Hello there! My name is Conevery Valencius, and I'll be taking questions today about my recent book, The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes, which just came out in paperback. If this discussion gets you interested to learn more, the University of Chicago Press is offering a discount of 20% on the paperback for this AMA, good through Nov 11 (use code PR20VALEN).
The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes is my attempt to figure out why, as a person who grew up in the Mississippi Valley and now makes my living as a historian, I knew almost nothing about big quakes that had hit that region in 1811-12 (the epicenters are in the Missouri bootheel, along the Mississippi River, in the part of the U.S. where the states of Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Illinois draw close together). When I moved out to California to go to school, people said I was moving to "earthquake country" -- but the thing was, I was already there!
To figure out why I never knew that, I had to figure out a few topics:
what earthquakes do: turns out that not only do they shake the ground, but they also cause huge commotion on rivers, especially rivers as big as the Mississippi. In areas of loose, unconsolidated, fertile soil, they also create huge sand blows: areas of liquefaction in which hot liquid sand shoots up into the air and makes a conical, volcano-looking mound. Yikes!
news in the nineteenth century: in 1811-12, news of the quakes spread through excited gossip and through newspaper stories, which were cut-and-pasted into the many quarrelsome little local papers all around the U.S. That's how knowledge got made back then.
Native American history: the quakes were big news for indigenous peoples throughout the North American southeast, as well as for the pan-Indian confederacy led by Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa.
Cherokees and swamps: I found out the areas right where the quakes hit were a main area of settlement for Native people tired of losing land and culture to invading Americans in the Southeast. The New Madrid quakes made good hunting and fishing land into barely-passable swamp and pushed those settlers further west. This is a whole area of American Indian history -- as well as Arkansas history -- that hadn't been known before!
religion: when the earth heaves and cracks and people see glowing lights and smell sulphur, people of many faith traditions seek to get right with God - and quick!
bodily experience: I wrote one book about bodies and land in the nineteenth century (The Health of the Country, in 2002). I figured I was done with that topic --- but then I started reading accounts by people in earthquakes, who used their bodies as barometers of environmental upheaval, and who interpreted the earth's behavior according to how it made them feel.
early American science: wow, were these quakes a puzzle! Lots of people -- not just academics, but ordinary folks -- tried to figure them out. The earthquakes show us a truly lively world of scientific thinking in the early U.S.
change and forgetting: why could quakes so big and powerful be forgotten? partly because of environmental history: timbering, railroading, swamp drainage. partly because of social history: newly-freed African-Americans moved into the quakes' epicenters and had other pressing problems. partly because of the Civil War: a major battle, Island No. 10, was fought on earthquake terrain, but afterwards was only remembered for the battle, not for the earthquake-shaped landscape.
revolutions in the earth sciences: the introduction of instruments into the study of the earth's movement was REVOLUTIONARY! so exciting! so much became clear! ….but old newspapers with excited stories about people feeling seasick when the earth shook were no longer scientific evidence once researchers had clean, clear, quantified seismograms to work from. Similarly: plate tectonics did a great deal to explain why earthquakes happen in much of the world, but very little to focus attention on seismic movement within tectonic plates.
changes in sciences: only in the last 15 years or so have the New Madrid quakes gone from the preoccupation of a few people to a major area of study. This is in part because of new recognition of a the phenomenon of so-called 'stable continental region' quakes, that is, quakes that are similarly far from a plate tectonic boundary, and partly because of new interdisciplinary methods in paleoseismology that bring together people from soil science, archeology, tree study, and all kinds of other disciplines to research very old quakes.
public policy: this new research shows that the 1811-12 events are only the most recent to have struck that region: mid-America needs to be prepared for future similar events. This has important consequences for planning, and those challenges are not easy.
…I'd be glad to talk more about any of these topics!
Also, if you, like me, need to picture how to say words in order to think them through, my name is pronounced CON-a-very val-LEN-chus (you're on your own with Bolton), and yes, they're all family last names! seismically yours, Conevery
Hello! Well, I know literally nothing about Native American history apart from the names of some cultures like, I don't know, poverty point. So how did the earthquake affect the local Native Americans? Where did the Cherokees move to and did they move immediately afterwards or try to live there around the swamps for a while until it inevitably failed? Do we have any recorded description of the earthquakes told by a Native American, especially a Cherokee person?
