Not everyone is taking the prediction of an earthquake on the New Madrid fault next week seriously.

Iben Browning, a physiologist from New Mexico, is predicting a quake that could be as large as the one that devastated San Francisco last October. The San Francisco earthquake registered 7.1 on the Richter scale; Browning thinks the New Madrid quake could measure from 6.5 to 7.5.

But NIU geologists take little stock in Browning’s ideas.

“He (Browning) has not been trained as a geologist,” said NIU assistant geology professor Paul Stoddard.

There is very little scientific evidence for Browning’s prediction, Stoddard said. The National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council—which reviewed Browning’s ideas and found little scientific support—is more credible, he said.

Even though the area is due for an earthquake in the next century, Browning’s use of the tidal effect from the moon is not accurate, he said. Earthquakes occur in places of stress where plates of the earth move against each other, he said.

But if an earthquake as large as the one Browning is predicting does hit, it would be felt as far north as DeKalb, and would involve some shaking, minor structural damage and objects falling off shelves, he said.

Geologists at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, which is closer to the fault, aren’t worried, either.

“I don’t think reasonable people view it as a threat,” said John Sexton, SIU professor of geophysics.

“The buildings probably wouldn’t withstand serious shaking,” he said. Unlike building codes in San Francisco and other California cities—that account for possible earthquakes—codes in the midwest do not, Sexton said.

The New Madrid fault runs from southern Arkansas to southern Illinois and passes under southeast Missouri.

But geologists realize the public is worried. Many are stocking up on food, clothing and flashlights, Sexton said.

A majority of schools near the fault in Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee are closing or are considering closing, said Anthony Knopps of KFCS Television in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

But closing schools and leaving town is “silly,” Stoddard said. School administrators should latch cabinets and secure shelves instead, he said.