Quake on little known LA fault

[YASNY]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n.../n144248D13.DTL

[Queen Prawn]

I read a similar article on Yahoo about this fault the other day. Interesting stuff.

[CanOfCorn]

Why do people live there again???

[Balta1701]

Why do people live there again???

 

Last year, 4 hurricanes hit Florida. Why do people live there again?

 

If the polar icecaps were to melt completely, New York City, Boston, and most of the Eastern seaboard would be under water. Why do people live there again?

 

This is actually quite an interesting question to deal with (Graduate student in geology speaking here) - how much risk do you allow people to take with where they want to live? Within probably the next 500 years, there will be an absolutely massive, hugely devastating earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, larger and more powerful than anything that can happen in California. Maybe even on the scale of Sumatra.

 

The last event that large happened on that fault roughly 300 years ago. It's average recurrence interval is about 500 years we think, but there's a lot of variation. The last time it happened, a tsunami was recorded in Japan. Should we evacuate the Pacific Northwest?

 

The reality is...it's almost impossible to pick a place on the earth that isn't at risk for some sort of geologic hazard, whether it's flooding, a drought, a tsunami, an earthquake, etc. In most cases, all you can do is prepare for it and try to make sure the end result isn't cataclysmic. There are only a few places where you can point and say "it is genuinely stupid to live here because you're going to die." Almost everywhere else, it's a guessing game.

 

And even in those cases...you have to balance the rights of the property owners against the government's desire to protect its citizens. There is no firm line at all.

 

Oh, and 1 more I forgot; at some point in the next few thousand years, there will likely be a major collapse and avalanche in the Azores, setting off a tsunami that will dwarf the one from Sumatra, and do heavy, heavy damage to New York, Boston, and the entire east coast. Why do people live there? Because it's a risk they're willing to take.

[Cali]

Meh. I have very good balance I think I'll be fine.

 

But seriously though, we hear all these things about major faults and predicting the "big one", but the truth is no one knows what's going to happen, and there's really nothing anyone can do to stop it. You just gotta be prepared and just hope you don't get crushed by your own TV or something.

 

Back to a joking mode, if there is a big one, the big one where california breaks off from the rest of the country, as long as Orange County breaks off as well and separates from the new country of Califorina, I'll be fine. Sorry Jason, maybe I'll come and visit you in the "Badlands", maybe.

[whitesoxmurph]

Hopefully this quake will occur on the weekend. Downtown LA on the weekend is pretty much a ghost town, save for the homeless and a few tourists.