-Aug-2019
Reference:Bakun, W.H. and Hopper, M.G. (2004),
Catalog of Significant Historical Earthquakes in the Central United States,
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1086.

What the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

This is the third principal shock of the 1811-12 sequence. The first earthquake of this series on Dec. 16, 1811, was located in northeast Arkansas. It is difficult to assign intensities to the principal shocks that occurred after 1811 because many of the published accounts describe the cumulative effects of all the earthquakes. Using the Dec. 16 earthquake as a standard, however, a comparison between it and the shock on Jan. 23 indicates that the intensities were about equal at similar locations. The meizoseismal area was characterized by general ground warping, ejections, fissuring, severe landslides, and caving of stream banks. Magnitude 8.4 Msn NLI.

More than 200 moderate to large earthquakes occurred on the New Madrid fault, 1811 to 1812. The first two occurred on December 16, 1811. Other major shocks occurred on January 23, 1812, and February 7, 1812.

(all above from reference #542)

Stover and Coffman (reference #542) cite the following documents:

Ms 8.4 Fuller (1912) (ref#1854)

Mb 7.1 Nuttli (1973) (ref#3753)

Ms 7.8 Nuttli (1979) (ref#12154)

Ms 8.4 Barstow (1981) (ref#12155)

However, recent research has reexamined macroseismic intensity data and estimated magnitudes lower than any previously reported. For instance,

Mw 6.9 Hough and Page (2011) (ref#12158)

Mw 7.5 Bakun and Hopper (2004) (ref#12156)

Mw 7.8 Johnston (1996) (ref#12157)

M 7.3 (ref#12164)

Sources NCEI cites

The publications NCEI lists for this record. The numbers match the “reference #” notes in its account above.

  1. #3661 McKeown, F.A. and L.C. Pakiser, editors (1982). Investigations of the New Madrid, Missouri, Earthquake Region. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1236, 201 p.
  2. #1854 Fuller, Myron L. (1912). The New Madrid Earthquake. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 494. Government Printing Office, 1912. Reprinted in 1988.
  3. #3753 Nuttli, Otto W. (1973). The Mississippi Valley earthquakes of 1811 and 1812: Intensities, ground motion and magnitudes. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, vol. 63, no.1, p. 227-248.
  4. #542 Stover, Carl W., and Jerry L. Coffman (1993). Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 418 p.
  5. #12164 U.S. Geological Survey (2015). Summary of 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquakes Sequence. Accessed 7 June 2018. Link
  6. #12154 Nuttli, Otto W. (1979). Seismicity of the Central United States, Geology in the siting of nuclear power plants: Geological Society of America, Reviews in Engineering Geology, v. 4, p. 67-107.
  7. #12155 Barstow, N.L., Brill, KG., Nuttli, O.W., and Pomeroy, P.W., (1981). An approach to seismic zonation for siting nuclear electric power generating facilities in the Eastern United States: Roundout Associates, Inc., Stone Ridge, N.J., [for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission], NUCREGICR-1577, 315 p. Table 22. List of Central United States Earthquakes with Mb Magnitudes greater than or equal to 4.5
  8. #12158 Hough, Susan E., and Morgan Page (2011). Toward a consistent model for strain accrual and release for the New Madrid seismic zone, central United States. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 116(B3).
  9. #12156 Bakun, W.H., and Hopper, M.G (2004). Magnitudes and locations of the 1811-1812 New Madrid, Missouri, and the 1886 Charleston, South Carolina, earthquakes: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, v. 94, p. 64-75.
  10. #12157 Johnston, A. C. (1996). Seismic moment assessment of earthquakes in stable continental regions—III. New Madrid 1811-1812, Charleston 1886 and Lisbon 1755. Geophysical Journal International, 126(2), 314-344.

Other significant earthquakes nearby

Within 200 km, the deadliest first.

More

Significant earthquakes of 1812The 1800sRecent earthquakes near hereThis day in weather history

Sources

Significant earthquakes from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-10-01. NCEI earthquake 1597. The written accounts and the magnitude estimates are from the USGS earthquake catalog, event official18120123150000000, matched to this record by time, place and magnitude.