Sat Dec 17, 2011, 08:43 PM

xmas74 (28,034 posts)

2 centuries after New Madrid quakes, what's next?

The United States was still a young nation when three major earthquakes rocked the central Mississippi River valley in the winter of 1811-1812.

Chimneys fell, the earth heaved and church bells rang hundreds of miles away, set off by the powerful vibrations from what is now called the New Madrid Seismic Zone. As farmland rolled and shuddered, the shock waves spread as far as New York and the Carolinas.

Now on the 200th anniversary of those devastating quakes, some seismologists are warning that the region should be on guard because of the risk that another "Big One" could strike the region within the next 50 years.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/16/3323249/2-centuries-after-new-madrid-quakes.html#ixzz1gqIkSI4w

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8 replies	Author	Time	Post
2 centuries after New Madrid quakes, what's next? (Original post)	xmas74	Dec 2011	OP
The threat of "The Big One" is always lurking. I remember doing	iris27	Dec 2011	#1
I remember those drills back in high school.	xmas74	Dec 2011	#2
We recently had an earthquake drill where I work; afterward, I wouldn't...	lastlib	Mar 2012	#3
I remember kids trying to take naps during the drills.	xmas74	Mar 2012	#6
We did that drill too	The Genealogist	Mar 2012	#4
Late 80's, early 90's?	xmas74	Mar 2012	#5
I got the class wrong where the drill happened	The Genealogist	Mar 2012	#7
I graduated in 1993.	xmas74	Mar 2012	#8

Response to xmas74 (Original post)

Sun Dec 18, 2011, 06:40 PM

iris27 (1,951 posts)

1. The threat of "The Big One" is always lurking. I remember doing

"duck and cover" drills in 1991, when a big quake was supposedly predicted for Dec. 3rd of that year.

"When the Mississippi Ran Backwards" is a interesting history of the 1811-12 quakes.

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Response to iris27 (Reply #1)

Sun Dec 18, 2011, 08:52 PM

xmas74 (28,034 posts)

2. I remember those drills back in high school.

We had red "X"s on some of the ceiling tiles, warning us what areas we should move away from. Of course my desk was directly under one of the "X"s.

There are so many interesting stories about the 1811-12 quakes, yet most have no idea how bad they really were.

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Response to xmas74 (Reply #2)

Tue Mar 13, 2012, 06:31 PM

lastlib (15,979 posts)

3. We recently had an earthquake drill where I work; afterward, I wouldn't...

...come out from under my desk--there might've been aftershocks.......

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Response to lastlib (Reply #3)

Sat Mar 17, 2012, 12:25 PM

xmas74 (28,034 posts)

6. I remember kids trying to take naps during the drills.

Duck and cover was a good time for some-it disrupted class for the entire period.

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Response to iris27 (Reply #1)

Wed Mar 14, 2012, 10:35 PM

The Genealogist (4,081 posts)

4. We did that drill too

I was in high school. It was a big deal, a state-wide earthquake drill. Some crackpot was predicting an earthquake to hit around the time of the drill, and many of us chuckled that the authorities were going a bit overboard with this drill based on some crackpot's prediction. I think my yearbook that year has a picture of my 5th period World History class crowded under our desks for the drill!

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Response to The Genealogist (Reply #4)

Sat Mar 17, 2012, 12:24 PM

xmas74 (28,034 posts)

5. Late 80's, early 90's?

If so, we'd be of a similar age.

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Response to xmas74 (Reply #5)

Sun Mar 18, 2012, 02:56 PM

The Genealogist (4,081 posts)

7. I got the class wrong where the drill happened

It was actually my Junior year, December 1990...and it was 5th hour Economics class...I had World History 5th hour the year before. I graduated in 1992.

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Response to The Genealogist (Reply #7)

Mon Mar 19, 2012, 09:06 PM

xmas74 (28,034 posts)

8. I graduated in 1993.

Just within a couple of years of each other.

Those drills were hilarious at the time.

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