Earthquakes in St. Louis and Missouri

Class & Event Types:

Evenings & Weekends, History & Culture, Virtual

Age Group:

Teens (Grades 7-12), Adults, Ages 18+, Ages 21+, Ages 55+
Registration for this event will be open from March 20, 2025 @ 7:00pm to April 17, 2025 @ 7:00pm.

Program Description

Event Details

Discover information on historical people, places, or things. 

Since 1804, the year St. Louis became part of the United States, St. Louis has suffered damage from 12 earthquakes and has felt many other earthquakes.  The state of Missouri experienced 328 quakes in the year 2022.  

Doug Schneider will talk about earthquake preparedness, earthquake insurance, the St. Louis seismograph, how to interpret the Richter Scale, and why Missouri earthquakes feature liquefaction and California earthquakes do not. 

And he will talk about the Missouri earthquake that made the Mississippi River run backwards.

earthquake map of the St. Louis MO area

Recommended reading from the Library: Earthquakes in Missouri

The presenter is Doug Schneider, author, St. Louis walking tour guide, Scottish country dancer, fan of architecture, Route 66 enthusiast, who graduated from Brown University, one of the eight Ivy League universities, with a Bachelor's in History; and from the University of London with a Master's in Linguistics.