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

[xmas74]

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

[iris27]

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.

[xmas74]

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.

[lastlib]

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.......

[xmas74]

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.

[The Genealogist]

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!

[xmas74]

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

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

[The Genealogist]

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.

[xmas74]

8. I graduated in 1993.

Just within a couple of years of each other.

Those drills were hilarious at the time.