Content:
In 1811-1812, the New Madrid seismic zone produced earthquakes estimated at magnitude 7.5-8.0. They rang church bells in Boston. They changed the course of the Mississippi River.
Most people think earthquakes only happen in California. They're wrong.
The Central and Eastern U.S. has a lower frequency of quakes — but when they happen, the impact area is 10x larger than West Coast events due to harder, more efficient bedrock.
Here's the data reality:
USGS seismic hazard models show significant earthquake probability across:
- The New Madrid zone (MO, TN, AR, KY, IL)
- The Charleston, SC zone
- The Puget Sound region (WA)
- Even parts of Utah, Nevada, and Oklahoma (induced seismicity from wastewater injection)
Yet most property risk platforms only flag California and Oregon.
We included USGS seismic hazard data for every U.S. address in the ProtectMyZip API:
- Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) — the engineering standard for seismic risk
- USGS hazard percentile (2%, 5%, 10% probability in 50 years)
- Nearest active fault line distance
- Historical earthquake events within 50 miles
- Liquefaction potential (soil type analysis)
Why PGA matters: It's the metric engineers use to design earthquake-resistant structures. If PGA > 0.2g, building codes require seismic reinforcement.
GET /api/hazards?address=321+Market+St,+Memphis,+TN
→ "earthquake": { "pga": "0.25g", "hazard_percentile_50yr": "10%", "nearest_fault": "New Madrid" }
🔗 look up earthquake risk by address
Question: How many of you work with seismic data in your applications? Is it easy to access, or is it still a pain point?
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