8.4

The stories are the stuff of legend, and they are all true. In 1811 and 1812, three mammoth earthquakes measuring 8 on the Richter scale ruptured an area spanning twenty-four states and a third of the landmass of the United States.

But today it's all a distant memory. Until the underground force reawakens. Near Mayfield, Kentucky, John Atkins, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, witnesses a tremor that stops him cold. The earth suddenly "liquefies" in fountains of mud and foul-smelling water. A church steeple topples; a grave yard is torn asunder.

In Memphis, Atkins meets Elizabeth Holleran, a forensic seismologist, who has uncovered data showing a series of ominous simultaneous events: an uplift of the earth's crust, an unusually strong lunar pull, and near-record flood stages along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. She's convinced a major earthquake is imminent. History is about to repeat itself.

Atkins and Holleran believe their only hope is a mission deep into the earth to stop the geological time bomb. Joining forces with an elderly physicist, they descend into one of the Midwest's deepest coal mines. Unbeknownst to Atkins, a colleague is willing to kill to stop him.

With cutting-edge science and unerring authenticity, Peter Hernon has crafted a novel of nerve-jangling suspense you will not soon forget.