1. Threshold
2. The Day the Earth Stood Still
Media Circus
The Morning After
3. Think or Panic?
Earthquake Hazards and Risks
Disaster Panics
Groupthink
Are Scientists Better?
4. The Perfect Mess
Universities
U.S. Geological Survey
Earthquake Engineers
Emergency Managers
Zombie Science
5. Earthquake!
River World
Life on the Mississippi
The Ground Shakes
Using the Clues
6. Breakthrough
Disaster
Elastic Rebound
Using Elastic Rebound
The Missing Piece
7. How the Ground Shakes
Seismic Waves
Seismometers
Seismograms
Why Places Shake Differently
Seeing into the Earth
8. How Earthquakes Work
Where Was It?
How Big Was It?
Why Magnitude Matters
Big Earthquakes Are Rare
How Did the Fault Move?
What Happened in the New Madrid Earthquakes
9. Plate Tectonics Explains (Most) Earthquakes
Developing the Idea
Plate Tectonics
Where Earthquakes Happen
When Earthquakes Happen
Earthquakes Near Plate Boundaries
10. Earthquakes That Shouldn't Happen
Intraplate Earthquakes in North America
White Rocks and Black Rocks
How Continents Are Injured but Survive
New Madrid as a Failed Rift
11. What's Going on Down There?
The Failed Rift Model
Getting the Picture
Real-world Messiness
Why New Madrid?
12. Guidance from Heaven
The GPS Revolution
Fun in the Field
Nothing Is Moving
13. Faults Turning On and Off
Changing the Model
Episodic, Clustered, and Migrating Earthquakes
Implications for New Madrid
14. More Dangerous than California?
What Makes Sense?
Estimating Hazards
Defining Earthquakes Hazards
How Much Do You Want It to Be?
Caveat Emptor
15. Chemotherapy for a Cold
Keeping Buildings Standing
Tough Choices
New Madrid Issues
16. What to Do?
Tone Down the Hype
Use What We Know
Discuss Uncertainties Fully
Keep Thumbs off the Scale
Make Policy Openly
Make Policy Thoughtfully
Improve Disaster Planning
Continue Learning.