Disaster deferred: how new science is changing our view of earthquake hazards in the Midwest

Coinciding with the two-hundredth anniversary of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812, this monograph revisits these earthquakes, the legends that have grown around them, and the predictions of doom that have followed in their wake. The author clearly explains the techniques seismologists use to study Midwestern earthquakes and estimate their danger. Detailing how limited scientific knowledge, bureaucratic instincts, and the media's love of a good story have exaggerated these hazards, the author calmly debunks the hype surrounding such predictions and encourages the formulation of more sensible, less costly policy. In addition, this monograph shows how new geological ideas and data, including those from the Global Positioning System (GPS), are painting a very different-and much less frightening-picture of the future.