People better start posting or I'm liable to go off-topic and do some non-right wing extremist rant!
The new EOS (American Geophysical Union, v. 88, no 5, 30 January 2007) has 3 short articles saying that New Madrid is not accumulating strain...GPS motions are not statisticly greater than zero. That makes it a wee bit difficult for the areas that broke in 1811 and 1812 to break again. The seismicity today can be considered aftershocks of 1811-1812. About a week ago I talked to a seismologist familiar with New Madrid and he also thought it was over-rated. This bears on whether I bother to get earthquake insurance when we close on a house in central Missouri: the house is right at the edge of a ravine, so at 1 g could be tossed down the slope, but the chance of 1 g is probably incredibly remote. So, earthquake insurance yes if $60 like it was in suburbia; if $200 I'd have to think about it. And, the deductible in NY was like $200. And still I cancelled after a year or 2...there are some things just not worth worrying about.
Chris