Speaking of Earthquakes.....

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Sep 2, 2003
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Oz is not exactly the earthquake capital of the planet, (apparently we have an entire tectonic plate to ourselves), but we do have them so I did some googling. We have a LOT more than I thought, and some big ones too.

THIS is an interesting site. (If you're in Oz that is.)
 
We don't think of the northeast US as a major earthquake zone, either. But it happens. There's a fault just north of NYC that runs through the village where my parents used to live.

I was standing outside with my mother one day when the walk shook. I was surprised, since I had never considered the possibility, and my mother thought it was like the blasting they'd been doing, putting in new houses nearby.

After another, relatively noticeable quake, pretty much everything came off the shelves of the hardware store :( The local paper had a cartoon of the owner sitting outside at a table with a petition to have the fault moved.

Have you guys been pouring beer down into the crevices to lubricate this one plate you've got? That might ease the aftershocks, anyway. :p
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Have you guys been pouring beer down into the crevices to lubricate this one plate you've got? That might ease the aftershocks, anyway. :p
Nahh, our stuff is too good for that but if you'd like to send us some of that stuff you guys make we could try it. :)
 
New Madrid provided the largest earthquake ever recorded in the continental United States of America.

I read a science fiction story years ago that predicted an incredible repeat of it that dropped the whole Mississippi valley and turned the center of the country into an extension of the Gulf of Mexico. After the country recovered from its losses, the moderated climate and increased access to the sea increased national prosperity.
 
We had a huge earthqauke here in New Zealand, just off the coast of the south island. I thinkit was an 8 point something or other.

It happened just a day or two before the one in Asia with the tsunami.

I think we were pretty lucky, don't know about the future though.
Good thing I don't live by the beach anymore.
 
I actually felt an earthquake once, a couple of years ago. It was about 0145hrs and I was on the 'net. Suddenly there was a sensation as though every door in the house had been slammed shut simultaneously, but in total silence. A small stuffed toy fell from a shelf. I remember typing a question to the talk group I was on, to the effect: "Have we just had an earthquake?"

The news next day confirmed that we had.

Britain has its share of faults ( ;) ), including the huge Great Glen of Scotland. The northern section of Scotland is moving slowly NE along this fault, as I recall.

great-glen-map.jpg


Info on the Great Glen & Loch Ness.

Loch Ness is in the Great Glen. I hope Nessie isn't disturbed...

maximus otter
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Do we make beer? :barf: I always liked Guinness. :D

Most of the best beers in the world are brewed in either Belgium or in the USA. The big three American breweries (Bud , Miller, Coors) brew something that can only loosely be described as beer.
 
I guess the last major earthquake in Ohio, northern part, was in 1984, and i was a newborn. A couple of years ago there was like a 1.0 in lake erie, but i was no where close enough to feel that.


I know it sounds sick, but an earthquake is one thing that I jsut want to possibly feel someday...not falling into one, or the devistation, but the ideafo feeling the earth moe is just interesting.
 
We have earthquakes in Mexico city all the time, I´ve been though a few big ones (including Los Angeles USA in 1971, but that was a small one). Practically everyone here knew someone who died in the one in 1985, I lost my apartment then, I bought my present house with a combination of insurance money, savings, loan and tax advantages as an earthquake victim.

The feeling of the earth moving is nothing compared to the cracking sounds of walls and windows breaking, stuff and pieces of ceiling falling, walking in the dark down shaking stairs covered with debris, the sight of fallen and burning buildings, the learning of someone you knew who didn´t live through it.

Changing the subject to get a bit over the bad memories, If you ever come to Mexico you have to try the beer, not the common beers, I suggest Indio (from northern Mexico), Leon (From The Yucatan peninsula), Noche Buena (only available at the end of the year) and Luna Llena (from the local restaurant The Beer Factory, yes the name is in English).

Luis
 
Plumber576 said:
I know it sounds sick, but an earthquake is one thing that I jsut want to possibly feel someday...not falling into one, or the devistation, but the idea of feeling the earth move is just interesting.

Beware of what you wish for.

1994's 6.7 Northridge quake was a ton of fun. I lived about 2 or 3 miles from the epicenter. This previously unknown fault was different - it was a thrust fault. The motion had an up/down component.

