Charleston, SC Earthquake, Aug-Sept 1886

Charleston, South Carolina, was hit by a minor earthquake last week that caused mostly minor damage. No homes were destroyed, and there weren't major injuries as a result. Charleston isn't known as an earthquake hot spot in the U.S. like California is, but quakes do happen there. The most recent one measured a 3.6 on the Richter scale. 3.6 isn't a major event, but cleaning up after it is a royal pain in the neck. The history of the region has been that a small quake, like the one that just happened, is a usual precedent of a much larger one to come. An earthquake rocked Charleston in 1886 that killed upwards of a hundred people and cost millions to repair, and measured between 6.6 and 7.3 on the Richter. The Great San Francisco Quake of 1906, by comparison, was over 9.0 on the Richter. (A 10 has never been seen or recorded in the span of human history, and isn't achievable by atomic blasts.) Earthquakes are tough to predict, because the only indicators that tell of one happening are apparent only right before the event. You can read the article called "Charleston Earthquake | Payday Will Be Spent Fixing Drywall", http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2008/12/16/charleston-earthquake... on the news blog at personalmoneystore.com.