Tim J. wrote:

Having an earthquake in the Midwest puts an entirely different perspective on
things. Will everything west of Milwaukee slide into the Pacific, or will
Milwaukee have beach front property on the Atlantic? Hmmm. . .

"Most people think that destructive earthquakes only occur in the
western United States. To the contrary, St. Louis is located in the most
active seismic zone east of the Rocky Mountains. In the winter of
1811-1812 the Central Mississippi Valley was struck by three of the most
powerful earthquakes in U.S. history. The Great New Madrid Earthquake
was actually a series of over 2000 shocks in five months, five of which
were 8.0 or more in magnitude. Eighteen of these rang church bells on
the Eastern seaboard. The very land itself was destroyed in the Missouri
Bootheel, making it unfit for farming for many years. It was the largest
burst of seismic energy east of the Rocky Mountains in the history of
the U.S. and was several times larger than the San Francisco quake of 1905."

http://stlouis.about.com/cs/maps/a/newmadrid.htm

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