New madrid earthquake 1811 death toll

1811, December 16, 08:15 UTC. Northeast Arkansas Magnitude ~7.2 - 8.1

On the basis of the large area of damage (600,000 square kilometers), the widespread area of perceptibility (5,000,000 square kilometers), and the complex physiographic changes that occurred, the Mississippi River valley earthquakes of 1811-1812 rank as some of the largest in the United States since its settlement by Europeans.

The area of strong shaking associated with these shocks is two to three times larger than that of the 1964 Alaska earthquake and 10 times larger than that of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The magnitude of these series of earthquakes, usually named the New Madrid, Missouri, earthquakes, vary considerably between the mb and MS values estimated by Nuttli.

The mb was estimated from isoseismal maps, and the MS was estimated from a spectral scaling relation by Nuttli for mid-plate earthquakes. The value of MS magnitude has a functional relationship to the mb