No foolin’ tremor jars Mid-South on April Fool’s Day

Revised 8:30am – USGS indicates the magnitude has been reduced to 3.6 from an initial report of 4.0

April Fool’s went out with a bang, or perhaps a rumble, yesterday as the New Madrid Fault Zone briefly reminded Mid-Southerners of its presence.  A magnitude 3.6 earthquake occurred in the far southern Missouri Bootheel at 10:52pm last night.

Yes Kristen it did! From social media reports and reaction to our posts on Facebook and Twitter, there were lots of folks that felt the tremor in the Memphis metro. Here’s the quake page for this event from the USGS, which indicates that it occurred at 10:51:43pm on April 1 4km (2mi) S of Steele, Missouri (or about 80 miles north of Memphis) at a depth of 10.9km. There appear to be no initial reports of damage.

The New Madrid seismic zone of southeast Missouri and adjacent States is the most seismically active in North America east of the Rockies, according to the USGS and an unconfirmed report indicates that this was the strongest quake east of the Rockies since February 5, 2014.

Location of the April 1 earthquake relative to Memphis

The “Did You Feel It?” map from USGS indicates a lot of folks did!


Here’s a seismograph from Gosnell, AR pic.twitter.com/GhfXcySoTh
— Ryan Vaughan (@ryanvaughan) April 2, 2015

Here’s a seismograph from Memphis also. pic.twitter.com/JFeGJmbjLS
— Ryan Vaughan (@ryanvaughan) April 2, 2015

So, did YOU feel it? 

As an aside, HUGE thanks to MWN intern Kevin Terry who was all over this event as it occurred lat night and got the info out quickly on our social media accounts. Admittedly, I slept through it… another great example why #TeamMWN is the best around!

Erik Proseus
MWN Meteorologist

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