OK, the unmentionable: What does earthquake mean to CA-west coast?

[Sara Beverley]

I've been wondering if and when the earth's movement is going to hit the US hard. Everything on earth is connected. Anyone have any ideas on what these recent events mean for the US coasts?

[bones_7672]

1. If, by this time, the west coast is still there, nothing. n/t

[Cronus Protagonist]

6. The west coast is RISING. so no matter what, it will be there

I can't say as much for the states just to the east of CA, upon which the tectonic plate of CA is rising.

[goclark]

2. Shaaaky and good question Sara

I live in Los Angeles and I was just reading another thread that said that the whole planet is shaking because of the gigantic quake.

It would seem that this is not a good thing for the West Coast.

Would like to know because my mother gets so frightened.

[jmcgowanjm]

4. Bloomberg: Sumatra was moved 100 ft n/t

[jmcgowanjm]

3. Bottom line: LA is moving to Alaska, Fresno is moving to Chile

Transform-fault boundaries : At transform-fault
boundaries, plates move horizontally past each other. The
San Andreas Fault zone is an example of this type of
boundary where the Pacific Plate on which Los Angeles sits
is moving slowly northwestward relative to the North
American Plate on which San Francisco sits. At
transforms, earthquakes are shallow, running as deep as
25 km; mechanisms indicate strike-slip motion.
Transforms tend to have earthquakes smaller than
magnitude 8.5.

http://www.nilacharal.com/stage/katturai/eq.html

[displacedtexan]

5. I was relieved that my LA daughter was here in Baltimore for the month!

After watching the sign above her Hollywood apartment building get swept away in "The Day After Tomorrow," I panic easily.

[1monster]

7. Or the largest fault in the United States? Which is the Mississippi

River Valley. In 1811, there was an earthquake along that fault which was so incredibly huge that the quake was felt as far away as Washington, DC....

[jmcgowanjm]

8. That's my area-the New Madrid/ MS River ran backwards

for 3 days.

The Memphis Bluff is the fault showing
itself.

Look up Memphis St Geological Center
for details.

And don't forget about Yellowstone.

[Occulus]

9. ugh. Yellowstone.

If that went boom, much of the US would be, um, "adversely affected", to put it mildly.

It would, in fact, be a major catastrophe.

[SheilaT]

13. The New Madrid Quakes

-- and there were a series of them in late 1811 and early 1812, were probably among the strongest ever to happen. The reason they were felt as far away as Washington DC is that the bedrock of that part of the continent underlies much of the entire eastern half of the country and therefore transmits earthquake waves quite efficiently.

The reason that strong earthquakes in California are not felt much farther away is that the earth there is very fractured, and the waves essentially don't travel much beyond the particular section of continent in which it occurs.

If you want to learn a lot about earthquakes read "On Shaky Ground" by John Nance. It's absolutely the best earthquake book I've ever read. The first several chapters are about the Good Friday Quake in Alaska in 1964, and what happened there essentially confirmed the theory of plate tectonics. There are also a chapter or two about the New Madrid Quakes.

[msanthrope]

10. Earthquake, 4.3 , Northern California, about 5 am EST

Here's the link.....

http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_snav.html

[SnowBack]

11. 4.3 wouldn't even wake your grandma!

We LAUGH at 4.3's here in San Fran.... Well, when we notice them that is...

Get back to us when there's a 6... :evilgrin:


(Seriously, 4.3 earthquakes aren't really a problem...)

[Karenina]

12. Oh piffle!

Don't get folks all jumpy! :spank: 4.3 is to sleep through.

[neverforget]

14. The Cascadia Subduction Zone: when that goes, the Pacific NW

is going to be shaking for a long time. An estimated 9.0 earthquake in January 1700 sank coastal Washington 1.5 meters! :scared: I live in Portland :scared:
http://www.pnsn.org/HAZARDS/CASCADIA/cascadia_event.html

[MissBrooks]

15. We've already had little shakers this morning.

The world's a shaking!

[onager]

16. I'm about 2 miles from the epicenter...

...of the 1994 Northridge quake, and haven't felt a thing.

Well, I felt vibrations yesterday. But that was just the neighbor's kid riding her new skateboard down the condo walkway.

[MissBrooks]

18. We had one outside of Santa Rosa...

You probably wouldn't feel it where you live.

[shadowknows69]

17. the ring of fire is pretty hot right now

aftershocks canhappen for quite a while after the initial quake. In other words you won't find me driving on the Bay Bridge in the next week or so.

[SnowBack]

19. Good, less people on the Bay Bridge means faster trips to SF!

We'll manage without your car on the bridge somehow! :evilgrin: