(COOTER, Mo.) — A magnitude 4.0 earthquake shook the small farming community of Cooter in Missouri’s Bootheel region Thursday afternoon, with tremors reaching across several surrounding states and prompting hundreds of people to report the experience to federal officials.
The quake struck just before 1 p.m., with its epicenter located less than a mile west of Cooter, a rural community situated near the Mississippi River just north of the Arkansas state line. The event originated approximately seven miles beneath the surface. Initially measured at a 3.9, federal geologists revised the magnitude upward to 4.0 following further analysis.
The shaking was felt well beyond Missouri’s borders. Residents across parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois reported feeling the tremors, with some accounts placing the furthest reaches of the disturbance as far away as Indiana and the Memphis metropolitan area, roughly 80 miles to the south.
No injuries were reported, and authorities in surrounding counties said they received no calls about structural damage — consistent with what scientists typically expect from a quake of this size, which is strong enough to rattle dishes and knock items off shelves but rarely causes harm to buildings.
The earthquake occurred directly within the New Madrid Seismic Zone, a geologically active fault system running through the heart of the central United States. The zone stretches through parts of five states and is considered the most seismically active region in the country east of the Rocky Mountains, generating hundreds of small earthquakes annually, most too minor to be felt.
Thursday’s event stood out for its relative strength. It marked the first time since 2005 that a magnitude 4.0 quake has been recorded along the New Madrid fault.
The zone carries a weighty historical legacy. In the winter of 1811 and 1812, a series of four massive earthquakes — among the most powerful ever documented in North American history — tore through the same region. The largest of those events was so violent that it temporarily reversed the flow of the Mississippi River.
Scientists say the probability of significant aftershock activity remains low but not negligible. There is roughly a one-in-five chance of a magnitude 3.0 or greater aftershock occurring within the coming week, a smaller chance of another 4.0, and only a marginal possibility of anything more powerful.
Geologists are encouraging anyone in the region who felt the earthquake to log a report through the U.S. Geological Survey’s public reporting system, which helps build a clearer picture of how seismic waves travel through the earth and affect communities across a wide area.
