1811-1812 New Madrid earthquake damage...see it with LiDAR | Geology Models

[@goldfieldgary]

Your sandbox model was ingenious, it really conveyed the idea of how these landforms develop.

[@nukima11]

Excellent presentation. You even provided a working model (nice touch). No annoying background music, just facts and observations. I was actually invested the entire time.

[@kaptainkaos1202]

I believe it was about 1975 and my family was living in Shelby County near Memphis. I was about 13 and I remember I was on the toilet when I heard this weird noise very low. I can’t even say it was a sound and it really caught my attention. About a minute later my house started shaking. On the wall in front of me we had a large mirror, approximately 3x5 if I remember correctly. Well it started jiggling kinda like a jello surface. I jumped off the toilet and put my hands on the mirror to stop it doing its craziness. There I stand, holding a mirror with my pants around my ankles. All I could think was “please G*d don’t let this mirror shatter”. I just knew if it shattered it was going to cut my “down there” off. The earthquake scared me more than any tornado ever did. Now I live in St. Mary’s County in MD. About 15 years ago we had an earthquake, which is unheard of here since the geology is so old and relaxed. Unfortunately I missed feeling this earthquake cause my son had missed his school bus and I was driving him to school. If you made it this far I hope you have a great day and a wonderful life.

[@TheGeoModels]

I must admit I felt an earthquake under the same circumstances a few years back...

[@sondra-ht7ho]

I remember that day!!

[@Insultingtruth]

My ex-mother-in-law was in Shelby county TN .In 1975.And her fat ass 🐘fell down lot. May have caused your house to Trimble. Sorry about that

[@paulglawson2866]

Well there Kaptain. I liked your little story but I’m old and lived in Southern California my whole life and have forgotten more Earthquakes than I can remember. There have been a couple of doozies that really busted up stuff. Northridge killed people and broke freeways. Whittier almost busted the Sewerage Systems. (I worked for the LA Co. Sanitation Districts.) Once when I was living high in the Mountain Range south of LA we were hit with the most powerful thing I’d ever experienced. It lifted the whole house and slammed it back down so hard my teeth rattled. Now that was exciting. We get them every so often. Usually in 4 - 5 magnitude. Those aren’t too bad. It’s the 6.5 - 7 that will knock you to the ground. Thanks again. Hermit

[@cathiwim]

We felt that in East TN! Our dog hunched chest down on the front porch and peed all over herself! She had never done that before! A couple hours later we were told of the earthquake.

[@STLMTB]

My family lived there from around the mid 1800's. I have heard stories from my mom that she didn't have power or running water until she was around 14. it was all outhouses and oil lamps. My grandfather bought some land and started farming with a mule and over time ended up owning and farming about 10k acres in New Madrid. He use to take me hunting and fishing and even taught me how to drive at 10years old. I love New Madrid, the people are so nice and I will never forget the memories.

[@coronalight77]

Great. Not really related to the vid and no one asked but nice.

[@Aestheticspro]

Thank you for that commentary. I’ll look back into time. 😊

[@bethbartlett5692]

You might be interested in the video I recommended in my comment. Copy: (See Link below) Thank you for sharing. I live in Dyer County, with family in Obion and Lake Counties. I love Reelfoot Lake and (found a great video )with "History highlights" and "with a reading of letters written in the era of the Earthquake and about the experience in the area", (see Link below) A couple of years ago I did a search for the center point of the actual fault line, and was ever so surprised to find it revealed the town I live in: Newbern, TN, (right where your arrow is pointed), I was stunned. I don't recall the site, but anyone can Search it, it gave the Longitude and Latitude. I grew up in NW Tennessee, after college, I moved to Nevada, lived there for 17 years, traveling every other week or so with my job. It was always wonderful to go home each time. I was there for 2 intense quakes, one a shaker and one a roller. (There's always footage in the Casinos, you could see the movements). 🔺 For those interested, I highly recommend the following video, here on KZbin: Best Regards ... Reelfoot Lake, History Journey: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYKXi5agiM6DY7csi=f6dHPMGXRCHhxW3L

[@needyjames8769]

I think most people that lived in this area back then lived like that which wasn't that long ago. My dad (81 now) grew up west of Advance, Missouri in the hills and they didn't have electricity and running water until the early 1950s . Grandma and Grandpa had a "smoke house" behind their farmhouse that was used for storage when I was a kid in the 70s. Of course it was used to smoke meat when it was first built.

[@snowmiaow]

My parents grew up with outhouses and lamps as well, maybe kerosene. No running water, no hot water. They took baths in a washtub.

[@southernenigma3427]

I live in Hornbeak, TN, which is in Obion County. People would be surprised to know that we have small earthquakes quite often. I live 11 miles from Reelfoot Lake (the lake that was formed from the earthquakes of 1811-1812). We have so many people, including tourists, that if another major quake happened, it would be devastating. I think we would undergo a complete geological change. A part of me wishes I could have seen the earthquake that formed Reelfoot Lake. How amazing would it have been to see the Mississippi River run backwards???

[@karlheinzvonkroemann2217]

Apparently it's a matter of WHEN and not IF it happens again. Population growth is always a major concern with natural disasters. Fla and Hurricanes, Ca and Earthquakes. It's endless.

[@jamesthompson8008]

​@@karlheinzvonkroemann2217Yes, it's definitely when, not if. However if you look at the historical cycle rate(via numerous studies by USGS), the reoccurrance probability for that area(for a major earthquake) suggests its at least quite a while before happening. However in researching the same material, one learns the Wabash fault area is WAY overdue for similar events.

[@rogue_jk07]

I grew up in Hornbeak and still live in Obion County, TN. I remember being in fear of an earthquake in my youth. Grew up going to Reelfoot lake parks. And school field trips to the museum every year. We’ve been told we when were over due for a major earthquake that would put an earthquake in Cali to shame. It’s definitely an active fault line!

[@conradfrykman-vz4on]

The only natural lake in the South

[@TheRealMattFromWiiSports]

Earthquakes are bad but you dodged a bullet when that tornado hit in 2021 by just a few miles 😅

[@lornfant]

♥♥♥ GIS Geek here. This is why I love LiDAR so much. In the hands of well spoken analysts (like you) complex mechanisms can be clearly shown. THANKS!

[@TheGeoModels]

Thanks! I have used the stuff daily (weekends included!) for years now. What did I do before? Just put up a vid about Carolina Bays...I'm not in the impact origin camp, but some of the lidar showing dunes, etc., and their interaction with bays is cool.

[@jrkorman]

@@TheGeoModelsIndeed. I'm "on the fence" as to the impact idea - I've used the "Carolina Bays" LIDAR interval data to investigate the dune fields here in Haskell County Texas. Can't find much literature describing them, yet everything I can tell indicates that it is a major feature that feeds our local aquifer as the dune areas have NO drainage. Our property will absorb a four inch per hour rainfall and be dry in an hour or so.

[@TheGeoModels]

@@jrkorman I'll have to check out Haskell County. The Llano Estacado has about the most and best "bays" out there, though they are called playa lakes in the region. I would tell you they and bays are the same, but I bet others wouldn't! Texas has all kinds of cool stuff to see.

[@jrkorman]

@@TheGeoModelsAn interesting observation - the playas at and east of Lubbock are indeed playas. They are roughly circular with flat rims. However, look at those to the west of Lubbock, especially Bailey county, TX and Lea County in New Mexico. Totally different shape and rim structure. The dunes here in western Haskell County appear to be a result of sand blown out of the Double Mountain Fork Brazos River bed. In several locations the patterns match how south westerly winds would have blown that sand. The dune structure ends rather sharply just to the east of Rule, Rochester, and Knox City.

[@TheGeoModels]

@@jrkorman very interesting. I was cruising around Bailey County earlier. With a big hillshade exaggeration, the Lubbock guys have a bit of a raised southeast rim.

[@ritapearl-im3wv]

LOL. "Sides move out, top moves down..." describes many people as they age... ❤😂🎉

[@TheGeoModels]

Geology proves it is the natural way of things!

[@had2galsinthebooth]

Welllllll,GRAVITY!

[@77thTrombone]

So true.....

[@RussJAlan]

I was a truck driver and I was in Chico, CA I think it was 2007 or 2008. I had just opened my trailer doors and backed in and bumped the warehouse dock. I waited for a good while (you truckers know what I'm talking about) and all of a sudden I felt the loaders driving the forklift into the trailer and they were rough as hell - the trailer shook side to side - sometimes loaders are really aggressive and then it stopped so I got out to tell em to be gentle with me just to joke - I looked in between there and the dock door was still closed and I could see inside the trailer, no pallet was in there yet and I said damn! WTF? I crawled back in the tractor and turned on the radio and found a channel - "Folks - WE have just had an EARTHQUAKE!! Turned out it was an 5.7 near Chico Hills. Now I'm from Georgia and we had an earthquake once that woke me up but I'd never experienced one in the earthquake capital of world southern Cal, and I was pissed off that my first CA earthquake, I thought it was a forklift driver. I'm still pissed off

[@mitchellminer9597]

Ow. My first earthquake was near a construction site. I thought a dump truck had tipped over. I missed another earthquake because I was getting up and turning around when the single jolt hit.

[@snowmiaow]

At least you got to experience it.

[@corneliuswowbagger]

Retired after having created several geologic maps while lidar point clouds were becoming available in my area(s). I learned how to process them sometime in the middle of that part of my career and quickly realized everything I had done before were incorrect in detail. Assuming my field analysis was correct the exact mapped locations were just not that good before lidar.

[@TheGeoModels]

I hear you...I have only had about 1/2 of 7.5' quad without high res lidar, but it was a totally different mapping experience. Some of the old Valley and Ridge Virginia stuff came out well, though, presumably due to reduced vegetative cover and the strong rock strength control over topography. I wrote the link below back in 2019 about a '65 map done in an area that now has 1-meter lidar. They actually did a remarkable job! blogs.agu.org/thefield/2019/02/15/a-lidar-perspective-on-a-1965-geologic-map/

[@Deeplycloseted435]

Thanks for sharing. The eye witness accounts of this earthquake, were outrageous. I can’t remember where I read about it, but there was a group of men camping alongside the river, maybe working for a barge company at the time. They talk about deafening gas explosions everywhere, coming up from under the river and the entire flood plain. Massive amounts of dead trees being thrust up from the river bed. After longer than five minutes of shaking, they were running for their lives as they could no longer tell what was river and what was not river. The entire landscape was altered in minutes. Water everywhere bubbling up from the ground, and large chunks of Earth sinking under the water. Sounded like hell on Earth. Like nothing we’ve ever seen since cameras were invented.

[@CriticalThinker27]

Never under estimate the power of nature. Thanks for sharing.

[@scottieray]

Those trees were called Planters and Sawyers that were embedded in the river bed and became free after the earthquake

[@Bloodknok]

Fascinating stuff - LIDAR must be a godsend for geologists, like X-ray was for doctors.

[@TheGeoModels]

Yep, nothing is the same now, at least in forested areas! I try to remember what work was like pre-lidar, but it's getting difficult to do so...

[@snowmiaow]

And archeologists

[@EmoryIllustrated]

archeology, anthropology, paleontology, geology, geography, volcanology, topography, cartography, seismology, land surveying, agriculture... It's transformed several sciences forever

[@luannpatterson5888]

I’m in SEMO. LiDAR imaging is an amazing tool. Cool to see it used here.

[@TheGeoModels]

It's a game changer for all aspects of geology. I almost can't remember what it was like to work without it.

