New fault line 'could trigger quake disaster' in US

A previously unknown fault in eastern Arkansas could trigger a huge magnitude-7 earthquake with an epicentre near a major natural gas pipeline, a scientist in the US has warned.

Haydar Al-Shukri, director of the Arkansas Earthquake Centre at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said the fault was separate from the New Madrid fault responsible for a series of quakes from 1811-1812 that caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards.