Happy 200th Anniversary of New Madrid Earthquake, Midwesterners!

San Franciscans never fail to commemorate their 1906 earthquake, so why shouldn't we do the same regarding ours? Today is the 200th anniversary of the first of three massive New Madrid, MO (then the Louisiana Territory) earthquakes. The second was on 1/23/1812 and the strongest, which rang church bells in Boston, was on 2/7/1812. The epicenter was about 170 miles south of St. Louis and actually closer to Memphis, which didn't exist then. Slate:

Over the years, estimates have placed the 1811-12 quakes’ magnitudes anywhere from under 7.0 to 8.5—an enormous range given that one additional unit of magnitude makes an earthquake 10 times stronger. There now seems to be widespread acceptance that the quakes weren’t stronger than magnitude 8...

The San Francisco earthquake in 1906 was assigned a Richter rating of 8.3. (The scale wasn't devised until 1935).

The earthquakes helped bring to justice the murderers of George Lewis (commonly known as "Slave George"). George was slain on the night of December 15–16, 1811 by two nephews of Thomas Jefferson, Lilburn Lewis and Isham Lewis, who were also relatives of Meriwether Lewis. After killing him with an axe in front of other slaves, George's owners intended to burn his mutilated corpse, but the first New Madrid earthquake interrupted their effort, and so the corpse was interred in a brick chimney. The murder may well have escaped discovery by authorities, except that the January 23 and February 7 quakes caused the chimney to partially collapse, exposing George's remains. Lilburn and Isham Lewis were quickly investigated, arrested and charged. Lilburn killed himself; Isham escaped from jail and probably died during the War of 1812