What would happen if..?

I am interested in the opinions of geologists or those knowledgeable in these fields on the following.

What would cause and what would happen if.....

There is an earthquake measuring 12 on the Richter scale in San Fransico?

The Las Palmas volcano were to erupt?

Yellowstone or Toba volcanos were to erupt?

There were multiple 9.0 undersea earthquakes at the same time?

All of the volcanos in the ring of fire were to erupt?

Indigo

As a resident of the SF Bay Area, lets hope a Magnitude 12 does not occur as most of us will be dead. For reference, one that big would cause a fracture to the earths core and be the equvilent of 160 trillion tons of TNT

Richter TNT for Seismic Example
Magnitude Energy Yield (approximate)

-1.5 6 ounces Breaking a rock on a lab table
1.0 30 pounds Large Blast at a Construction Site
1.5 320 pounds
2.0 1 ton Large Quarry or Mine Blast
2.5 4.6 tons
3.0 29 tons
3.5 73 tons
4.0 1,000 tons Small Nuclear Weapon
4.5 5,100 tons Average Tornado (total energy)
5.0 32,000 tons
5.5 80,000 tons Little Skull Mtn., NV Quake, 1992
6.0 1 million tons Double Spring Flat, NV Quake, 1994
6.5 5 million tons Northridge, CA Quake, 1994
7.0 32 million tons Hyogo-Ken Nanbu, Japan Quake, 1995; Largest Thermonuclear Weapon
7.5 160 million tons Landers, CA Quake, 1992
8.0 1 billion tons San Francisco, CA Quake, 1906
8.5 5 billion tons Anchorage, AK Quake, 1964
9.0 32 billion tons Chilean Quake, 1960
10.0 1 trillion tons (San-Andreas type fault circling Earth)
12.0 160 trillion tons (Fault Earth in half through center,
OR Earth's daily receipt of solar energy)

www.seismo.unr.edu...

[edit on 12/29/04 by FredT]

Originally posted by Indigo_Child
I am interested in the opinions of geologists or those knowledgeable in these fields on the following.

What would cause and what would happen if.....
There is an earthquake measuring 12 on the Richter scale in San Fransico?

If it ever where possible land would move hundreds of feet and there would be absolutely no standing man made fetures in the vicinity...

Yellowstone or Toba volcanos were to erupt?

It�s speculated that the Earth would possibly go into a nuclear winter type scenario for a year or two.

There were multiple 9.0 undersea earthquakes at the same time?

Where? If they where a few thousand miles away from each other then they would create tsunamis. Like the recent one that had a tsunami hit from India, to Africa it would stop when it reached landmass and the others tsunami would do the same.
Scientist now believe that deep in the Earth that geological things are connected, it would probably be 1 large earthquake rather then two if they are on the same fault.

All of the volcanos in the ring of fire were to erupt?

The same as if 1 big one where to erupt�


Do not that the Earths core is cooling and geological activity is decreasing�
We will be like Mars in a few million/hundred million years from now. Mars was smaller so it lost its interior heat faster. We are going through what Mars did a billion or so years back