Headin' for Earthquake Country
Soon I'll be returning to the land of temblors and the Richter scale. No, not the west coast, but the great american midwest.
LiveScience.com:
A colossal earthquake that caused damage from South Carolina to Washington D.C. and temporarily reversed the course of the Mississippi River nearly two centuries ago could be repeated within the next 50 years, scientists said today.
Strain is building on a fault near Memphis, Tennessee that was the site of a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in 1812, according to new observations that settle a debate on the risk of another huge quake.
The odds of another 8.0 event within 50 years are between 7 and 10 percent, geologists said today... Such a strong earthquake would rock the entire eastern half of the country and prove devastating to the local region. A lesser but still damaging quake of magnitude 6 or greater has a 90 percent chance of striking in the next five decades.
Posted by jackhodgson at July 18, 2005 10:01 AM