00:02You probably didn't expect to wake up to this in Louisiana.
00:06At 5.30 this morning, a magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck about 36 miles south-southeast of Shreveport.
00:13It was shallow, just over three miles deep, and that's why so many felt it.
00:17There are no immediate reports of major damage.
00:19But this is the strongest earthquake on land in Louisiana in two decades.
00:23Similar Louisiana quakes of the past occurred offshore in the Gulf of 5.3 near Grand Isle in 2006,
00:29and a 4.9 back in 1978.
00:32Quakes like this are rare here.
00:34Since December, that region had only recorded small tremors in the 2s and low 3s.
00:38So why does this matter?
00:40Because earthquake risk doesn't stop at the west coast.
00:43The New Madrid Seismic Zone, for example, separate from Louisiana,
00:47runs through Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky,
00:49and that has produced some of the most powerful quakes in U.S. history, including in the early 1800s.
00:55In the central U.S., seismic waves travel farther, meaning shaking can spread across multiple states, big areas.
01:02And here's the non-obvious risk.
01:04Places that don't expect earthquakes often aren't built for them.
01:07Bridges, pipelines, power lines, older buildings, the ground may not move often,
01:12but when it does, it gets your attention.
01:14And sometimes the biggest surprise is where they happen.
01:17Nicely, the people, people, have no better.
01:19The people who are living with the Liberty State,
01:19they are so much taller than the West Coast.
01:19So if they have no more power lines, they'll be able to grab that off.
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