[@thirstfast1025]

You're a man of your word! I find this series of earthquakes one of the most fascinating in recent history. You could do a video about some aspect of it every week and I'd never get bored, but then we'd miss out on all the other topics you cover! Hahah! Cheers!

[@TheGeoModels]

I hear you. Shaking topography for this one gave me a nice lateral spread video idea, so thanks for pointing me that way!

[@vhhawk]

I grew up in the pine forests of Georgia and man oh man the Lidar is breathtaking. So many paleo structures. Subscribed and looking forward to more succinct videos like this.

[@TheGeoModels]

Appreciate it! Were you here for the lidar or the earthquake stuff too? I love lidar to death but it seems to bog down the algorithm if you mix and match your subjects too much

[@vhhawk]

@@TheGeoModels Geology + Lidar is pretty much an instant entry to my playlist. Love learning new things about landscapes I've inhabited and am familiar with. Really like this video a lot. I'm a rambler and appreciate people who aren't. :D

[@TheGeoModels]

@@vhhawk Sounds like a plan. You see the video linked below? It did not enjoy popularity but the lidar is cool. For the last few years much of day-to-day has been identifying features in lidar then actually hiking to them to see what's causing the slide, etc. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnPZhZaJmbRgeas

[@ironcladranchandforge7292]

Davy Crockett noted eery sunken lakes with trees sticking out of them during his overland travels in Tennessee, which of course were sunken areas created from the earthquake. It has been reported that this earthquake made church bells ring in Boston!! Great video, thanks!!

[@TheGeoModels]

Now that's cool. I'll have to read up on that. Davy's childhood home on the Nolichucky got messed up by a huge flood, which likely produced landslides up in the mountains. I'd love to track some of those down, but it's likely impossible.

[@donaldgiltner7232]

Heard pretty the same. Philadelphia

[@lenteditor5574]

At 3:35 The Geologist talks about the river bend at New Madrid. It's a horseshoe bend. It is the same type of river bend found at Evansville, Indiana on the Ohio River which is situated on the Wabash Valley Fault Line.

[@rtqii]

You can still see the damage from the New Madrid quake at Pulltite Spring on the Current River. The top of the bluff broke off, a boulder the size of a house came down and is mostly submerged in the spring. You can still see trapped trees under the boulder in the water, and remains of the scar it made coming down.

[@TheGeoModels]

Now I'll have to check that out. Sometimes you can see tracks left by rolling boulders in lidar imagery back east in the Appalachians. Wonder if this one is visible.

[@Idrinklight44]

Seriously? Live up the Rd from there, Jadwin.

[@TheGeoModels]

@@Idrinklight44 True stories. Would have been a crazy event to witness live

[@rtqii]

@@Idrinklight44 Seriously. If you are standing at the spring and look up, you will see the missing piece of the bluff, on the right. If you look down into the spring you will see the boulder. If you look closely under the boulder you will still see the trees it took out coming down. The trees are still preserved there because of the low temperature and low oxygen water.

[@kansasscout4322]

This is a new to me story......where did you learn this

[@marastar208]

I'm about 48 minutes from the Fault towards Kennett, Mo area. We were wondering what a quake would do to the landscape around that area when we see a reoccurrence

[@945hilo]

I’m in the Missouri boot heel and it’s on my mind several times a week especially when you get small quakes

[@phenorahtickle2481]

I woke up this morning after waking from dreaming of this horrible earthquake that occured here where I live & the house I am at. So dreadful & scary ! Slow motion as allowing me to see it very vividly. It wasn't as though there was shaking to it, rather, the earth was rising & lowering just like waves of the Sea. The home here is large, it was causing the house to break & burst apart, the counter cabinets were seperating & raising off floor at each end about 3 ft, as the house riased & lowered - frightening !!! I told my sister, we got to get out of here ! Woke up. I live in Southeast Indiana near the New Madrid Faultline.

[@jaytez12]

Fast and pray and ask the Almighty what should y'all do

[@angelaburcher7570]

I've had many dreams of our world being completely destroyed, and I prayed for more understanding about these dreams and the spirit of God said it's a star. A star is going to hit earth and completely recycle the whole planet, maybe two big ones back to back, then turns into Nine small ones that hit again like a bounce back to earth.

[@testbenchdude]

NEAT! I actually fly a drone that takes LiDAR imagery for my work. In grad school, I used existing LiDAR to discover aeolian landforms on the mid-Atlantic coast. (There are Barchan dunes in Delaware, who knew! Among other things, like Carolina Bays... but I digress.) Anyway, the YT algorithm seemingly brought me here on a whim, and this was so cool that I instantly subbed. Thanks for posting this, looking forward to more!

[@TheGeoModels]

well you can argue with folks on my bays videos that the dunes really are dunes! Most of them in SC are parabolics. I was trying to use Lencois Maranhenses as an analog but that's mostly barchans. Good to know there is some barchan action in the old Coastal Plain

[@testbenchdude]

@@TheGeoModels Let me guess: it's a bunch of comments about how they were all created catastrophically. I've tried debating against this viewpoint before to no avail. But I will check it out, thanks for replying!

[@TheGeoModels]

@@testbenchdude I can see you are not new to this one... There's like 140 comments on the vid about "what folks won't show you" where the sand dunes are brought up. Toss your two cents in and you are guaranteed to get a bite...I would think, anyway!

