Halfway Thru 2023, 175+ New Madrid Quakes Have Shaken Missouri

Now that we're almost halfway through 2023, let's do some quick earthquake math. There have been more than 175 measurable quakes along the New Madrid Fault in the seismically-active part of Missouri.

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Purely out of curiosity I decided to do a custom search on the USGS earthquake website to see how many shakers have been recorded along the New Madrid Fault so far in 2023. Here's the result. As of this writing, there have been 176 measurable quakes in that region since January 1, 2023.

The good news is that most have been inconsequential with only a few stronger than 3.0 on the Richter Scale.

For the record, Earthquake Track has more than 176 quakes listed along the New Madrid Fault, but I went with the more conservative USGS database to err on the side of fewer rather than more.

The other good news looking at 2023 quakes along the New Madrid Fault is there's nothing really out of the ordinary. There were a few in parts of Missouri not necessarily near the New Madrid that were interesting, but really just strange shakings and no trends to be worrisome.

There were a few mini-swarms so far in 2023, but again within the norm. Nothing to give reason to think anything is a precursor to the feared 7.7 quake the USGS thinks is possible.

You can check out daily earthquakes on the USGS site if you find this earth science in Missouri interesting.