Significant earthquakes of 1812

February 7, 1812 Earthquake: New Madrid, Missouri, United States

February 7, 1812 · M7.5

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck New Madrid, Missouri, United States on February 7, 1812 at 09:45:00 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
February 7, 1812
Time
09:45:00 UTC
Place
New Madrid, Missouri, United States
Magnitude
7.5 (Mw)
Epicenter
36.500° N, 89.600° W

The toll

Injuries
1 with its tsunami and other effects
Damage
Severe (about $5 to $25 million)
Houses damaged
Many (101 to 1,000)

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 the record says

NCEI’s account, from the sources it cites.

This is the fourth and largest earthquake of the 1811-12 series. Several destructive shocks occurred on Feb. 7, the last of which equaled or surpassed the magnitude of any previous event. The town of New Madrid was destroyed. At St. Louis, many houses were damaged severely and their chimneys were thrown down. The meizoseismal area was characterized by general ground warping, ejections, fissuring, severe landslides, and caving of stream banks. Magnitude 8.8 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 8.8 Fuller (1912) (ref#1854)

Mb 7.4 Nuttli (1973) (ref#3753)

Ms 8.2 Nuttli (1979) (ref#12154)

Ms 8.7 Barstow (1981) (ref#12155)

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

Mw 7.8 Bakun and Hopper (2004) (ref#12156)

Mw 8.0 Johnston and Scheig (1996) (ref#12157)

Mw 7.2 Hough and Page (2011) (ref#12158)

M 7.5 (ref#12164)

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 2026-09-24. NCEI earthquake 1598.