[@testbenchdude]

@@TheGeoModels I suspected as much. I'm not fishing for "bites" though. I'm a strong proponent of "the truth is both stranger and more fascinating than the fiction." Giving this one a watch now. :)

[@Doxymeister]

My Mom was an insurance adjuster for Kerr McGee for many years, although she was a paper-pusher she had a lot of interest in geology, which I guess is what sparked my interest in it. Anyway, we live in Oklahoma, where it is usually dull and boring, earthquake-wise--until 2011 that is. I happened to be in the ER, brought by my Mom, and we're waiting there to see the doctor when the room starting rolling around. My hospital bed starts skating across the floor, LOL. I looked at Mom and she looked at me, and we both yelled "Earthquake!". She told me that since living in California (UC San Diego, then meeting/marrying my Dad), this earthquake was stronger than anything she experienced living there. That's how we got on the subject of New Madrid--LOL, she says it's kind of ironic that they moved away from California never expecting to have to deal with earthquakes again, then realizing they moved closer to one of the most potentially destructive faults in America. Thank you, I love the new technology that lets us view our world underfoot.

[@TheGeoModels]

Thanks! Everything looks interesting with lidar. For Oklahoma folks the Wichita Mountains are wild to look at. The fracturing in the granite is really interesting. I'd love to get out there and walk around some. I drove across much of the state on a storm chasing trip last year (of all things) and thought the Wichitas looked awesome...particularly with the storm that put a tornado onto Loco and Comanche behind them. I'll have to get out there on foot one of these days.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

I lived in California for a small chunk of my childhood, I live in Arkansas and have for years now, but I've felt more earthquakes here than I did on the west coast 😂 weird isn't it

[@Doxymeister]

@@TheGeoModels I bet you'd enjoy it. If you get the time, come check out the Arbuckle Mountains as well. I used to live a few miles outside of Sulphur, near some abandoned asphalt mines that filled with spring water and are now very deep but beautiful little lakes. The geology here is so jam-packed with cool stuff that the university sends their geology classes down here on field trips. We just got hit by a tornado Saturday though, so give it a few weeks for us to get the storm damage cleaned up and the highways back open. After that--have a great trip!

[@baneverything5580]

Do you have any idea what caused the massive scarp near Dallas Texas? The flat land suddenly drops and resumes at the bottom and you can see the "cliff" when you look right or left. If I remember correctly it`s a pretty large drop of nearly 100 feet or maybe more. Been many years since I`ve seen it.

[@shesees432]

Do you remember exactly where near Dallas? Was it on Interstate 20?

[@baneverything5580]

@@shesees432 I don`t remember. I worked there in 1985. It was very difficult to find much about it online and I forgot what it`s named.

[@baneverything5580]

@@shesees432 I remember the buildings looked small in the distance and you could see the long line of taillights ahead from the top. The building with the ball on top was on the other side of the city from the drop I believe. But I may be wrong. I had a head injury in 1988 and my memories were messed up.

[@nickroberts-xf7oq]

Noah's flood. 📖

[@scottallred3941]

I was raised in new Madrid county. I remember few tremors but we had a glass of water to let us know if there was a tremor by just watching ripples in glass

[@RussJAlan]

I'm just glad you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express

[@TheGeoModels]

I hear you. I like their pancake machine!

[@budgarner3522]

Really nice models here. Born in Sikeston and spent a lot of years in Poplar Bluff and Kennett. Always aware of the interesting structures and land changes from the New Madrid quakes and seismic system. Have you done any model on the sand blows or how buried trees have floated up to the surface from that activity? Wonder how many neighborhoods are build over these deep soft sediment layers and are in danger from the next event.? Well done.

[@TheGeoModels]

Haven't tried a sand blow...not even sure how I'd do it! Definitely sounds like a good challenge. The video linked below has a buoyant object floating out of the liquefied sand (after the bus sinks...). kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYTEkqeJmbhnic0

[@andyjackson3414]

I've played around a bit with a home-made stream-table model using very fine sand that I can tilt and shake. Its interesting how saturated shaken fine-grained sediment behaves.

[@TheGeoModels]

@@andyjackson3414 I got an older video on here where I hammer a metal bucket full of wet sand. It's crude but interesting...I added the element of a buried buoyant item, which floats with the liquefaction. Some other Mr. Wizard-type of channel borrowed that down the road, which I rather liked! Using the dry media with the frictionally weak microbeads does a nice job with the scarps. I guess much of the video was sort of a lidar-interpretation kind of thing, though the model scarps are produced by the same sort of deformation as the real thing (just without fluid pressure reducing shear strength).

[@Gizathecat2]

Glad I stumbled onto your geology site! I live in Washington State and follow Shawn Wilsey, Myron Cook and Nick Zentner, and we’ll respected western geology educators. As you well know we’ve got some feisty volcanoes and the Cascadia subduction zone menacing us. We’re probably better prepared than you folks in MO, KY and TN, but can we ever be ready for the “big one” or the big blow up?

[@TheGeoModels]

I don't think anyone, anywhere is ever ready because of the amount of energy released in a large quake, eruption, etc. It's just at a scale beyond anything that is really relatable to humans... Did you come across this channel through a search or was it suggested?

[@Gizathecat2]

@@TheGeoModels suggested by the great KZbin algorithm. I first learned of LIDAR after the Oso landslide in 2017 near Arlington, WA State. There have been MANY slides in that area over the ages!

[@RonaldDaub-xi5jz]

Looks like Southern Illinois even though it's supposedly a little bit out of the damage range but I don't think it will be this time at all

[@greenman6141]

This was a totally blooming fascinating video. I've never see lidar used in this context.

[@TheGeoModels]

Thanks! There's more on the channel. Should have another few out soon enough.

[@catherinehubbard1167]

Fascinating! Thank you. Glad KZbin showed me your channel.

[@TheGeoModels]

Thanks! My videos are set up a bit differently but I promise I've got something to say and show!

[@geraldwegener8376]

Does the picture of 'Fault Line ! ! ! ' somehow explain Reelfoot Lake and the New Madrid zone ?

[@TheGeoModels]

General trace of the zone of surface deformation that backed up Reelfoot Lake, disturbed the Mississippi River, etc. This vid is more about the landscape disturbance associated with shaking--particularly the sackungen on the river's east side. Aulacogens and late Cenozoic-modern stress regimes are probably best left for another vid! Thanks for watching!

