Slashdot Mirror


Geologists Say California May Be Next

Hugh Pickens writes "Newsweek reports that first there was a violent magnitude-8.8 event in Chile in 2010, then a horrifically destructive Pacific earthquake in New Zealand on February 22, and now the recent earthquake in Japan. Though there is still no hard scientific evidence to explain why, there is little doubt now that earthquakes do tend to occur in clusters: a significant event on one side of a major tectonic plate is often — not invariably, but often enough to be noticeable — followed some weeks or months later by another on the plate's far side. 'It is as though the earth becomes like a great brass bell, which when struck by an enormous hammer blow on one side sets to vibrating and ringing from all over. Now there have been catastrophic events at three corners of the Pacific Plate — one in the northwest, on Friday; one in the southwest, last month; one in the southeast, last year.' That leaves just one corner unaffected — the northeast. And the fault line in the northeast of the Pacific Plate is the San Andreas Fault. Although geologists believe a 9.0 quake is virtually impossible along the San Andreas, USGS studies put the probability of California being hit by a quake measuring 7.5 or more in the next 30 years at 46 percent, and the likelihood of a 6.7 quake, comparable in size to the temblors that rocked San Francisco in 1989 and Los Angeles in 1994, at 99 percent statewide."

8 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Screw you ground. by jack2000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Where are our floating cities, we've been promised floating cities and flying cars. I want my god damned flying car!

    1. Re:Screw you ground. by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 3, Funny

      On the plus side, if a tsunami occurs, it results in an instant free upgrade of your regular car to a flying model.

      Also your house will be upgraded to floating parts-of-a-house.

  2. Re:9.0 magnitude earthquake Unpossible? by Dolphinzilla · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've heard of you, I heard you were dead....

  3. Investment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hello!

    I am currently forming an investment group that is buying land around Carson City, NV and all along the Nevada and California border. With the next earthquake, our analysts expect California to drop into the Pacific making all of our land BEACHFRONT!

    Yours,

    Lex

  4. house cat flu by greenfruitsalad · · Score: 2, Funny

    does anybody else remember the house cat flu episode from simpsons? "We're here to come up with the next phony baloney crisis to put Americans back where they belong - in dark rooms, glued to their televisions, too terrified to skip the commercials."

  5. California? It figures... by Third+Position · · Score: 1, Funny

    Some states will do anything to get out of paying their bills....

    --
    American Third Position
    Finally, a real choice!
  6. Re:Time to fire-up your laptop, then by isorox · · Score: 4, Funny

    Your laptop can be used to detect earthquakes

    Yes, if it falls off the table, it's probably an earthquake.

  7. Need superconducting materials first ... by perpenso · · Score: 3, Funny

    Where are our floating cities, we've been promised floating cities and flying cars. I want my god damned flying car!

    Research performed by Larry Niven suggests that we need at least two unrelated forms of superconducting material to have minimal redundancy in the power distribution subsystems, preferably four unrelated forms for quad redundancy.