Kentucky's Earthquake Record Book

Kentucky has experienced hundreds, if not thousands of earthquakes in the past.  Geologists have found evidence of earthquakes from millions of years ago.

Since record keeping only started in the past several hundred years, we do not have a complete record of the shaking that has taken place.  Below you will find some historical background on of some of the earthquakes that have been recorded in Kentucky.

There are several seismic zones in and around the state; the most significant is the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) located at the border of western Kentucky.  Scientists estimate that the probability of a magnitude 6 to 7 earthquake occurring in this seismic zone within the next 50 years is higher than 90%.

 While the last significant earthquake, a 5.1 on the Richter scale near Sharpsburg in Bath County in 1980, caused an estimated $3 million in damage the most notable earthquakes in Kentucky occurred along the NMSZ from December 1811 to March 1812.  Three of the largest earthquakes in the contiguous United States occurred along the NMSZ over this period and an engineer in Louisville recorded 1,850 shocks over this period.  The shocks from these earthquakes could be easily felt as far away as Detroit, Michigan, and South Carolina.  An area between the St. Francois River and Mississippi River running from New Madrid, Missouri to Marked Tree, Arkansas showed numerous sand-blows (a place where liquefacted alluvial soil has geysered out of the surface). 

Liquefaction is a phenomenon where shaking of the ground separates the water from the soil holding it, causing the soil to behave like a dense liquid.  The lack of water causes the soil to lose surface cohesion and molecules of sand from these blows to accumulate  up to five feet in places.  Liquefaction will cause land to lose its load bearing capacity

During the 1811-1812 period areas along the Mississippi River were uplifted as well as subsided.  Opposite New Madrid, the area around Tiptonville, Tennessee formed a dome (uplift of several yards).  Immediately adjacent to the Tiptonville Dome, an area subsided to form a lake eighteen miles long and five miles wide.  It is now known as Reelfoot Lake and is a tourist and recreation area.

Ground failure and landslides were apparent throughout the Chickasaw Bluffs alongside the Mississippi River in Kentucky and Tennessee.  Many fissures were made throughout the region and one local observer recorded that the earth seemed to be rolling in waves several feet in height.  These swells would burst, leaving wide and long fissures.

The damage to the area was so severe that Congress passed, and President James Madison signed into law, the first disaster relief act giving government lands in other territories to people wanting to move out of the effected area.

Earthquakes in the central or eastern United States affect much larger areas than earthquakes of similar magnitude in the western United States.  For example, the San Francisco, California earthquake of 1906 (magnitude 7.8) was felt 350 miles away in the middle of Nevada, whereas the New Madrid earthquake of December 1811 (magnitude 8.0) rang church bells in Boston, Massachusetts, 1,000 miles away.  Differences in geology east and west of the Rocky Mountains cause this strong contrast.

 Although earthquakes in the central and eastern United States are less frequent than in the western United States, they affect much larger areas.  This is shown by two areas affected by earthquakes of similar magnitude, the 1895 Charleston, Missouri, earthquake in the New Madrid seismic zone and the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake.  Red indicates minor to major damage to buildings and their contents.  Yellow indicates shaking felt, but little or no damage to objects, such as dishes.

Catastrophic Earthquake Planning Workshop

Paducah, Kentucky

March 11 - 14, 2008 

Nearly 300 federal, state and local emergency officials are expected to attend a catastrophic earthquake planning workshop in Paducah, Kentucky.

The Commonwealth has been seeking to build from the ground up a series of draft County, Regional and State oriented Catastrophic Earthquake Response Plans for the next six months. This effort will culminate in the Workshop/Exercise, where over the four days, participants will walk through the various scenarios, planning priorities and draft response plans to identify areas where further coordination, planning and development of capabilities is needed. This process is just one of many that our State is taking to coordinate earthquake preparedness efforts.

Kentucky Earthquake Technical Workgroup

   01/22/2008 – Frankfort: Lori King, KYEM Area 1 Manager and KY Earthquake Program Manager, held an Earthquake Technical Workgroup meeting at the DOT building. This meeting was attended by several KYEM personnel and aprox 30 additional representatives from various state agencies and FEMA. This purpose of this meeting was to update agencies in the earthquake program, upcoming Earthquake Preparedness Week and discuss   re-establishing the KY Earthquake Advisory Board.

