Is your family prepared for an earthquake? (2008)

Abstract

During the winter of 1811-1812, a legendary series of three earthquakes, 18 tremors and hundreds of aftershocks struck southern Missouri near New Madrid. This series of disruptions is regarded as one of the largest seismic events in U.S. history. The greatest of the quakes measured 8.8 on the Richter scale and was detected in the cities of Chicago, Washington, D.C., New Orleans and parts of Canada. The energy released from the earthquake was equal to 12,000 atomic bombs the size of those dropped on Hiroshima, or 150 million tons of TNT.