By now you’ve probably heard plenty about the 7.9 earthquake in the Sichuan Province of China — over 13,000 people dead, schools collapsed, chemical leaks…and it was felt over 1000 miles away.
The New York Times has a map available to provide a bit of scale around the potentially devastated area.
Looking at the map, and some of the descriptions, I can’t help but think — in terms of magnitude and geographic scope, doesn’t this sound a little like the New Madrid quakes of 1811-1812?
True, in terms of human tragedy, there’s no comparison — the central part of North America was very sparsely populated at the time, while over 15.4 million folks felt the Dujiangyan quake “strongly”. But still… folks in St. Louis and Memphis…and property insurance underwriters and actuaries…ought to take a moment to contemplate the “what if’s”.