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>> THIS IS THE NEW MADRID FAULT. IT RUNS FROM THE TIP OF MISSISSIPPI UP TO SOUTHERN ILLINOIS ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. THE LAST TIME DAMAGING EARTHQUAKE HAPPENED THERE WAS IN 1812 BUT IT WAS A MAGNITUDE 7.5 WHICH IS LARGER THAN THE EARTHQUAKES IN CALIFORNIA LAST WEEK. >> TWO LARGE EARTHQUAKES SHOOK SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LAST WEEK. THE LARGEST ONES IN TWO DECADES. THE TREMORS AND AFTER SHOCKS IS SOMETHING WE COULD EXPECT HERE IN ARKANSAS BUT WE DON'T KNOW WHEN. >> WE CAN'T PREDICT EARTHQUAKES. WE CAN GIVE YOU A PERCENT CHANCE OF IT HAPPENING. >> LET'S COMPARE THE NEW MADRID FAULT TO THE FAULT LINES IN CALIFORNIA. UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS GEOLOGY PROFESSOR GREGORY SAYS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO IS TIME. >> I WE LOOK AT THE RECORD, IN JUST A WEEK'S TIME OF THE EARTHQUAKES THAT HIT CALIFORNIA, THEY POPULATE THE MAP. IF WE LOOK AT A SIMILAR MAP FOR MADRID AND WE PLOT ALL THE EARTHQUAKES ON IT, IT WOULD LOOK SPECIAL BUT THAT SIZE THAT'S ACCUMULATED OVER HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS. >> PEOPLE IN CALIFORNIA PREPARE FOR EARTHQUAKES MUCH LIKE WE PREPARE FOR FLOODING OR TORNADOS. >> PEOPLE IN CALIFORNIA, FOR EXAMPLE, THEY THINK ABOUT EARTHQUAKES ALL THE TIME. THEY ACTUALLY HAVE TONING NEAR BUILDINGS THAT CAN WITHSTAND THE IMPACT OF AN EARTHQUAKE, FOR EXAMPLE, AND THEY HAVE TO HAVE INSURANCE FOR THOSE SORTS OF THINGS. >> SO WHILE IT'S BEEN RELATIVEL DORMANT FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS YOU SHOULD KEEP THE MADRID FAULT ON YOUR ROAD MAP. >> IT'S NOT MOVING OR CREEPING BUT THE SEISMIC ACTIVITY HAS BEEN RECORDED SINCE 1972. MU SMALLER BUT WE HAVE A HARD TIME SORT OF PREDICTING. >> THE LAST TIME WE FELT AN EARTHQUAKE HERE WAS IN 2011 WHEN THERE WERE A FEW MAGNITUDE FOUR EARTHQUAKES IN CENTRAL ARKANSAS. THE ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SAYS IT'S ALWAYS SMART TO HAVE AN EMERGENCY PLAN IN THE CONVEYS OF AN EARTHQUAKE. IT SAYS TO REMEMBER DR

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Clean up is continuing from last week's 6.4 and 7.1 magnitude earthquakes in California, the largest ones the state has seen in decades. Arkansas also has a fault line close to home. The New Madrid Fault Line runs from the tip of Mississippi up into southern Illinois along the Mississippi River. The last major earthquake along the fault happened in 1812, but University of Arkansas professor Gregory Dumond said scientists can't predict when the next one will happen. "We can give you a percent chance of it maybe happening, but that's about it," he said. Dumond said the biggest difference between the faults in California and the New Madrid is time. "If we look at the record of just a week's time of the earthquakes that hit California, it would populate the map," Dumond said. "If we look at a similar map of New Madrid and we plot all the earthquakes on it, it would look special, with a lot of earthquakes on it, but that's accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years." Californians prepare for earthquakes much like Arkansans prepare for natural disasters. "People in California think about earthquakes all the time," Dumond said. "They have to engineer buildings that have to withstand the impact of an earthquake and have insurance for those sorts of things."Here in Arkansas, the Arkansas Army National Guard works together with state agencies to prepare for emergencies like major earthquakes."We are a state supporting agency. We would fill the voids that other state agencies would have if they ran out of resources," Lt. Col. Derald Neugebauer said. While New Madrid has been relatively dormant for hundreds of years, it is still possible it could produce a major earthquake."One school of thought is geologists that say it's a dead fault, it's not moving, it's not creeping," Dumond said. "But seismic activity has been recorded since 1972."