Is the U.S. Ready for the Next Big Quake?- Popular Machanics

SOUTHEAST

Seismologist Steven Jaume of the College of Charleston in South Carolina says the ground acceleration map shows “two bull’s-eyes” in the East. One is the New Madrid fault, and the other is the Middleton Place/Summerville Seismic Zone, centered 22 miles northwest of Charleston, S.C.–100 miles from Burke County, Ga., where $8.3 billion in federal loans were just approved for two new nuclear reactors. On average, this fault produces a large earthquake every 500 years. The last one, in 1886, is estimated to have been magnitude 7.3; it killed more than 100 people. A recent engineering analysis found five Charleston schools vulnerable to collapse in a relatively mild, 5.0-magnitude quake, prompting officials to reinforce the buildings.

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