Quote:
Originally Posted by frazod
I read a book called The Rift, a fictional account of what would happen if a series of New Madrid quakes hit in modern times. The book was very reasoned and frankly, scary as hell. West coast quakes are localized and contained due to the mountains - a midwest quake would cause major damage for hundreds of miles in every direction because there's nothing to stop it. The last one rang church bells in Washington and Boston. Buildings and bridges aren't built to earthquake code, and would be extremely vulnerable. Plus, think about all the pipelines that follow the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico. All of those would rupture, horribly polluting the river and cutting off fuel supplies. The river would also become largely unusable by commercial boats as its course would shift.
Very scary shit.
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True... I remember hearing something a few years ago about bringing more things like the bridges and public buildings into code for just those reasons but the funding wasn't there. I'll have to check the book out. Did it list any real-life studies on the subject? I remember seeing something on the last New Madrid quakes on Discovery or something, but I've never really read a lot on the subject specifically.