“If you think California is a fun ride on nature's rollercoaster, just wait until the New Madrid plate decides to shrug again. The last time it happened in 1811-1812, the course of the Mississippi River was changed, bells in Boston churches rang, and there were tales of 10-foot-high traveling water-like waves in the ground. If it happens again, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis may survive. The tricky bit is the average return period, a topic of much debate in the seismology community. There are quite a few who claim the geological record show it to be around 200 years. You do the math. While this book is excellent on the historical information, it is a bit out of date on the seismic research component seeing how probably 90% of the total has been done in just the last couple of decades (for obvious reasons). A simple web search will obtain just oodles of current information on the topic. Perusing recent volumes of the "Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences" will also prove fruitful.”
baum wrote this review Tuesday, September 18 2007.
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