Kentucky Earthquake History since New Madrid 1811-1812

• Houses shook and plaster was cracked in parts of northern Kentucky on November 20, 1834.
  
• Similar effects were noted on December 27, 1841 near the town of Hickman.  The Mississippi River was greatly agitated although no wind was reported.
  
• Other earthquakes occurred in the Mississippi Valley on January 4 and February 16, 1843.
  
• A severe shock was reported at Columbus, Kentucky on March 12, 1878 and a section of the bluff along the Mississippi River caved.
  
• A sharp earthquake with an epicenter near the mouth of the Ohio River occurred on December 7, 1915.  Buildings were strongly shaken, windows and dishes rattled, and loose objects were shaken in western Kentucky and adjoining regions (Intensity V, VI).  The total effected area covered 60,000 square miles.
  
• On October 26, 1916, an earthquake at Mayfield was reported to have shaken pictures from walls.  All of these events are rated as Intensity V on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale.
  
• Hickman, the site of the 1841 earthquake, experienced another strong shock on December 18, 1916.  Reports indicated bricks were shaken from chimneys at Hickman and New Madrid, Missouri (Intensity VI, VII).
  An earthquake near the point of the December 1915 event occurred on March 2, 1924.  No damage was reported and the effected area was significantly less at about 15,000 square miles.
  
• A broad area of Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Tennessee, estimated at 75,000 square miles, was affected by an earthquake on September 2, 1925.  It was apparently centered near Henderson, Kentucky where some landslides were noted.  In Louisville, about 100 miles away, a chimney fell and a house reportedly sank.
  
• On January 1, 1954, slight damage resulted from an earthquake (Intensity VI) near Middlesboro, KY..  The tremor caused general alarm among the population and was felt in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.
  
• The earthquake of November 9, 1958, centered in southern Illinois, caused widespread damage over nearby areas of Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri.  Considerable masonry damage was sustained at the City Building at Henderson, Kentucky, about 50 miles east-southeast of the epicenter.  Intensity VII damage was also reported from Poole, Smith Mills and Uniontown.
  
• Seven other earthquakes, all with Intensity V effects, have been recorded in Kentucky.  The epicenter areas and dates are: western Kentucky (March 23, 1922); near Mayfield (May 13, 1925); near Maysville (May 28,  1933); felt in adjoining portions of Ohio, Paducah (March 26, 1957); vicinity of the Illinois/ Kentucky/ Missouri border (January 27, 1958 and August 2, 1963); and near Louisville (December 11, 1968).
  
• The strongest earthquake since 1895 originated in Southern Illinois and was felt in 23 states including Kentucky on November 9, 1968.
  
• In 1977, an earthquake along the Wabash Valley Fault in Southeastern Illinois was felt in much of the Midwest and caused at least one chimney to fall in downtown Louisville.
  
• Sharpsburg, in the central part of the state, was struck by an earthquake that measured 5.1 on the Richter scale on July 27, 1980.
  
• Barbourville, on the morning of September 17, 2004 and was recorded at 3.7 on the Richter scale.
  
• Blandville, a small micro earthquake of 2.7 magnitude occured on June 19, 2005.
  
• Pineville, another small earthquake shook eastern Kentucky, measuring 2.4 on the Richter scale.
  
• Sharpsburg, twenty five years after the previous recorded earthquake in this area, another quake measuring 2.5 magnitude was recorded approximately one mile south of town.
  
• January 02, 2006, an earthquake measuring 3.6 on the Richter scale was recorded in Equality, Illinois (which is located about 12 miles west of the Kentucky & Illinois border), shaking was felt in several neighboring Kentucky counties.
  
• Four (4) earthquakes have been recorded since January 01, 2008, in the New Madrid Zone near WESTERN KENTUCKY.
  (to view details click here)

As history shows, earthquakes can and do happen at any time and at any location throughout Kentucky. Lori King, KyEM Earthquake Program Coordinator, states: "Earthquakes are basically unpredictable. At best scientists make predictions based upon historical activity, but with so much uncertainty the possibility of a major earthquake effecting Kentucky can not be taken for granted."

As with all disasters; to best protect you and your loved ones, be prepared.  Know the risks and know what to do if an earthquake occurs. 

To learn more about preparedness, follow the related links on this site