New Madrid Seismic Zone

Log of trench wall at Dodd site near Steele, Missouri, where sand blow and two associated sand dikes are exposed. The pre-event ground surface was displaced downward by 70 to 80 cm between the two sand dikes. Late Mississippian ceramic artifacts found above and below sand blow suggest that it formed between 1400 and 1670 A.D. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal in the soil horizon buried by the sand blow indicates that it formed after 1290 A.D. Radiocarbon dating of a corn kernel collected from a wall trench dug into the top of the sand blow indicates that it formed before 1460 A.D. Therefore, the estimated age of the sand blow is 1290-1460 A.D.