Japan Tsunami

[LittleHurt05]

Interesting stuff, thanks!

[Y2HH]

I'm interested to see the relief efforts, which are already underway, from numerous governments and institutions around the world.

 

My prediction: Those asshole American's everyone seems to hate will contribute 95% of all relief work/money to the Japanese, and the rest of the world will contribute the other 5% combined.

 

We are such pricks/bad guys, it's not even funny. :/

[southsider2k5]

Yeah, that's pretty much my logic on why I said a magnitude 8 event on New Madrid would be more damaging than this magnitude 9 event in Japan.

 

I had a friend who's parent was in the Evansville Mayor's office, after Katrina I passed along a few casual tips about what your emergency services should have on file somewhere as a plan for what to do in the event that it were to go. No idea if they followed anything I suggested (one suggestion was to spend the money on a study/planning scenario, at least as a Cover-your-tail move).

 

I'd be willing to bet that a 7.0 would cause more damage down there, nuclear disaster aside.

[southsider2k5]

Most of them are unaware of it because of how dormant/silent New Madrid has been, even when it does rattle, it's barely touching 3's in magnitude. If NM decided to repeat it's 1812 quake to remind us of how strong it can actually be, it'd pretty much be the most catastrophic natural disaster to hit the US since...forever ago.

 

From Wiki (removed reference links)

 

November 2008, The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that a serious earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone could result in "the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States," further predicting "widespread and catastrophic" damage across Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and particularly Tennessee, where a 7.7 magnitude quake or greater would cause damage to tens of thousands of structures affecting water distribution, transportation systems, and other vital infrastructure.

 

The lack of apparent land movement along the New Madrid fault system has long puzzled scientists. In 2009, two studies based on eight years of GPS measurements indicated that the faults were moving at no more than 0.2 millimeters (0.0079 in) a year. This contrasts to the rate of slippage on the San Andreas Fault which averages up to 37 mm (1.5 in) a year across California.

I read before that someone thought the New Madrid was where the North American plate was trying to break apart.

 

[southsider2k5]

I'm interested to see the relief efforts, which are already underway, from numerous governments and institutions around the world.

 

My prediction: Those asshole American's everyone seems to hate will contribute 95% of all relief work/money to the Japanese, and the rest of the world will contribute the other 5% combined.

 

We are such pricks/bad guys, it's not even funny. :/

 

That's the way it always is, even in countries that are not our allies.

[Milkman delivers]

I see that Chicago is in that earthquake zone for the New Madrid fault, although very far from the main area. Would the damage from a huge earthquake do much to Chicago? And is there any natural disaster that could really ravage this city? I know it's pretty hard for a tornado to touch down in a city, plus we can't be hit by hurricanes, etc.

Edited March 14, 2011 by Milkman delivers

[Chisoxfn]

I can tell you from living in Memphis for a few years, they are sooooo not ready. Few of the large buildings are even up to the code level the city has asked for. Most of the local residents are sort of vaguely aware of New Madrid's existence, but none seem to know what to do if it happens, and NO one I asked down there had earthquake rider on their insurance (or, in many cases, insurance at all on their home). TDOT had been working to retrofit bridges, but they were only some small % of the way done in the area.

 

Then there is the problem that Memphis sits on a soft bluff surrounded by silty soil that is part of a liquefaction zone.

 

Things would be ugly in Memphis if New Madrid goes big.

I don't know if earthquake insurance there is any different than it is here, but it doesn't do much out in California.

[NorthSideSox72]

I see that Chicago is in that earthquake zone for the New Madrid fault, although very far from the main area. Would the damage from a huge earthquake do much to Chicago? And is there any natural disaster that could really ravage this city? I know it's pretty hard for a tornado to touch down in a city, plus we can't be hit by hurricanes, etc.

If a New Madrid quake was strong enough to do serious damage in Chicago, you might as well wipe St Louis and Memphis off the map.

 

There are some faults in the Dixon area that occasionally produce decent quakes, like in the 4's on the Richter scale. And Chicago does have the threat of a seiche, but the damage from those is usually very small.

 

[NorthSideSox72]

I don't know if earthquake insurance there is any different than it is here, but it doesn't do much out in California.

I was told by USAA that the rider would mean that existing coverages would be in place for any earthquake or any damage from it. That's why I had it.

 

[Y2HH]

I see that Chicago is in that earthquake zone for the New Madrid fault, although very far from the main area. Would the damage from a huge earthquake do much to Chicago? And is there any natural disaster that could really ravage this city? I know it's pretty hard for a tornado to touch down in a city, plus we can't be hit by hurricanes, etc.

