2 centuries after New Madrid quakes, what's next? [View all]

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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