WIRED Staff
Culture

Slideshow: Missouri Home to Seismic Hot Spot

Nearly 200 years ago, a Mississippi River town experienced some of the most powerful earthquakes in U.S. history. Today, scientists say it's hard convincing people that major shakers can hit anywhere but the West Coast. Michelle Delio reports from New Madrid, Missouri.
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Most every stop sign is an opportunity, offering plenty of choices for your driving pleasure.

See related story: Missouri Home to Seismic Hot Spot

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Remains of what was once Debee's Cafe peek out of the trees along Kentucky's Great River Road.
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In Parkfield, California, an international team of scientists embarks on a project to drill an angled hole through a seismically active portion of the San Andreas Fault zone.
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Rig hands attach a new drill bit to the drill pipe so they can continue drilling the upper (26-inch diameter) portion of EarthScope's San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth, or SAFOD, hole.
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Back in the beginning of this road trip, we could wade across the Mississippi River.
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To meet the project's scientific goals, EarthScope will install thousands of stations across the country and drill a 3.2-kilometer bore hole into the San Andreas fault over the next five years. In addition, EarthScope will purchase 2,500 campaign GPS and seismic instruments, which will be available for temporary deployments and individual research experiments.
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Odd little houses haunt the side of the road, somewhere in Missouri.
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Deep-drilled bore-hole strain meters are the primary strain meter type used in EarthScope. Bore-hole strain meters measure strain change by sensing changes in the shape of an instrument cemented into rock. They play a central role in observing the deformation that accompanies and precedes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.