The US suffers from the same possibility of a 9 plus quake. Just as in Japan is was not the 1st time such an event has occurred as such an event averages happening about every 300 years.
The US is possibly overdue but its not from the major fault on the west coast but rather the massive fault that lies in this nation's heartland. Can anyone begin to imagine the damage and loss of life that would occur if there was a repeat of the event that happened along the New Madrid fault in the early 1800s.
Its not a question of "if" but "when" this event will reoccur. Anyone that has worked in any of the construction industries where moving the earth is involved finds it easy to see the results of the last large event as huge sections of strata are now displaced and are lying almost vertical to their original position. As I said anyone that works in the Road construction or Coal industry is well aware of these geological anomalies and the evidence of just how much energy that must have been required to have shifted the earth's crust in such a violent fashion.
I simply cannot comprehend an event such as that which was witnessed in Japan happening in this nation's now Populated centers in the mid west....that fault lines lies in an area encompassing 7 very populated states with huge metropolitan areas (over 11 million people). The people who are supposed to have the collective knowledge to forecast such events inform us that it takes at least several centuries for that SPRING to wind up enough tension to release once again.....I for one hope they know what they are talking about.
New Madrid Seismic Zone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia