Researchers foresee death of quake zone

New Madrid appears to be cold and dying. ... thermally New Madrid is surprisingly similar to other areas of the eastern United States.... future earthquakes will occur somewhere else when the New Madrid system "shuts down." Once this happens, it may be a very long time — thousands of years or longer — before New Madrid becomes active again. "Although we don't know when the New Madrid fault system will shut down, it may be dying today,"