Researchers at Northwestern and Purdue Universities issued a report that indicates the New Madrid Fault may be shutting down. Using GPS monitoring devices, the team of scientists determined that the fault is moving less than 0.2 millimeters a year. The report will be published in Science Magazine and there’s more at Terradaily.com

If the research is accurate, that will be big news for farwestern Kentucky. Government projects and industries that can't take a shake have passed the region by because of the threat of the New Madrid slipping again. While the New Madrid Quake of 1811 and 1812 was the biggest in American history, it has been quiet ever since, unlike California fault lines that have remained active since the big San Francisco Quake in 1906.