re: Now Closed: Everything you ever wanted to know about EARTHQUAKES

quote:

---

I'll third the question about how "due" the New Madrid fault is, and potential devastation.

---

I partly talked about this in an earlier question.

For devastation, look at the Mercalli Scale for earthquake intensity. It is a qualitative measure of the earthquake's destruction. Since many buildings over here are not to code to handle earthquakes I imagine a lot of destruction.

But if you were hiking in the woods above the fault you wouldn't be hurt. It's mainly human made structures and secondary effects that are destructive and deadly.

I don't think there's ever been a case of an Earthquake directly killing anyone, unless they intentionally jumped into a chasm that formed, but that doesn't really happen.