The magnitude 5.8 earthquake that rattled the East Coast of the United States in August caught everyone - even geologists - by surprise. But even when there's reason to think an earthquake could be around the corner, scientists still can't make good predictions.
It’s been 200 years since big earthquakes rocked the New Madrid Seismic Zone, a fault system that runs down the central U.S. through parts of Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. The region has had plenty of smaller quakes since then, but no one can really say when the next big one might be.
The New Madrid earthquakes of the winter of 1811 to 1812 have become the stuff of legend. They were so powerful, the story goes, they made the Mississippi River run backwards.
