https://www.earthmagazine.org/tags/seth-stein/ Recent content in Seth Stein on EARTH Magazine Hugo en-US American Geosciences Institute. All rights reserved. Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/geomedia-zombie-science-new-madrid-and-disaster-deferred/ Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500 https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/geomedia-zombie-science-new-madrid-and-disaster-deferred/ <figure class="earth-figure"> <img src="https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/earth/geomedia-zombie-science-new-madrid-and-disaster-deferred/i-440-7db-2-2.jpg" alt="Stumps of trees in Lake County, Tenn., killed by deposits of sand during the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. U.S. Geological Survey" loading="eager" decoding="async"> <figcaption>Stumps of trees in Lake County, Tenn., killed by deposits of sand during the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. U.S. Geological Survey</figcaption> </figure> <p>During the winter of 1811-1812, three strong earthquakes between magnitude 7 and 8 rocked the New Madrid seismic zone, which runs through parts of eastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas. The quakes opened deep fissures, destroyed forests and lakes, and produced intense ground shaking that liquefied the soil, turning the land to the consistency of jelly across an area of 10,000 square kilometers. They also became the stuff of legend &mdash; legend that has been hard to shake, and has made it difficult to realistically assess the modern hazard in the region, asserts Seth Stein, a seismologist at Northwestern University and the author of a new book, &ldquo;Disaster Deferred: How New Science is Changing Our View of Earthquake Hazards in the Midwest.&rdquo;</p>