In the winter of 1811-1812, three of the largest earthquakes ever felt in the contiguous United States shook the mid-continent: these are the New Madrid earthquakes. The felt area from each of the three ground-shaking events dwarfed the equivalent felt-area from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The ground liquefied over an area of more than 10,000 square km. The figure to the right shows the distribution of uplift and subsidence as a consequence of rupture across three large faults within the New Madrid fault system.
The Bhuj earthquake occurred about 400 to 600 km away from the nearest plate boundary . Strong-ground motion was felt over a region from Madras to Katmandu and Calcutta, distances of over 2000 km and more than 16 times that of the M 7.8 1906 San Francisco earthquake. These observations alone have prompted the suggestion that the Bhuj earthquake is analogous to the New Madrid earthquakes. If such an analogy is appropriate, the Bhuj earthquake offers an unparalleled and for all practical purposes, a unique opportunity to better quantify seismic hazard in both the continental USA and the subcontinent of India.

We are tackling these issues in a variety of ways, aside from the many seismological investigations that are currently underway by CERI personnel. One approach is to explore the consquence of ruptures on the distribution of uplift and subsidence of the region; can we make sense of the subtle topographic signatures in the region? Paleoseismological field investigations are being carried by Eugene Schweig (USGS in Memphis), Martitia Tuttle, and colleagues in the Department of Earth Sciences.
If you are interested in the active tectonics of these enigmatic earthquakes or their analogs around the world, contact either Mike Ellis or, for more seismological enquiries, Chris Powell (graduate program coordinator at CERI).

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