Large 19th Century Earthquakes in Eastern/Central North America: A Comparative Analysis - Historical Seismology: Interdisciplinary Studies of Past and Recent Earthquakes - page 348

(a)
Fig. 5a Population (in 1000s) as a function of distance from the Charleston earthquake ( gray cir-
cles )andNM1( black circles ), from the 1880 and 1820 census, respectively. Stars indicate average
values within distance bins
(b)
Fig. 5b The distribution of populations shown in Fig. 5a. are used to generate the relative popula-
tion distribution of the Charleston earthquake and the 16 December 1811 New Madrid mainshock.
Values shown here represent the ratio of the gray versus the black stars in Fig. 5a, and illustrate
that, while roughly comparable populations experienced the 16 December 1811 New Madrid and
Charleston mainshocks at distances of 2000 km, about a factor of 10 more people were living close
to the latter event compared to those who were around to experience the former