Important Takeaways:

• A swarm of earthquakes hit a massive 150-foot-long fault line in the Midwest that scientists fear is overdue for a mega-quake.
• This little-known New Madrid sits in America’s Heartland, passing through Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois.
• The US Geological Survey detected eight quakes from December 6 to 11.
• Missouri experienced seven that hit Howardville, Matthews, Martson Hayward and Cooter, and Ridgely, Tennessee experienced one.
• The largest quakes were a magnitude 3.0 and 2.6 that struck near Howardville, and the rest measured roughly magnitude 2.
• Any earthquake less than magnitude 2.5 generally isn’t felt, but the shaking can be detected by a seismograph.
• Scientists have warned that the fault line can generate a magnitude 7 or higher in the next 50 years.
• The chances of a quake that size is around about 40 percent, but ‘every year that goes by, the likelihood becomes greater,’ said Robbie Myers, an emergency coordinator with the Missouri Department of Safety.
• The last powerful seismic activity occurred between 1811 and 1812 when three quakes hit that were ‘estimated to be between magnitude 7 and 8,’ according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
• Though this week’s earthquake swarm is not necessarily a sign that the New Madrid fault is about to produce a larger quake, experts have said people living around it should always be prepared for a major seismic event.
• A magnitude 8 quake in this region could kill thousands, destroy bridges over the Mississippi River, buckle major highways such as Interstate 55 and cause oil and gas pipelines to break, Myers previously told DailyMail.com.

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