Didn’t that basically already happen?
By “Big One” I was referring to earthquakes because that term is used a lot to reference the likliehood of a big quake in the big three known areas, though that may not have been as obvious as I intended. My point was that it won’t surprise me if we get a massive quake somewhere where it’s not expected at all. California, Seattle, and the New Madrid area are all expected.
I was thinking of the whole, “Naw, that place was lousy anyway, write 'em off” bit.
Well unless something really strange happened in my neighborhood, we just had another one. Anyone know the epicenter?
“Strong” earthquake just rocked us again. Didn’t feel strong to me but it’s apparently centered close to San Bernadino and I’m pretty far from there. More info as I can find it.
EDIT: LA Times is reporting it as a 5.0, which is not particularly strong. It didn’t last long at all.
Whee, 5.0 right outside San Bernardino 15 minutes ago. Felt here here 50+ miles away. Here’s the info from the USGS:
Didn’t feel that one at all!
Man, LA has so many earthquakes, they don’t even get their own thread.
Uh, where I was for the Northridge quake (i.e., very near Northridge), we had no water or electricity for multiple days. We used our neighbors pool water to flush the toilet.
So I was at the mall having dinner and I didn’t feel a thing. I was in the Beverly center so who knows how that thing responds in an earth quake.
We had an earthquake?
I’m in Orange County, so not technically LA, but I wouldn’t have even suspected we had one if not for this thread.
Didn’t even feel it. And I was in Covina.
Someone should make a QuakeCon that’s about actual earthquakes. I would definitely go to that. I can see it appealing to the stormchaser crowd. Oh man, if there was an earthquake during QuakeCon that would just make some peoples’ dreams!
I assume there are seismology conferences… they should rename one of those to QuakeCon.
So how are people in Cali preparing for The BIG ONE ?
Hopefully, by writing their wills.
I’m sorry but I’m going to go out on my favorite limb and say that the dangers are very overblown. They suspect that there will be an earthquake on the San Andreas southern section within the next 30 years. What this statement doesn’t tell you is that the San Andreas fault in the south part of the state is located many many miles away from major population centers. The San Andreas runs through population centers in the northern part of the state which is why the Loma Prieta quake was so damaging.
My understanding from reading articles about this is that any given person is much more likely to be damaged by an earthquake that is not related to the San Andreas than they are to be damaged by an earthquake relating directly to the San Andreas (the so called ‘big one’). Also, the chances of any given person being significantly affected by even a stronger earthquake like the Northridge earthquake are very low. Los Angeles county alone has nearly 10 million documented people. The Northridge earthquake affected about 1% of those people.
If people have other facts, I’d love to hear them. I was researching this issue when trying to decide whether or not to pay for an expenisve earthquake policy. The recommendation that I read was not to pay, because of what I’ve mentioned, and if necessary, get the almost certain government loans that will be provided if I do in fact sustain significant damage to my house.
YOU’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!
(It’s true, you know. I hope it’s not anytime soon, though.)
I was just watching Mega Disasters last night and it was about the real Big One in LA. Too much to be coincidence I’m sure. You guys are screwed.
I remember being near the 5.9 quake when we were in San Jose for vacation back in 1979 (5.7 according to this page, actually). We were eating breakfast in a Denny’s or some similar place. The rumbling initially felt like a big truck coming down the street. When the building started to shake quite a bit two girls in a nearby booth freaked and ran out into the street, which even to me at 14 did not seem an especially bright idea. They sheepishly came back in a minute later when the first tremor stopped.
After a mild quake on Vancouver Island (where I grew up) I recall my sister worrying that the island would sink.