How did the earthquakes affect the local economy?
Native American history: the quakes were big news for indigenous peoples throughout the North American southeast, as well as for the pan-Indian confederacy led by Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa.
How far back have you been able to track Tecumseh's earthquake prophecy? Is it something that only appears much later (like Tecumseh's Curse) or was it in circulation soon after the events (or even prior)? This is something I've been meaning to look into, but haven't gotten around to myself yet.
Cherokees and swamps [...]
I'd love to hear more about this, so if there's anything you feel like elaborating on for this topic, have at it!
Finally, have you looked into the pre-Columbian effects of the New Madrid fault system? I know there's some research pointing toward New Madrid quakes impacting both Cahokia and its successor, Angel Mounds.
Historically-minded Redditers, it has been a pleasure to talk with you all today! Thanks much for reminding me why I love what I do!
yours - Conevery Valencius
What's your favorite anecdote from the earthquakes?
When we look at the area today, what signs of the earthquake are visible but overlooked? I'm not talking to parks and such things like that, but aspects we might pass by everyday without realizing their source.
Anyone who is interested in primary sources on these quakes (a terrific possible school history project, for instance!) might want to check out the New Madrid Compendium compiled by CERI, the Center for Earthquake Research & Information, which is joint project of U of Memphis & USGS. This contains a wealth of historical and scientific information on the quakes: http://www.memphis.edu/ceri/compendium/
CERI also maintains a lively Facebook presence, which includes a history blog by the on-staff historian, Ken Moran.
Anybody interested in current science of the New Madrid Seismic Zone might want to check out the US Geological Survey's resources, available at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/nmsz/ Your tax dollars at work!
Hello, and thank you for doing this AMA! To kick things off, a few people posted questions in the announcement thread rather than here, so I'm going to duplicate them here:
From /u/TheAlmightySnark:
How devastating would the 1811/12 earthquake be if it happened today? Is there any idea on what the frequency of this quake is?
From /u/joshburns97:
Did people know what caused earthquakes/ what did they think caused them?
From /u/OakheartIX:
Wikipedia page for the earthquakes mentions that the governor, William Clark asked the federal government for help in 1814. What was the answer and what was done to help the populations that suffered ?
I just watched your Clinton School Lecture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5rmRnvotAI
You mention the island No 10 being mostly remembered for the battle that took place there. Are there any other significant geological features in that are that are a consequence of the shake but are now mostly know for some other event happening there?
1811-1812 would be right near the birthing period of geology as a science, given that Hutton's Theory of Earth was published only twenty odd years before, and Lyell was about to go to university. What sort of interest did the earthquakes excite in the scientific circles of Europe at the time?
Given that the Louisiana Purchase was only a few years before this, I would assume that the area was still seen as a wild and untamed frontier. How did the earthquakes fit into the mythos of the "untamed West"?
Hello there!
I'm a native Missourian, and have worked down in SE MO a few summers as a park ranger. I've always heard the one-liner about how the Mississippi ran backwards for a week because of the 'quake. I'd appreciate some specifics about the causes for the reverse flow, and if you know, any consequences it brought about upstream.
Thanks, and I can't wait to read the book.
You mentioned CERI's New Madrid Compendium ─ how did you do your research for your book? What sources did you consult, and how did you verify what they were saying? I know in my own research, I've sometimes had a hard time obtaining independent verification of even notable things like 19th century lynchings.
I have been fascinated by the New Madrid Seismic Zone since the early 1980's. I know there were anecdotal accounts of strange lights in the sky and flighty animals over a five state region in the days leading up to the quake. What are some of your favorite stories of the strange occurrences preceding the quake?
I have also heard that the Midwestern bedrock transmits seismic waves more effectively than the bedrock on the west coast, which would lead to a much larger area feeling the effects of a temblor. What would someone in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, or Louisville have felt from the 1811-1812 shocks?
Thank you for doing this AMA! :)