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"So, don't they say that when there's a big earthquake there's usually one on the opposite side of the globe? Because the closest big fault opposite this one seems to be the New Madrid..."
Whoa!
Total news to me on this concept - but it makes some sense.
Stay as safe as you can up there, Libby.
I've seen that posted elsewhere. In accepting the things I cannot change I won't spend any time worrying about it though :^)
The 400 terrified residents in the town of New Madrid (Missouri) were abruptly awakened by violent shaking and a tremendous roar. It was December 16, 1811, and a powerful earthquake had just struck. This was the first of three magnitude-8 earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks to rock the region that winter.
Severe shaking accompanied the powerful New Madrid earthquakes that struck during the winter of 1811-1812. By winter's end, few houses within 250 miles of the Mississippi River town of New Madrid (Missouri) remained undamaged.
Survivors reported that the earthquakes caused cracks to open in the earth's surface, the ground to roll in visible waves, and large areas of land to sink or rise. The crew of the New Orleans (the first steamboat on the Mississippi, which was on her maiden voyage) reported mooring to an island only to awake in the morning and find that the island had disappeared below the waters of the Mississippi River. Damage was reported as far away as Charleston, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C.