[@allenbatts7971]

Thank you for saying Obion County correctly. I have spent so much time at Reelfoot Lake

[@Tishers]

I have an area on my land (Lookout Mountain AL) that has what appear to be 'terraces' that are 30-50' wide and about 10-20' lower than the next highest strip. Are these scarps? Location: 34.065415° -85.969715° The geology is a sandstone cap on the top of the ridge, then shale layers and a few thin seams of coal (3-6" thick) between the shale layers. There are also limestones below the shales. It is very difficult to get in to the area as it requires climbing gear to get down to these terraced areas and they are practically isolated micro-biomes with extensive fracturing of the limestone (irregular vertical fissures that are just a bit too big for climbing nuts, blocks or chocks. The further down the terraces I go the wetter each area gets with free water dripping, streaming out of gaps in the rock. I know the area is valley and ridge and less than a mile to the south it had been mined commercially for coal in the 1870's to about 1910 (that had to be miserable). I own my own mineral rights (a rarity these days) but have no intention of exploiting for minerals. Lookout Mountain just seems to be another ridge, with Sand mountain to the west and Shinbone Ridge immediately to the east. I live north of what is known as the Gadsden Mushwad Complex".

[@TheGeoModels]

Might just be expressions of bedding in slightly mechanically distinct layers. Doesn't sound scarp-like, and I don't think that sort of thing is documented around there. Sounds like quite a spot. The ole Gadsen Mushwad (and its Palmerdale counterpart) are true classics!

[@suzannchurchwell4286]

Thank you for pronouncing it correctly. 😊

[@TheGeoModels]

I do what I can...I try to make sure I don't completely miss the mark with local ways of saying things. For the 1901 landslide video on my page I spent a whole lot of time trying to find a video with someone saying "Gouge" as a place name in western North Carolina. Apparently it is pronounced "goodge," not "gouge" as in jabbing a hole in something. I nearly messed that one up but figured it out in time! I have spent plenty of time in Virginia as well, which is the capital of places that aren't pronounced like you'd think.

[@EGlideKid]

I'd like to hear your take on Crowley's Ridge in east -central Arkansas. It runs north/south in the delta country and is a very rare geologic formation that kind of defies explanation. The ridge runs from just south of Forrest City and north nearly to Jonesboro. It is around 150 miles long, and rises to a height of over 500' above the Mississippi alluvial plain, and I haven't found anything definitive on its origin. There is a page on Wikipedia as well as several other articles and webpages on the Ridge. Thanks for your efforts! I enjoyed. this one and am subscribed now.

[@TheGeoModels]

Now that's an interesting feature...I have looked at before with regard to where the St Francis River cuts into its east side down around Forrest City--it does interesting things to the streams on top of the ridge that flow back to Crow Creek in the center of the ridge. Never been to it in person though...It's definitely an erosional remnant that hasn't been beveled off by the rivers yet, but the topography makes it look like it has some "structure" and might indeed reflect some slow ground surface movement. It must look interesting in person with how it rises above the flat lands, for sure.

[@TheGeoModels]

@@EGlideKid sounds like Low Country South Carolina. There is an area called "High Hills of Santee" that is just like a miniature Crowleys Ridge. You can actually Google it; it has a Wikipedia page. Folks treated it the same way as Crowleys...I'm sure it was only spot to catch a breeze and lose some mosquitoes and cottonmouths! I would say they are geologically similar, too...

[@baneverything5580]

Look at the hills in LaSalle Parish Louisiana. Some of our steep hills to the east on the edge of the Mississippi flood plain have huge slides and cracks. I found large out of place sand blows with chunks of coal in them in NW Louisiana too.

[@timothystevenhoward]

IDNR in IL has a hillshade LIDAR tool. Its made my engineering work a lot easier and useful to confirm features in survey and give more detail in my models.

[@TheGeoModels]

I have gotten a real kick out of the Hicks Dome area in southernmost Illinois. I admit I never much thought about there being topography and outcrops down there. Some of the joints and fractures in the cliff lines on the north flank of the dome are about as good as you can see anywhere in the US with lidar.

[@BuickDoc]

I remember, as a child, riding with my family through Northern Arkansas and watching out the window. I noticed several fields of light colored soil with large round areas of dark soil, I guess from liquefaction and upwelling of darker soil. I had no clue as to what caused them. The New Madrid earthquake was not discussed or taught in school because it was bad for business, I guess.

[@leiatyndall8648]

I live in the Rockies, & was in abt 5th-6th grade when I learned abt the 1811-1812 earthquakes from the kids' book Haunted Island by Joan Lowery Nixon (the blue cover one, if you look it up). It was one of my favorite books. I still have it, somewhere.

[@brianbankert1411]

could you comment more on how the ridge summits formed right next to very flat topography. thanks

[@k4x4map46]

Great stuff!! So these Lidar images in google earth are a feature or you incorporated the lidar image panels via KML or KMZ files from other maps? Thanks inadvance!

[@TheGeoModels]

They are kmz panels. I export JPEGs from ArcGIS and make the kmz's from them. Data was from USGS National Map download platform. I prefer to handle a lot of imagery this way because Arc is always a bit clumsy. For modern landslide work and structural geology, being able to flip back and forth between different years of Google Earth imagery and the lidar is key!

[@k4x4map46]

@@TheGeoModels Copy that!! Thank you very much!!

[@cal4625]

It would have been interesting to see some of these features on the ground.

[@eagleeye761]

can lidar expose the sand blows as well? those were quite extensive down there....

[@TheGeoModels]

Not sure, but it would be tough because the sand comes out as a liquidy slurry and doesn't pile up well to leave a mound to produce a shadow in the hillshade. If the sand covered some sort of existing gully or something like that, you might see it as an odd looking smooth spot. It's a cool question. I'll see if I can check it out.

