Скачать или смотреть The Day the Mississippi River Flowed Backward — New Madrid Quakes Explained

The Mississippi River once appeared to flow backward — because the ground under America exploded.

In 1811 and 1812, a series of huge earthquakes struck the New Madrid Seismic Zone, in the middle of the United States near Missouri and Tennessee. Riverbanks collapsed, trees fell in, and waves slammed upstream so hard that parts of the Mississippi seemed to reverse direction. People were thrown from their beds, church bells rang on the East Coast, and the town of New Madrid was almost wiped off the map.

A hidden fault system lies beneath the central U.S., where an ancient rift in the crust is still slipping. It’s quiet now, but instruments show it’s still alive. Another big quake there wouldn’t just shake one state — it could rattle half the country.

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