[Semper Paratus]

Isn't that near the madrid fault that experienced the largest earthquake in the continent 250 years ago?

[Conservababe]

I'm in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Were are right on the New Madrid fault. I have not felt or heard a thing so far.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

I'm halfway through a book called "The Rift", about just such an earthquake. The New Madrid fault, I think it's called. You can find it on Amazon.com.

[John H K]

It's isn't really the New Madrid FAULT, per se; for one thing, the whole business is buried under thousands of feet of sediment, and you can't see anything at the surface, as you can in California; more properly termed the New Madrid Seismic ZONE. Probably a system of many parallel faults.

This is close enough to that to be considered in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.

As usual when we have a non-California lower 48 earthquake, I suspect we'll see Californians expressing surprise at the degree of shaking reported at great distances; California is SO fractured quakes don't propagate very far; a 5.0 in the Midwest can cause the same shaking 300 miles away that a 5.0 in California does 50 miles away.

[aruanan]

Isn't that near the madrid fault that experienced the largest earthquake in the continent 250 years ago?

Nearer to it than to China, but not in the immediate vicinity. The epicenter of the New Madrid earthquake was in mid-Missouri. You can read an interesting account of it HERE.