You know, nobody here knew the Whittier Narrows or Newport-Inglewood faults existed until there were earthquakes on them. I'm sure hope there's a fault somewhere under Texas or Nebraska or Ohio just waiting to engulf these "CA needs to fall into the ocean" crowds.
Yeah there's fracture faults dotted around the plains, but they're something like 5.5 every 500 year faults.
Are you going top Charlie's for lunch or are you going to the kosher pizza place?
I am so jealous...
Actually, as I understand it, the largest earthquakes on record in the lower 48 states happened in 1811 and 1812, with back to back (month or so apart) 8+ quakes on the New Madrid fault, around the Missouri bootheel. And living here in Memphis I know that they don't have a clue about earthquake prep in the building codes!
I've figured out what all of the activity is leading up to. The New Madrid is going to let go again and Arkansas and Louisana are going to sink and the Memphis bluffs will be new beachfront property.
And if anything, CA is actually emerging from the ocean. Most areas are experiencing uplift with the exceptions of some of the structural basins. And in those, the sedimentation rate is so high that they will never sink below sea level. The only exceptions are the Salton Basin and Death Valley, but for reasons I will not expound on here those two are not considered part of California tectonically speaking but are part of respectively Mexico and Nevada. Keeping harbors functional is a serious issue as the bottom gets relatively shallower in most locations.