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The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
The Central U.S. is at risk for major shaking. But scientists don’t know why — or when — the next big one will strike.
Caught in this seismic splash zone are millions of people living across five states — mostly in Tennessee and Missouri, as well as Kentucky, Illinois, and Arkansas — including two major cities, Memphis and St. Louis. Researchers have mapped out three currently active ancient fault lines — fissures in the Earth’s crust — in the New Madrid area that formed around 500 million years ago, at a time when the North American plate tried and failed to pull itself apart. But “while progress has been made, there’s still a considerable way to go to ensure the resilience of buildings and infrastructure,” Alicia Tate-Nadeau, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security, wrote in an email to Undark.
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