Earthquake - Soon: Call in Chicken Little

The sky isn't falling, but the buildings will... msnbc.msn.com...

This is a repeat of what has been believed for many years. As a Geology major in 1973 we were taught the same information as contained in this issue of “Nature”. This is by no means new information. It sounds like they are trying to remind people of the imminent danger one is in if living in that area. I was taught the likely epicenter will be in the Upland, CA area (45 miles east of LA). At that time the school of thought was that it would be a 9.1 or above and was already overdue. He told us it was a near certainty within 25 years. It has now been about 33 years. The projections at that time were 1+ million dead and the area is even more densely populated today. I recall actual waves in the ground of 6 or more feet in height being discussed. It’s hard to imagine how any building could stand up to that.

One of my professors tried to get an article in the Los Angeles area newspapers about what to do before, during and after an earthquake. He said his offer was rejected because they did not want to alarm the public and were afraid it would affect the economy in a negative manner. In other words – Shhhh, keep this a secret or they might move elsewhere and take their money with them.

Nature magazine is a good source of information and is very credible.

Okay, you can get academic on me. You can direct me to a resource that is accurate and fact filled. You can even tell me that people have been telling us about this for years. There is fair warning for the privileged, educated few and those they chose to inform. Fair enough: academia is as rotten as every other capitalistic institution in this country.

What I'm left to believe is this: the press is trying to redirect their daly assault on the War on Terror by bringing up more scare-the-pants-off-ya kind of stories OR this is really going to happen soon and when it does, there will be horrible loss of both monetary wealth and human life. In otherwords, its either a whole lot of Chicken Little or the left coast is as good as a giant bucket of chicken from KFC - extra shaken.

WORSE STILL - a cataclysmic event like this could lead to the destabilisation of the U.S. government. The markets could be affected and never recover or go into hibernate where everyone's money becomes worth crapola. Resources alone would have to be diverted to respond to the area (unless Louisiana is any indication as to how we'd handle it) and leave us vulnerable to possible terroristic attacks. But in the meantime, I'll go read Nature....sounds good to me. Informative too.

Let's just hope you don't have relatives living anywhere in the California/Nevada/New Mexico/Washington area. It so happens I do. Two brothers and several cousins. Thanks for your measured response to my thread and equally caring attitude. Best wishes to you, should this really come to pass and not turn out to be just some scary post-doctoral paper for you. That way you can keep quoting brilliant science, which by the way, is met with new data and discovery every day.

Like an earthquake you thought would never get here.


Newtron

I have been reading lots on this the past week or so, and it has got me worried and i dont even live there,

The plates are stressed and it looks as if something may just happen,

I really do hope people will at least make sure they have things to aid them if this happens,

Any members for the areas? whats your thoughts? Is the risk higher now than before?

Are we just hearing more about it than normal?

LOS ANGELES -- New earthquake research confirms the southern end of the San Andreas fault near Los Angeles is overdue for a Big One.

It has not had a major rupture for more than 300 years and is under immense stress and could produce a huge earthquake, a study said yesterday.
But exactly when that quake will hit cannot be predicted, said the scientist who conducted the study published in the British journal Nature

link

"The observed strain rates confirm that the southern section of the San Andreas fault may be approaching the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle," he wrote.

Well I'm a native born and raised los angelino, I've been through so many earthquakes(my apartment was red tagged in the 94) that I can honestly say we're just used to it.

The thought and rumors of a massive earthquake makes us perk our ears like the next person but in the end other than have the standard emergency supplies stocked what exactly are we supposed to do?

Most locals have actually been hearing this since the 70's as well and we are all aware of the potential for a devastating quake but again there is only so much you can do aside from pack up and leave which most of us are unwilling to do.

My basic rule of thumb at this point is that I won't even get out of bed unless stuff starts falling off the shelves.

I would assume that people who have lived a long time in Hurricane or tornado country probably have a similar view point on their parade of natural disasters. After a while it wastes too much energy to worry about it, just be prepared for it and hope if it's a real big one it doesn't take place during rush hour.

IMO of course.

Spiderj

I agree with SpiderJ. Only thing you can do is be prepared. Earthquakes are really out of our hands. If things start falling, I just hope I'll be able to grab my pets (fish are a pain in the A$$ during disasters), and stay out of the way of falling walls, ceilings, and the like. My only hope is that no one dies or gets seriously hurt. Material stuff is valuable, but aside from photographs, almost everything else can be replaced. I hope it doesn't come to that.

I hope not eaither and you are both right i guess you can only make sure you have things like batterys and tourchs and stuff,

Im hoping this will just calm down and there will be no worry

anhd pet fish depending on how many could be put in the bath or a bottle? no sure though how easy that would be,

Originally posted by asala
I hope not eaither and you are both right i guess you can only make sure you have things like batterys and tourchs and stuff,

Im hoping this will just calm down and there will be no worry

anhd pet fish depending on how many could be put in the bath or a bottle? no sure though how easy that would be,

More like buckets! They're a bit large. I really should keep things like that prepared, but to be perfectly honest (even though I feel absolutely terrible about it) it would mean a LOT of work. I'll have to figure out a sensible way of doing this fast. Just catching them will take some time. By then the earthquake will be over! Maybe building a bit of a fort around them. Hmmmmm... Oh I really, really hope it doesn't come to that.