The Wabash Valley is a

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

located in sections of both

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

and

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. It is named for the

Wabash River The Wabash River () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana, and a significant part of Illinois, in the United ...

and, as the name is typically used, spans the middle to the middle-lower portion of the river's valley and is centered at

Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in Vigo County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 58,389 and Terre Haute metropolitan area, its metropolitan area had a populati ...

. The term Wabash Valley is frequently used in local media in Clinton, Lafayette,

Mount Carmel Mount Carmel (; ), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias (; ), is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. The range is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. A number of towns are situat ...

, Princeton, Terre Haute, and

Vincennes Vincennes (; ) is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Vincennes is famous for its castle: the Château de Vincennes. It is next to but does not include the ...

all of which are either on or near the Lower

Counties

Counties in the Wabash Valley include Posey, Gibson,

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

Clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

, Sullivan, Vermillion, Parke, Greene, Putnam,

Owen Owen may refer to: People and fictional characters * Owen (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Places United States * Owen, Missouri, a ghost town * Owen, Wisconsin * Owen County, Indiana ...

, Knox, Daviess,

Martin Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

Fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were o ...

, Tippecanoe and Warren counties in Indiana. The Illinois portion consists of Clark,

Edgar Edgar is a commonly used masculine English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Edgar'' (composed of ''wikt:en:ead, ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''Gar (spear), gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the Late Midd ...

, Crawford,

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. The common red color is due to ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, Coles, Douglas, Gallatin, Edwards, Wabash, and

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

counties. It also may or may not include, depending on the source, Montgomery county in Indiana, and Lawrence, Richland, Vermillion, Champaign,

, and Effingham counties in Illinois due to the Little Wabash River.

Seismic activity

The Wabash Valley Fault System in southeastern Illinois, southwestern Indiana, and adjacent corner of Kentucky extends about 60 miles north-northeastward from just north of the Shawneetown and Rough Creek Fault Zones. A

Magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

5.2 quake took place in the Wabash zone on April 18, 2008 at 09:37 UTC (04:37 CDT), about 41 miles NNW of

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is Indiana's List of cities in Indiana, third-most populous city after India ...

, near the community of Bellmont, Illinois.Magnitude 5.2 - ILLINOIS
USGS It was felt all across southern Illinois, southern Indiana, western and central Kentucky and eastern Missouri, waking people up in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

, 123 miles away. This was followed by several aftershocks and a second, magnitude 4.6 quake at 15:14 UTC (10:14 CDT). There were no injuries or serious damage reported late Friday morning, April 18, 2008."Chicago feels aftershock to Midwest quake", Chicago Tribune, April 18, 2008 In Mt. Carmel, Illinois, 15 southeast of the epicenter, a woman was reported trapped in her home by a collapsed porch but was quickly freed and wasn't hurt, said Mickie Smith, a police dispatcher there. The earthquake occurred on the 102nd anniversary of the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

. The largest quake claimed to have taken place in this Zone was a 5.4 earthquake in 1968.

References

External links

TheWabashValley.com is a message board about the Wabash Valley, Terre Haute and the surrounding communities.
{{coord, 38, 50, N, 87, 30, W, region:US-WV_scale:750000, display=title Regions of Illinois Regions of Indiana Geology of Illinois Geology of Indiana Geography of Wabash County, Illinois