Originally Posted by Mike-in-Orange

Ah yes, the New Madrid Seismic Zone (that bright vertical oblong where Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee and Arkansas all converge) is not only a major area of seismic activity in general, but it holds the potential for some of the fiercest and most violent earthquakes North America will ever see (and quite possibly, ever has seen in the past). It may even experience "the big one" before California does.