The quake struck at 4:31 AM. The initial surge was so violent that it literally threw me off the bed into the air. The power went out instantly. My wife and I could not stand up, we kept falling down. As Don Luis wrote, the sounds of breaking glass and things falling is a whole different experience. The quake lasted about 30 seconds in total.

We were lucky, there was only cosmetic damage to our town house. About $1500 total.
 
I know, I know...I have been in some pretty crazy stuff, a few tornados, ive witnessed a plane crash, I helped clean up from the gigantic tornados in 1999 in Oklahoma, I've witnessed floods...earthquakes...I wish them on nobody, and The damage is terrible...but still.
 
I understand, I guess to me it would be interesting to see a tornado, I just don´t want to be too close.

Luis
 
To quote from "Tommy Boy":

You can take a good look at a T-bone by sticking your head up a bull's ass, but wouldn't you rather take the butcher's word for it? :D

To me, the same train of thought applies to tornadoes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and generally anything I can't control that can kill me.

They may be interesting phenomena, but I'll prefer to take the butcher's word for it.
 
Shortly after the disaster in SE Asia, the local newspaper had an article on similar possibilities around the US. It was written by someone named Dennis Smith. I'm not sure who he is or what his credentials are.

Here is a section that I found interesting (and disturbing):

The possibility of great landmasses falling into the ocean is always with us, and recently scientists found vertical fault lines through a volcano on La Palma, one of the smaller and more westward Canary Islands. The volcano has a crater about 5 miles wide and a half-mile high, and erupts about every 200 years. The last eruption was in 1948, but the newly discovered fault lines have convinced some scientists that eventually the huge crater will break apart and slide into the ocean, bringing more than a half-trillion tons of rock with it.

Since tsunamis are created in proportion to the amount of land that has fallen into the water, this event would likely create a wave mass never before known to written history, many times bigger than the wave at Lituya Bay. The wave would diminish a little as it crossed the Atlantic, but if it hit the Atlantic Seaboard it could be higher than the skyscrapers of Boston, New York, Washington and Miami. Scientists do not know if it will take one, four or 10 eruptions to separate the landmass, only that the separation is inevitable.

The only good news is that volcanoes usually send signals before they erupt, and it would take eight hours for the wave to travel from Africa to the United States' eastern shoreline. It is not sufficient time, however, to move all the people who would be in its path.
 
mycroftt said:
Most of the best beers in the world are brewed in either Belgium or in the USA.
I assume you're kidding!

mycroftt said:
The big three American breweries (Bud , Miller, Coors) brew something that can only loosely be described as beer.
Well, that part is correct.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
New Madrid provided the largest earthquake ever recorded in the continental United States of America.

I read a science fiction story years ago that predicted an incredible repeat of it that dropped the whole Mississippi valley and turned the center of the country into an extension of the Gulf of Mexico. After the country recovered from its losses, the moderated climate and increased access to the sea increased national prosperity.

The magnitude of the New Madrid guake is inferred from anecdotal ecidence and news reports of the time as 8.3 on the modified Richter scale. This was the largest we know of in the interior of the continent and about equal to the great San Francisco quake. The Good Friday quake near Prince william sound in 1964 was over 30 times as strong at a measured 9.4. The largest quake ever recorded was in 1960 in Chile the measured 9.5 and sent tsunamis all the way to Japan, Hilo HI and British Columbia.

It is thought that the impact that ended the Cretaceous at Chixulub on the Yucatan coast generated quakes over 10 in magnitude.
 
shgeo said:
The magnitude of the New Madrid guake is inferred from anecdotal ecidence and news reports of the time as 8.3 on the modified Richter scale. This was the largest we know of in the interior of the continent and about equal to the great San Francisco quake. The Good Friday quake near Prince william sound in 1964 was over 30 times as strong at a measured 9.4. The largest quake ever recorded was in 1960 in Chile the measured 9.5 and sent tsunamis all the way to Japan, Hilo HI and British Columbia.

It is thought that the impact that ended the Cretaceous at Chixulub on the Yucatan coast generated quakes over 10 in magnitude.

We have earthquakes here and there. Way to young and would've been living in CO at the time of the 64 quake. Talked with people who were here for it. Imagine streets turning into rolling hills. Middle earthquakes are FUN!!! granted no one is hurt. I can't imagine the massive quakes yet to come :eek:
 
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