Posted on 07/02/2008 1:05:13 PM PDT by BenLurkin
It's only a drill - but the earthquake-simulation plan set for November will illustrate a frightening event that would rock our world if it becomes a reality. The ShakeOut Scenario calls for a 7.8 Southern California earthquake that would "kill 1,800 people, injure 50,000, cause $200 billion in damage, and have long-lasting social and economic consequences," according to a U.S. Geological Survey news release.
Science predicts the strongest shaking and greatest damage from such a quake would occur near the stretch of the San Andreas Fault that extends through the fastest growing areas of Southern California - including the Coachella Valley, Inland Empire and Antelope Valley.
In the hypothetical scenario, the quake begins north of the U.S.-Mexican border near the Salton Sea. The fault ruptures 200 miles in a northwest direction ending near Palmdale. Consider this blow-by-blow chain of events:
— 10 a.m.: A rupture occurs along the San Andreas Fault, sending shock waves at 2 miles per second throughout the region.
— 30 seconds later: The Coachella Valley begins shaking first, creating fires and crumbling older buildings. Sections of the major east-west artery, Interstate 10, break apart.
— 1 minute later: Interstate 15, a critical north-south route, would sever in multiple places. Trains derail and rail lines break. Tremors hit the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino east of Los Angeles.
1 minute, 30 seconds later: Violent shaking occurs in the Los Angeles basin as shock waves encompass the region.
— 2 minutes later: The rupture stops near Palmdale, but waves continue north toward coastal Santa Barbara and into the Central Valley, including Bakersfield.
— 30 minutes later: Emergency responders deploy throughout the region. A magnitude-7 aftershock hits, but its energy moves south into Mexico. Several additional large aftershocks will hit in following days and months.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
This is how "The Big One" will happen --- and what it will do.
bttt
Bummer....
Saw that movie in the theater the first week it opened.
Complete with the special low frequency speakers in the back that they specially installed for it.
I was was just a wee lad of course....
You put your finger right on the “money quote”.
Unless it doesn’t. That’s always the problem with these things, it’s really all guess work. Start off with their idea of 50,000 injuries but only 1800 dead, given the population density those are pretty optimistic estimates.
Does the scenario include unrest, rioting and looting by inner-city residents?
Or is that BANNED as it was in the Hurricane Pam excersise just before Katrina hit???
Does it include THE GREAT HANDOUT FROM THE SKY?
Does it include FEMAvilles, and Debit cards for Strip Club users?
“Does the scenario include unrest, rioting and looting by inner-city residents?”
There will be no rioting, for President-elect Obama will say, “Do not riot, brothers!”/s
Palmdale?
2 hours later: A vent forms beneath the La Brea Tar Pits, expelling hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of molten lava onto Wilshire Boulevard, but local authorities dam it with k-rails and lots of airdropped water, stemming the initial tide.
30 minutes later: Lava traveling through the unfinished Red Line subway tunnel bursts to the surface near Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, but Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche concoct a plan to knock down a building and reroute the lava through a drainage canal to the ocean.
“Atlantis will rise, Sunset Boulevard will fall...”
Hope he speaks Spanish...
Agreed.
Is the “left coast” going to become the “far left coast”?
Yes, because now is "the time that saw the end of the rise of Oceans. "
The DaliBama
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