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Big California quake likely to devastate state. Next powerful quake probably within 30 years.
Reuters ^ | 03/15/2011 | Peter Henderson

Posted on 03/15/2011 7:29:56 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

California will experience unthinkable damage when the next powerful quake strikes, probably within 30 years, even though the state prides itself on being on the leading edge of earthquake science.

Modern skyscrapers built to the state's now-rigorous building codes might ride out the big jolt that experts say is all but inevitable, but the surviving buildings will tower over a carpet of rubble from older structures that have collapsed.

Hot desert winds could fan fires that quakes inevitably cause, overwhelming fire departments, even as ancient water pipelines burst, engineers and architects say.

Part of the lesson from the disaster that hit Japan on Friday is that no amount of preparation can fully protect a region such as California that sits on top of fault lines.

Even so, critics fear the state may have long skimped on retrofitting older buildings. Yet the cost of cleaning up after a big quake is likely to be much higher than the cost of even the most expensive prevention, they warn.

"Everybody is playing a gamble that something like this won't happen," said Dana Buntrock, associate professor of architecture, at the University of California, Berkeley.

Buntrock, like many others, sees California's past as a present danger. The university is spending more than $300 million to retrofit and renovate its ancient sports stadium, tucked into the hills overlooking the bay.

"There are places where two walls that were aligned in the 1920s have moved a half meter apart," she said.

But the steps that the school is taking are not as common in California as the overwhelming risks might suggest.

The concrete high-rises that rose in the years after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake were made without adequate reinforcing steel,

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Japan; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; earthquake; tsunami
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To: SeekAndFind

The mantra for over 30 years..


21 posted on 03/15/2011 8:31:31 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Obama: Epic Fail or Bust!!!)
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To: NormsRevenge

Buy land in Nevada..very cheap now, and one day it may be oceanfront property


22 posted on 03/15/2011 8:33:21 AM PDT by ken5050 (Admin Moderators rule!!!!)
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To: ken5050

...Except that the trend in CA is uplift.


23 posted on 03/15/2011 8:36:06 AM PDT by onedoug (If)
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To: onedoug

mere details.....


24 posted on 03/15/2011 8:39:41 AM PDT by ken5050 (Admin Moderators rule!!!!)
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To: SeekAndFind

A gigantic earthquake would not devastate the “entire” state. A giant quake in San Francisco would not cause any damage in L.A. or San Diego or the rest of the state....just in the greater Bay Area, which would be bad enough.

Vice versa, a big quake in the L.A. area would seriously damage greater L.A., but the rest of the state would be intact. California is a large state.....the distance from the Oregon border to the Mexican border is equivalent to the distance from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina.

Any fires will be fueled by broken natural gas lines. “Desert winds?” The “Santa Ana’s,” or “devil winds,” don’t blow every day of the year. I lived in California for 16 years, and the Santa Anas, hot winds blowing in from the desert, blew a handful of days in the summer and a handful of days in the fall, depending on weather conditions. If the big quake hit L.A. on one of those days, it would be a big problem, but the odds are against that from happening.


25 posted on 03/15/2011 8:42:02 AM PDT by july4thfreedomfoundation (A Jimmy Carter got us a Ronald Reagan......A Barack Obama will get us a Sarah Palin)
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To: onedoug

I hear this dumb remark so frequently and always say the same thing, the North American plate lies under most of California and the Pacific Plate is subducting (diving under it)

So, how in Gods name is Nevada going to be anything but what it is now?


26 posted on 03/15/2011 8:42:27 AM PDT by 100American (Knowledge is knowing how, Wisdom is knowing when)
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To: SeekAndFind
California will experience unthinkable damage

It already has. Jerry Brown became governor.

27 posted on 03/15/2011 8:50:00 AM PDT by Right Brother
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To: 100American

At one time the islands off Washington were a part of the continent. I’m hoping California’s next big earthquake shoves San Francisco 250 miles out in the Pacific.


28 posted on 03/15/2011 8:53:55 AM PDT by B4Ranch (Do NOT remain seated until this ride comes to a full and complete stop! We're going the wrong way!)
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To: SeekAndFind

life in California seems like one big, unending Irwin Allen movie...


29 posted on 03/15/2011 8:56:54 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Blood of Tyrants
I heard someone say that there was a “46% that the next quake would occur within 30 years”.

Perhaps talking about the Hayward Fault that runs under UC Berkeley. Has mega-quakes on average every 140 years. Last big one (called "The Great San Francisco Earthquake") happened in 1868. Due to happen any minute now. We've prepared for it by building wall-to-wall towns, colleges, hospitals, and freeways on top of it.

30 posted on 03/15/2011 9:16:02 AM PDT by roadcat
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To: Bernard Marx

The Mayans ran out of space on their rock calendar wheel. Kumukwazantil (the chief stone carver) thought it would be a good practical joke on us, so he just stopped with 2012, then laughingly joked, “Ha! That’ll sure make them antsy in 2011!”


31 posted on 03/15/2011 9:20:16 AM PDT by Twinkie ( PEACE)
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To: Twinkie
Regularly, every tens of thousands of years—give or take— the dark portion of the Milky Way Galaxy image lines up so that just before sunrise, if viewed from the proper designated location atop a Mayan pyramid, the dark portion looks kind of like the open mouth of a crocodile about to devour the sun as it rises on the Eastern horizon.

Isn't it funny how our supposedly so advanced civilization is panicking over the alignment? I mean, you'd think there are periodic planet disasters that can be marked by such mythology! ... Oh!

32 posted on 03/15/2011 9:29:47 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Some, believing they can't be deceived, it's nigh impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Bigun must occur if California is ever to return to rational sanity. The Bigun and the loss of LA or SF/Oakland is necessary to eliminate the liberal stranglehold


33 posted on 03/15/2011 9:31:54 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. D.E. +12 ....( History is a process, not an event ))
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To: SeekAndFind

Next powerful quake probably within 30 years.

Dice or keno I’m so confused.


34 posted on 03/15/2011 10:30:55 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: SeekAndFind
Is it a coincidence that every time there is a major world natural disaster, all the insane asylums release inmates?

Gheez!

Dealing with the Obama flying Monkeys is work enough...

Note to delusional pompous asses...
California does not now, nor has it ever had a subduction zone issue.

Maybe they ought to give the funding no longer given to PBS and NPR to these inmates, to buy themselves a clue.

35 posted on 03/15/2011 12:09:23 PM PDT by Publius6961 (There has Never been a "Tax On The Rich" that has not reached the middle class)
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To: WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
Don’t laugh. Yesterday, I overheard two people at the post office contemplating the coming Great Quake that will obliterate our local nuclear power plant, kill us all and make our county uninhabitable.
This was in suburban Philadelphia.

In the middle of all the panic and hype, I continue to watch open-mouthed at the talking heads interviewing "expert (hucksters,)" mostly from anti-nuke "organizations," mouthing doom and gloom, and neglecting to ask the simple question...

"If the radiation is so bad, so lethal, and will remain so for 35,000 years, how did Hiroshima nad Nagasaki manage to be huge, dynamic cities in less than 40 years?"

Detroit should be so lucky...

36 posted on 03/15/2011 12:16:23 PM PDT by Publius6961 (There has Never been a "Tax On The Rich" that has not reached the middle class)
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To: Twinkie

I don´t take the predictions of cannibals too seriously.


37 posted on 03/15/2011 12:18:17 PM PDT by onedoug (If)
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To: Right Brother

LOL!


38 posted on 03/15/2011 1:01:51 PM PDT by Publius6961 (There has Never been a "Tax On The Rich" that has not reached the middle class)
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