Wikimedia Commons/JeremyA
Table of Contents
Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee
The strongest earthquakes ever recorded east of the Rocky Mountains didn’t just knock down chimneys from Canada to New Orleans. They literally moved rivers, swallowed forests, and punched a hole in Tennessee that filled with water.
Here’s how the New Madrid earthquakes sculpted Reelfoot Lake from pure chaos, now part of the Reelfoot Lake State Park.
Wikimedia Commons/Unknown , but published 1851 in a book by Henry Howe
The First Violent Tremor
The ground began to shake at 2:15 a.m. on December 16, 1811. The first earthquake struck northeast Arkansas with a magnitude of 7.5-7.7…