Ring of Fire
What-if impact desks · education

Scenario briefs

Hypothetical impact desks grounded in USGS-style ShakeMap concepts, MMI language, and plain-English risk themes. These pages explore what if — they do not predict when or where a quake will happen.

Hypothetical scenarios — not forecasts. No page here claims a quake will hit a city on a date or time. Intensity rings are qualitative teaching aids, not official ShakeMaps.
Interactive · chat-style

What-if Desk

Ask a hypothetical (magnitude + place). Get MMI shake bands, secondary effects, and impact themes — then optionally share a Facebook caption. Not a forecast.

Open What-if Desk → Inland · Midcontinent

St. Louis / New Madrid — hypothetical M8

What-if desk for a great New Madrid Seismic Zone rupture: strong-shake language for St. Louis metro and Mid-South / Midwest river cities. No tsunami (inland).

Open impact desk → Coastal · Cascadia → NorCal

San Francisco Bay — Cascadia M9 what-if

Hypothetical M9 on the Cascadia subduction zone and how Northern California, including the Bay Area, could experience shake and coastal tsunami effects under clear assumptions.

Open impact desk →

Public visitor prompts: Questions asked.

Framing draws on USGS educational materials for the New Madrid Seismic Zone, Cascadia, ShakeMap / MMI concepts, and official tsunami guidance at usgs.gov and tsunami.gov. Ring of Fire does not replace those sources.