 

If Curt Hennig was standing directly on top of the New Madrid fault when a 9+ magnitude quake hit, he would not be hurt.

 

Because he is already dead.

[Milkman delivers]

If Curt Hennig was standing directly on top of the New Madrid fault when a 9+ magnitude quake hit, he would not be hurt.

 

Because he is already dead.

 

 

Then again, unless the ground opened up, would anybody be hurt by an enormous earthquake if they were standing in the middle of a plain or something?

[Balta1701]

 

Then again, unless the ground opened up, would anybody be hurt by an enormous earthquake if they were standing in the middle of a plain or something?

You can come up with lots of mechanisms. If that plain happened to undergo liquefaction, you could literally drown.

[Balta1701]

I read before that someone thought the New Madrid was where the North American plate was trying to break apart.

The North American plate tried to break apart 1.2 billion years ago. That originally set up these fault lines and a bunch of interesting geology. These lines were then covered with sediment once that rift failed and the continent went back to being a settling, accumulation space.

 

Over time, those faults were buried quite deeply under sedimentary rock cover. When you start changing the stress regime though...by continual burial of sediments, and by moving ice sheets onto and off of those faults, you re-stress them and potentially reactivate them.

[southsider2k5]

The North American plate tried to break apart 1.2 billion years ago. That originally set up these fault lines and a bunch of interesting geology. These lines were then covered with sediment once that rift failed and the continent went back to being a settling, accumulation space.

 

Over time, those faults were buried quite deeply under sedimentary rock cover. When you start changing the stress regime though...by continual burial of sediments, and by moving ice sheets onto and off of those faults, you re-stress them and potentially reactivate them.

 

So it could still be splitting? Or not.

[Balta1701]

I'm interested to see the relief efforts, which are already underway, from numerous governments and institutions around the world.

 

My prediction: Those asshole American's everyone seems to hate will contribute 95% of all relief work/money to the Japanese, and the rest of the world will contribute the other 5% combined.

 

We are such pricks/bad guys, it's not even funny. :/

Of course, given that Japan is an industrialized country with a large economy of its own, the fact that (counting the meltdowns) this is clearly a disaster on the scale of tens to hundreds of billions of dollars, and the fact that the total U.S. foreign aid budget will come in about $30 billion, with 95% of that already earmarked to things like drug enforcement, Israel, and the IMF, the idea that the U.S. will contribute 95% is laughable. In Haiti, which got vastly less money and still has most of the money tied up, the U.S. sent under $200 million, but larger numbers were pledged through private contributions (globally, not just here of course). Private pledges totaled only about a billion dollars for that disaster, and many of those pledges have not been met.

[Balta1701]

So it could still be splitting? Or not.

No. The driving force for a breakup of the North American continent ended over a billion years ago. At present, the core of North America is happily stable.

[Y2HH]

3 reactors in meltdown?

[Y2HH]

 

I have nothing...

[witesoxfan]

 

I have nothing...

 

yeah, facepalm works

[southsider2k5]

 

I have nothing...

 

That has to be a joke.

[RockRaines]

I see that Chicago is in that earthquake zone for the New Madrid fault, although very far from the main area. Would the damage from a huge earthquake do much to Chicago? And is there any natural disaster that could really ravage this city? I know it's pretty hard for a tornado to touch down in a city, plus we can't be hit by hurricanes, etc.

Massive flooding is always a danger.

[NorthSideSox72]

No. The driving force for a breakup of the North American continent ended over a billion years ago. At present, the core of North America is happily stable.

There is at least one other active rift valley in the US, the Rio Grande Rift. Not sure if that counts as North American trying to "split apart" though.

 

[Balta1701]

There is at least one other active rift valley in the US, the Rio Grande Rift. Not sure if that counts as North American trying to "split apart" though.

If you want to count that, then I get to count the Basin and Range also. But no one would count that as the continent trying to split apart; it's a crustal spreading area, not anything being driven from below.

[southsider2k5]

So is there liquefaction actually taking place in this video? Listening to the discription of it, and then seeing what was happening, that's what it sounds like to me. Also watching the cracks open and close was just wild.

 

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/wo....quake.cnn.html

[Balta1701]

So is there liquefaction actually taking place in this video? Listening to the discription of it, and then seeing what was happening, that's what it sounds like to me. Also watching the cracks open and close was just wild.

 

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/wo....quake.cnn.html

Possibly. If you had a high pressure water line that ruptured underground, it might do the same thing on video. I'd guess you're right, but I can't say for certain.