Four earthquakes in 54 days: New Madrid
This paper examines the consequences of a large earthquake sequence in the United States by re-imagining the New Madrid events of 1811/1812 in the context of today’s exposure. It draws on historical events and current methodologies to highlight unconsidered vulnerabilities. According to it, if such a sequence of events were to occur today, it is estimated a loss to the insurance industry of the order of USD 150bn. While the historic New Madrid earthquake sequence is used as a narrative, many of the issues discussed in this report are relevant to other regions and also to single earthquake scenarios.
A large earthquake in the New Madrid, Missouri region will be a disaster on its own, and the insurance industry, the population and policymakers would not be fully prepared for multiple earthquakes in a short period of time. Over one-third of the insured loss estimate is allocated to compounding effects of large earthquakes occurring one after the other (ie, factors that wouldn’t be seen in a single, isolated earthquake).
Explore further
