[JMvS]

Originally Posted by Solace

Surprised this isn't in the news more considering the earthquake in Haiti:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/us/11chicago.html 3.8 magnitude

For a bit of history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_New_Madrid_earthquake

Forgot to add this one since it's directly related to the main story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabash_Valley_Seismic_Zone

Not really surprising, everyday there are small scale earthquake all over the world, so many that people simply don't really bother when they are happening in very active areas (it will get mentioned in the news maybe, but that's it, and anyway they already have adapted infrastructure or societies), and even in intraplate seismic areas, catastophic events have such low frequency that only in regional news will they speak of the past big one (and risk analysis tells us that implementing seismic proof infrastructure is not worth it).

For example when here we got small scale seism in the Alps, we'll be the only ones to discuss about the risks of dam rupture, or similarly, when a small scale earthquake occur in the Rhine Graben, only in our area will we reminisce the 1356 Basel earthquake, so will we be the only ones to angst over what it could do to the very concentrated chemical industry we have there, or to the neighboring french Fessenheim nuclear power plant, all of those which are by the Rhine river, which irrigates the very hearth of dynamic and densely populated Western Europe.