[@416dl]

Very interesting; the use of LIDAR in particular. I wonder whether you have ever taken a look at the LIDAR imagery as used by Antonio Zamora regarding the hypothesis concerning the Carolina Bays. He makes some compelling arguments regarding their formation. A number of his videos are on YT; even a short look will likely raise some interesting questions. Cheers.

[@TheGeoModels]

Yes, I have looked at them and was planning to do a vid. I am of the non-impact origin camp, but certainly the evolution of the one-time lakes and what the south carolina coastal plain used to look like is fascinating in and of itself. Hope to get one put together shortly!

[@416dl]

Thanks for the response. I'll stay tuned in the mean time and look forward to checking out some of your other geomorphology models. Cheers. @@TheGeoModels

[@robrussell5329]

One could logically assume, then, that the bow in the river at New Madrid is the result of an earlier earthquake. Pushing the ground up, just like what happened at Reelfoot Lake. So maybe the big one comes every 400 - 500 years...

[@leecarlson9713]

I noticed your last name-my mother’s maiden name was Prince. Wonder if we are related?

[@TheGeoModels]

If they are in the southeast it is possible!

[@Nunyabidnuz]

I'm 15 mins west of st.louis...are we at risk? We are on caves which bothers me...

[@davidsavage6227]

There is an area between Knoxville and Chattanooga that looks like a huge version of what you show in this video. Was it formed the same way?

[@jackzimmer6553]

You know you had a massive earthquake when it was strong enough to reverse the flow of the Mississippi River!

[@markpinther9296]

excellent model! I learned something today from that!

[@ginkat1318]

Very interesting, has a lidar study been done in northern Illinois near the Lasalle anticline?

[@TheGeoModels]

Not sure of a specific one...I'll try to give it a look on National Map and might post up a screen capture. Sounds interesting...

[@phillipsprague3275]

I believe this earthquake actually made the river run backwards?

[@PlayNowWorkLater]

Never heard of LiDAR before your videos. Super interesting. Be nice if there was a Google Earth version of LiDAR.

[@TheGeoModels]

I hear that...the National Map serves streaming lidar at good resolution for much of the country, but you can't see it in 3-D and it's cumbersome to fade to surface imagery. ArcGIS Pro has a good 3D function, but it's cumbersome too (like everything in Arc). I really like to make the Google Earth kmz files with images exported from Arc so it's easy to spin them around and fade out to aerial photography from different years. Hopefully National Map will fire up a 3D viewer someday.

[@WiseSnake]

There are some faint scarps along parts of Crowley's Ridge in Northeastern Arkansas, too. Not as impressive as these, though. This is wild.

[@andyjackson3414]

How old are those sedimentary layers, and how well consolidated? I imagine that the sediment of those ridges would be saturated. There must be an element of liquefaction, as evidence by other effects from the 1811-12 quakes. Much water must have been released from those shaking sediments. Could some of the drainage marks on the flanks of the ridges have been formed by that released water?

[@TheGeoModels]

Not sure about the drainage marks (probably lots of bad conservation over the decades as well), but yes, it's sort of a liquefaction-type response. In the dry models I used, the weak material inside the model ridge loses interparticle friction with shaking, and the stress field resulting from the shape of the ridge controls the failure style. The real ridges are unconsolidated stuff; not sure how old they are, but it's not flat lying rock in the Appalachian Plateau sense by any stretch. Maybe the interiors of the ridges liquefied within the saturated zone? Lots of sand blows around, etc., down in the flats.

[@andyjackson3414]

@@TheGeoModels The sand I use is dune sand from a dune eroded out of a formation that was deposited as a dune during Mesozoic. Not having angular edges gives the sand some interesting properties when saturated.

[@TheGeoModels]

@@andyjackson3414 subround or round granular stuff is key to making representative simulations. The glass microbeads do the same when you push the pore pressure up. I bet your Mesozoic dune grains had no idea that their future involved scientific investigation!

[@andyjackson3414]

@@TheGeoModels I doubt it would make good sand for concrete. Some iron oxide (?) clay adheres to the surface of the grains. The parent sandstone is somewhat friable

[@Idrinklight44]

Great video!

[@TheGeoModels]

It's a fascinating corner of the world, for sure

[@DoyleHargraves]

Lidar is just about the only cool thing about the 2020s.

[@TheGeoModels]

Greatest truth on KZbin. I'd like to quote you on that one.

[@DoyleHargraves]

I lived in Fayette county for 10 yrs. I made lots of money updating old structural steel framed buildings for modern seismic standards due to that fault line.

[@CarolB-lu6ko]

It would have been helpful if you had shown, discussed and shown the New Madrid Fault location in conjunction to these changes, as well as the intensity zones going out from it. It would also be helpful to hear the historic earthquake evidence / data from the last 200 years for the US.

[@TheGeoModels]

Sounds look a good idea for another video! Thanks for watching!

[@needyjames8769]

In the video you stated that the geological evidence of this earthquake is visible now but won't last. There were humans in the area 10,000 years ago (a spearpoint in a mastodon skeleton was found near St Louis putting humans in the vicinity that long ago). I'm wondering if there is geological evidence of many earthquakes over that span of time. I've been to the New Madrid earthquake museum several times but don't recall what they said about past earthquakes. Probably about time to go back down there and go through it. 😊

[@kimlarso]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻Ty for this! 🦋

[@Yikes_its_Psychs]

When was the last time this fault line was active?

[@needyjames8769]

There was a 2.7 yesterday. Google KFVS and earthquake for the latest earthquake news

[@normanriggs848]

Well done, thank you!

[@TheGeoModels]

Very glad you enjoyed it! LiDAR is great stuff for seeing the world!

