“Washington has had more earthquakes recently, so they’re better prepared.”, from the article.
The last “major quake” we had was centered near Olympia, WA about 40 miles away from us on February 28, 2001. It was a 6.8 and shook the house for quite a while. It did cause some damage to some structures in the area. It is a little hard to believe that even “earthquake proof” structures more than a story or two high would still be standing after a quake more than a thousand times more intense.
Downtown Seattle and many other low lying highly populated areas are built on top of soil that is prone to liquefaction when shaken violently, so they likely would be completely devastated. Yet our local politicians are playing this slight of hand trick with the global warming scam.
Richter is logarithmic-one full number jump is ten times the energy.
How much of Seattle area buildings have any steel reinforced construction with earthquake in mind? Until thirty years ago, the area was perceived as lacking any major seismic threat.
That soil under Seattle is the run-out plain for a prior Lahar event spawned by Mt. Rainier, more than ten-thousand years past.
I was just talking to my daughter today. Sshe was age 3 when the Nisqually Quake happened. She remembers grabbing the leg of a table as I had taught her - and she comforted a girl that was crying. I looked it up this morning - it lasted for about 40 seconds.
I was below my desk at home in the basement - feeling the concrete slab feeling like the waves beneath a floating air mattress! And really hoping that it was fairly close by or their was going to be a LOT of damage.
The reason I brought up the earthquake with my daughter, and looking up the length of time (”Really!? It was only 40 seconds - I still remember that it seemed like forever!”) - I had just brewed a large pot of coffee.
The Cascadia quake could last up to 5 minutes long - and obviously with much more violent shaking. 5 minutes is about how long it takes to brew a pot of coffee. I almost always think of that every morning now.