December 16, 1811, 2 a.m.
The ground beneath the Mississippi Valley shook so violently that the Mississippi River stopped, turned, and began flowing in the opposite direction.
And church bells in Boston, 1,000 miles away, rang out of their own accord.
Mississippi River Valley.
December 16, 1811.
Just after 2 a.m., every living person for hundreds of miles was awakened.
There was no sound.
Just a feeling.
The ground began to shake.
Slightly at first. So much so that utensils rattled, awakening those who had been sleeping lightly. People sat up in their beds, unsure of what was happening.
Then the world collapsed.
The ground didn't just shake. It began to bounce wildly.
Wooden houses that had stood for generations crumbled to pieces.
Brick chimneys blew away in clouds of dust.
Trees snapped like matchsticks.
The sound was so intense that words cannot describe it.
Survivors said it felt like a thousand cannons firing simultaneously, a mingling of the clang of steel and the roar of the earth splitting open.
Families ran out of their homes on the cold December night, clutching each other.
The ground shook in waves, like the surface of the ocean.
Scottish naturalist John Bradbury was sleeping on a boat on the Mississippi River.
When the earthquake struck, he was jolted so hard he couldn't stand.
When he reached the deck, he witnessed something unheard of in American history.
The Mississippi River was flowing backwards.
The current had stopped.
Then it reversed.
This mighty river, which encompasses the rivers of half the continent, began flowing upwards.
Bradbury saw his boat drifting backwards.
There was chaos all around. Boats were colliding. Passengers and sailors were screaming.
Then the river began to break itself.
High waves rose in the water, not from the wind, but from the earth rising from below.
River banks collapsed.
Islands disappeared.
New islands emerged.
The situation on the shore was apocalyptic.
The ground turned liquid.
Solid earth became a swamp, swallowing everything above it.
Entire forests sank diagonally into mud.
Fires five feet wide opened and closed in the ground, like mouths.
Elizabeth Bryan, a resident of New Madrid, Missouri, watched her world crumble.
She wrote, "The earth had cracked terribly. Hundreds of acres were repeatedly covered with sand gushing from the cracks."
Sand and water poured out of the cracks like fountains.
Fields and roads were buried.
The sand was hot, indicating how deep the cracks went.
Those who fled their homes found nowhere safe.
The ground was shaking everywhere.
Children clung to their parents.
Animals went mad with fear.
Fences were torn apart.
The earthquake lasted several minutes.
When the earth itself is bent on killing you, every second feels like an eternity.
Then it stopped.
People stood amidst their shattered lives, trembling, crying, praying that it was all over.
But it wasn't over.
This was just the beginning.
A second, more devastating earthquake struck on January 23, 1812.
Even the houses that survived in December collapsed.
The Mississippi River again flowed in reverse.
Then on February 7, 1812, the most powerful tremor struck.
Today's scientists estimate it to be 7.7 to 8.1 magnitude.
It was one of the most powerful earthquakes in American history.
Tremors were felt over 50,000 square miles.
Church bells rang in Boston.
People in Washington, D.C., woke from their beds.
Clocks in Charleston stopped.
The ground near the epicenter was unrecognizable.
The Mississippi River had carved new paths.
An entire forest in Tennessee sank into the ground, filling with water to form Reelfoot Lake, a 15,000-acre lake that never existed before.
Boats plying the rivers were now stranded miles away.
Fertile fields became swamps.
Many settlements were either destroyed or people fled in fear.
For four months, tremors continued.
Not small.
Strong.
Some knocked people off their feet.
Some opened new fissures.
The earth knew no peace.
And then there were the lights.
Many people saw strange lights in the night sky.
Flashing, dancing, burning.
Today we know these were "earthquake lights."
But in 1811, people thought the world was coming to an end.
Religious hysteria spread.
People believed it was God's wrath.
Churches filled.
Thousands fled the area.
Many towns were emptied forever.
Those who survived never forgot that winter.
The New Madrid Seismic Zone still exists today.
It's one of America's most seismically active areas.
Major cities like Memphis and St. Louis are located near it.
Scientists say a magnitude 7 or larger earthquake is likely in the next 50 years.
If such an earthquake occurred today, the devastation would be unimaginable.
And yet, most people don't know this history.
The earthquake that reversed the flow of a river,created a lake overnight,and shook the earth for four months,is almost forgotten.
But the fault line hasn't been forgotten.
It's asleep.
And one day it will awaken again.
The question isn't whether it will come.
The question is, when it does, will we be ready?
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