[@rogue_jk07]

I live in Obion County, TN and grew up in Hornbeak. My whole life we’ve been told to be prepared for a major earthquake. This next eclipse in 2024 crosses over the path of the 2017 eclipse to form an X over the New Madrid fault. History shows that eclipses that cross over one another to form an X, an earthquake usually follows.

[@kitrichardson2165]

I will be coming back to this video if we have another earthquake of any note in 2024!

[@dforrest4503]

Do you have evidence for that statement?

[@Idrinklight44]

Do you know the story of Tecumseh? A different take on the earthquake of 1811

[@davidmurray6176]

Hearsay and no truth to it. Complete bs.

[@rogue_jk07]

@dforrest4503 do your own research on the eclipses crossing. I’ve done mine. After the earthquakes of 1811-1812 apparently there had been a similar phenomenon prior to

[@AkiataSkirata]

Cool video. Thanks!

[@TheGeoModels]

Glad you liked it! Trying to get something else out here soon.

[@Mike-x3k3h]

Most people don't realize or know how many earthquake fault lines , that they live close to. They be surprised.

[@shesees432]

Indeed! I think about this all the time!

[@steve-r-collier]

1811 Tecumseh’s Comet 2024 Tsuchinshan Comet ....not much being talked about the 2024 comet yet but it could get very interesting

[@albertayunda5521]

2024 will be remembered as the year if great awakenings. Earthquakes

[@johnmorgan7947]

Devil's comet

[@Ammo08]

I live in the Bootheel of Missouri...we've had a few good ones over the years...

[@melissa7233]

I clicked on this because I live nearby in Blytheville, AR, and we experience LITTLE quakes all the time. Rarely do we ever feel them. But my husband just texted me a few min ago to let me know just felt an earthquake. It was a 3.6 in Etowah, while he was at work at his desk near Dell.

[@eearts]

We have about 5-6 weeks in my estimation before it goes again. Hope I am wrong.

[@dianespears6057]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[@TheGeoModels]

Thanks for watching!

[@jenniferbeyer6412]

I have wondered about the quakes and read up on them. It was horrible for the people there, they had no way of knowing what was happening. And they were all high 7's and low 8's. If New Madrid were to break again, it would be devastating. And will be felt here too, Joliet, Illinois. I have felt a few quakes here they were small, but scary. I keep hoping it would not happen again. But I know that it will happen.

[@TheGeoModels]

If the area experiences anything like the 1811-1812 events, it will be noteworthy to say the least! We will hope it doesn't come to that in our lifetimes!

[@jenniferbeyer6412]

@@TheGeoModels that's my hope. Don't know what would be worse, New Madrid or Yellowstone blowing.

[@TheGeoModels]

Definitely Yellowstone!@@jenniferbeyer6412

[@tunneloflight]

Given the lineup of these features and their association with the fault line, it is clear that they are transverse to the fault. In your model the shaking resulted in scarf formation at roughly right angels to the direction of motion of the shaking. Applying that to the New Madrid fault, the S waves would have been in-line with the scarfs, which is at right angles to your simple model. That suggests to me that the cause of these was not the shearing S waves as you modeled, but rather than compressional P waves. I think it unlikely that it was Love or Raleigh waves, though those need to be ruled out before concluding that it was the P waves that caused them. It would also be helpful to rerun your model a couple of times using up-down motions centered under your sand mounds, and at the farthest end of the table away from the mounds - to see what the resulting impact is on the mounds. How does the character of the scraping change with each, and with energy levels. You may be able to simulate the Rayleigh waves as well with your setup. Though emulating the Love waves would require using a pliable base that can support the long wavelength land deformation of Love waves. They might though produce similar features and be worth investigating. All of that needs to tie with estimates of the depth and character of the fault rupture. Most of our seismic studies are biased and based on near surface shearing fault ruptures as seen in California. These produce very sharp P and S waves and weak Love and Rayleigh waves. New Madrid seems likely to be of that nature, though not necessarily. The offshore major fault complexes that produce mega thrust earthquakes also have these strong P and S wave structure near to the rupture site, with the P wave generating the tsunami’s associated with the rupture. But at distances 100-400 miles away, the Love and Rayleigh waves dominate and continue for periods of minutes. Huge ground waves result. Does New Madrid show evidence of that at a distance? In other words, is its character more surface rupture like as in California earthquakes, or megathust like with deeper origin and a different mix of intensities of the four movement types?

[@TheGeoModels]

So I have messed with different shaking orientations...the result is the same because the microbeads loose frictional strength with acceleration, and the shape of the model "hill" and associated stress field ultimately dictate what failure looks like. It would indeed be cool to deliver energy in different ways, but I think it would be a complete re-write for my simple setup!

[@TheGeoModels]

I am not versed in the finer points of New Madrid rupture, but it has been studied to death, for sure. i think the seismicity is at a depth range similar to tsunami-forming megathrust quakes. I think there are plenty of coseismic sackungen (spreading hills) in So Cal as well, due to the background geology.

[@conradnelson5283]

I would love to play with a LiDAR map. I’m gonna see if I can find one.

[@TheGeoModels]

Check out the National Map Viewer that the USGS runs. You should be able to Google for it. You can pick out Hillshade or Stretched Hillshade from the Layers tab and cruise just about all of the US in high resolution. I should probably put a video showing which tabs to select. It's a great resource and very interesting to look at!

[@toomdog]

I never realized how much it would bother me hearing it pronounced New Madrid rather than New Madrid... I wonder when that change happened? 20 years ago, I had never heard it pronounced New Madrid, but it seems to be the accepted pronunciation these days.

[@needyjames8769]

It's not pronounced like Madrid, Spain locally.

[@pamalacrabtree1727]

East Tennessee fault line. Tennessee has had over 300 small earthquakes in a year.

[@13_cmi]

I’m not a geology guy but I have rocks on my desk so there’s some interest there. After that new years quake I’ve been crazy over earthquakes. KZbin knows what I want.

