(USA Today) The question is not if a massive earthquake will hit more than a half-dozen states that border the Mississippi River, but rather when it will happen. A minor earthquake early Wednesday that centered on Decatur in East Tennessee about 60 miles southwest of Knoxville was felt into Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina. “A 4.4 magnitude earthquake is a reminder for people to be prepared,” said John Bobel, a public information officer for the division of emergency management in Kentucky’s
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. People see indoor objects shake with magnitude 4 to 4.9 quakes, but the quakes generally cause little to minimal damage. Scientists have seen evidence that the central Mississippi River Valley has seen major earthquakes for more than 4,000 years. On Dec. 16, 1811, the first of three major earthquakes and numerous aftershocks struck what is now known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, a series of faults that stretch 150 miles from Cairo, Illinois, to Marked Tree, Arkansas. READ MORE
