Natural History

The Big One: The Enormous Earthquake that Rocked Early America and Helped Create a Science

Guests: Jake Page and Charles Officer.

The three largest earthquakes in American history took place in the early 1800s—not along the San Andreas Fault as one might expect, but in Missouri. The gargantuan tremors rent apart a region the size of Texas and killed some 1,500 people. Could a disaster like this happen again? Today on Focus, we're joined by writer Jake Page and author Charles Officer to discuss the likelihood of a repeat event and how seismologists are working to be able to predict it.

More articles →