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 ...
The mantra for over 30 years..
Buy land in Nevada..very cheap now, and one day it may be oceanfront property
...Except that the trend in CA is uplift.
mere details.....
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.
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?
It already has. Jerry Brown became governor.
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.
life in California seems like one big, unending Irwin Allen movie...
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.
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!”
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!
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
Next powerful quake probably within 30 years.
Dice or keno I’m so confused.
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.
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...
I don´t take the predictions of cannibals too seriously.
LOL!
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