[@TheGeoModels]

For real...they know too much sometimes

[@nickroberts-xf7oq]

The New MADrid quakes formed Tennessee's only natural lake, Reelfoot Lake ! ✅️

[@MichelleKennedy-l6d]

I saw a thing we're it was documented before this happen locales reporting a strange bright glowing star or something any truth too this ?

[@antichrist_revealed]

If I've said it once, I've said it many times. It's not my fault.

[@Rocket39Smoke14]

Is LiDAR is rewriting Geology OR just telling us the truth?

[@leesmith5288]

I read that there was a column of hundreds of thousands of squirrels leaving the area

[@TheGeoModels]

If I saw that I would leave too

[@RAMelloh-ij5sl]

Many will now go to the forests, hike the ridgelines and begin to recognize the origins of what they are scrambling over.

[@IanikeJ]

I read about the New Madrid Fault and witnesses actually recorded/wrote what happened and pictures were drawn. Research it because if clusters of earthquakes happen within a close period of time and an 8. or higher hits again people not just in Mississippi, will feel it all along the start and ending of the Mississippi River will feel it and what will happen is flooding, landslides, movement of land masses. Hoping that current buildings in that zone area are up to code earthquake proof = buildings move with the shake versus fall down, and that people have their heavy tall furnishings bolted to the walls that way when your trying to get to a safe area items such as book cases China cabinets are not falling on you or blocking your escape routes!

[@executivesteps]

Without showing cross sectional views of the bedding planes (structure and stratigraphy) I don’t think you can say a whole lot based on your sand model alone

[@kedgedragon6163]

'The sides bulged out and the top fell down' is the description of the collapse of the World Trade towers

[@bobhemphut4011]

They found molten metal down there days after... a lot more went on there then meets the eye.

[@jeffalanvasconcellos3039]

Interesting.

[@TheGeoModels]

In the world of geology, LiDAR makes everything better!

[@d.l.d.l.8140]

This whole area is economically disadvantaged, meaning there is no earthquake resistant infrastructure. Or enough local emergency services. When this comes again, the area will be cut off from civilization. Bridges will be out. Many roads are cut out of hillsides, the river won’t be accessible for days to weeks due to shifting and strong currents and eddies, air drops are the slowest way to get help and that will probably be the only option for awhile. The only positive we have here is the people. It’s an overworked phrase, but these people are generally resilient, smart, tough, and will band together to survive. They’ll have to fish and hunt? Not a problem, assuming everything they own hasn’t been destroyed. Last time many of those fortunate to escape got to look on as all their belongings were washed away. We have to assume that will be the case again in many places. Even the geography can’t be counted on. That loop in the river looks sus, I think Mother Nature is going to rearrange the furniture there. I live directly North on I-70, 206.4 miles away. If this happens on a comparable scale I expect all Hell to break out even here. For reference, it touches the Eastern edge of the Ozarks. Memphis, Tennessee has a frightening outlook.

[@KisheaCrowl]

Serpent mound on east coast! 1, 2, 3 Go!

[@TheGeoModels]

The culture that built it undoubtedly felt a rattle or two, given recurrence interval.

[@needyjames8769]

​@@TheGeoModelsI think about that a lot. What must have went through their minds??? There are mounds literally all over southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, Western Tennessee and Kentucky and Northeast Arkansas. Those tribespeople in these areas had to have a belief system that included earthquake mythology. Even the small quakes are interesting to feel. The amount of energy to shake the earth is impressive. I've worked around large machinery/ equipment and you can feel vibration when you're near but 30 feet away you don't so something that shakes the earth for such a large area is quite impressive.

[@allanegleston4931]

it aint my fault. interisting. wonder how many have heard of the great charlston carolina earthquake that and the 3 new madrid super shocks have always fascinated me esp when no internet , tv or other mass communications , except newspaper and diary accounts of those events .

[@TheGeoModels]

As a South Carolinian I hear all about the Charleston quake. Plenty of little quakes around Summerville all the time. Not sure if any quake related features are visible in lidar of that area.

[@darkma1ice]

So scarps are like skin stretch marks but on the earth

[@colenewaltersmusicandother9330]

I believe it is coming back. Soon

[@brianhillis3701]

Looks like the woods on my farm in NC. That is not earthquake generated.

[@TheGeoModels]

where is this farm

[@janettomlin950]

Did this cause the mud flood that buried an advanced worldwide civilization?

[@shesees432]

I'm thinking/ wondering about this also. The Great Reset? Is this done on purpose with that damned Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory that's buried beneath the snow in Antarctica??? Yeah, it doesn't just detect neutrinos, it feicken makes earthquakes! Tesla invention. Yikes

[@shesees432]

Look it up, it's insane!

[@gigmaresh8772]

Ok, I realize you are young . . . But this ain't nothin new Eons ago the Mississippi River flowed north Yep . . . And it went all the way to Thunder bay Wut? And then a cataclysmic geologic event in Missouri changed all that to heading south. If you notice, the souther it gets, the squigglyer it gets. That's because it had to find a way to get through all the silt deposited in the lake that used to reach from what is now the Tennessee River all the way over to present day Little Rock Arkansas. Two hints . . . Ya can't make a fence post stand up in Mississippi and they grow rice in the Delta. Lost count of how many truck drivers I could not convince it really was rice fields. Well, those folks in Stuttgart could have been lying to us😮

[@fmbbeachbum8163]

It was'nt an earthquake, it was my friends mom falling down. I know I know she's old, really old & really really big.

[@TheGeoModels]

Sounds like grounds for an insurance claim

[@brianberthold3118]

alot of that is just normal weathering

[@onefish26]

MA Drid not Mad Rid... lol

[@hswing11]

OK NOW WHAT ?

[@ronrenkoski8721]

Look up Real Geological maps where ch show you where the 3 wide tectonic rift zones are under the deep sediment!!