Geologists Say California May Be Next 258
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."
Screw you ground. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:9.0 magnitude earthquake Unpossible? (Score:4, Funny)
I've heard of you, I heard you were dead....
Investment (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
house cat flu (Score:2, Funny)
California? It figures... (Score:2, Funny)
Some states will do anything to get out of paying their bills....
Re:Time to fire-up your laptop, then (Score:5, Funny)
Your laptop can be used to detect earthquakes
Yes, if it falls off the table, it's probably an earthquake.
Need superconducting materials first ... (Score:4, 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.
Re:Screw you ground. (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.