How many Americans live and work in areas exposed to potentially damaging earthquakes?
- About 10% of the population
- About 25%
- About 50%
- Almost all
To see the answer, scroll down below the image.
The correct answer is nearly 50% of the population. More than 143 million Americans live and work in areas of the 48 contiguous states that are exposed to potentially damaging ground shaking from earthquakes. When the people living in the earthquake-prone areas of Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. territories are added, this number rises to nearly half of all Americans.
When one considers very strong ground shaking levels, the 10 states with the highest populations exposed (in descending order) are California, Washington, Utah, Tennessee, Oregon, South Carolina, Nevada, Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois. Although this level of shaking is estimated to occur relatively infrequently, it could cause significant damage and causalities.
"Hazard a Guess?" is an ongoing series, so come back soon for more questions. Don't forget to share these with friends and family to help raise awareness of natural hazards.
Get Our News
These items are in the RSS feed format (Really Simple Syndication) based on categories such as topics, locations, and more. You can install and RSS reader browser extension, software, or use a third-party service to receive immediate news updates depending on the feed that you have added. If you click the feed links below, they may look strange because they are simply XML code. An RSS reader can easily read this code and push out a notification to you when something new is posted to our site.