The southern section of the San Andreas fault
has a history of an earthquake every 200 years
The last one was 300 years ago
Unlike the northern end.the southern end has had no smaller movements to release the pressure
It is now 100 years overdue for a major quake
It can happen at any moment
and the fault lines up directly with L.A.
The expected lateral shift is 25 feet
no high-rise can take a movement of that magnitude
that is beyond anything imagined
if the quake goes on long enough
the L.A. Basin may well liquefy
The quake is certain yet nothing is being done
Eleven million people face certain disaster
Questions:
If a comet was bearing down on L.A.
and expected to impact dead-on target within a year or two
surely we would be planing on some form of interception?
Why are we not doing that with the San Andreas?
A couple of deep-underground H Bombs placed on the fault line on each plate
Evacuate the city
trigger the fault
fix up the damage
no lives lost.
I live in California, on the San Francisco peninsula, the San Andreas fault is less than
two miles from my house. The problem with your idea is timing. No one, let me repeat this, NO ONE
knows when the next earthquake will occur. It is that simple. It could in the next 10 minutes or in 10 years
or 100 years. Your solution doesn’t make sense because of this timing issue plus there is a huge cost issue.
Estimates run from the low billions of dollars to hundreds of billions of dollars depending on exactly where the
quake hits. How do you suggest we pay for that? And it is a short term solution because up here in northern California
the issue is not the San Andreas fault but the Hayward fault. It runs from San Jose up above Oakland, just follow the BART
tracks up that side of the bay. You haven’t done jack for that one and that is another multi-billion problem child.
If that one goes, don’t expect to hear from me for a while, because nothing will be standing for 20 miles in any directions
of the quake epicenter.
The quake is coming
that is certain
and a death toll in the tens of thousands
And the longer we continue to mindlessly build
on shaking ground
the greater the damage
with America looking as foolishly helpless
as it did with Katrina
This idea is about not feeling helpless
and saving lives.
It is about taking control of the future
and showing world leadership
Valid point, I used to live in LA and it was always something on the back of my mind. Very, very far back, but it was always there.
But it’s a matter of economics and timing. Try evacuating one of the largest cities, in the US’ largest state economy, at a time when the national economy is in shambles. Many, many more people will be affected than if, unfortunately, people do nothing today.
Yep
money is always the top priority
to hell with even mentioning a possible solution
even if it means the pointless death of thousands
or the possible influx of even greater investment
when the danger is put to rest for the next 200 hundred years
Not verse
I am dispensing with unnecessary punctuation
and simply breaking long sentences into their separate clauses
by employing the line-item option
now that wasting paper is no longer an issue
Try it for yourself
you will find clarity easier
and writing a lot more artful
not to mention breaking
with dated convention
My sense of destiny is ever present
it needs no inflation
Solution: don’t build towns on areas of geological uncertainty, even if there is “gold in them thar hills.” Like building cities on the lower slopes of Vesuvius it’s going to end badly.
Otherwise you’re pretty much waiting on the inevitable, eventually a whole section of the West coast will slide off, leaving many cities on an island, but probably by then much less well populated, if people have had the sense to move out.
So the best and only solution is to either evacuate (not going to happen) Or to wait until LA and San Fancisco become the Newest Island retreat, and hope the surfs as good as Hawaii.
Incidentally Hawaii is over a volcanic hot spot, like a sort of massive chamber of magma that keeps throwing out lava, so eventually it should become volcanically dormant as it slides away, and you get those pepper trail archipelagos something like those around the Gulf of Mexico and off North West Australia and off China and so on.
Do you know there’s a lot more to English than clauses and that that isn’t how you’re breaking your sentences apart?
The key part of your resposne is ‘not to mention breaking with dated convention’. You think you’re being clever and original, but there are plenty of people who type like you. There’s an idiot on musclemecca.com that types like that named Hypocrisy; go look if you want.
Why don’t you go reinvent the musical notation system next? I’m sure you’re a virtuouso in addition to your distinguished history as a linguist
It doesn’t make it easier to read and it says something about you that none of your ‘clauses’ are complex enough to span past a dozen words. It also says something that now your posts are too simple to require paragraphs which would require a new and separate delineation. Have you been hitting the ganja extra hard lately? Too much of that will rot your brain, you know.
The system isn’t perfect, but I guarantee you yours is not better and it’s incredibly arrogant to expect someone to learn how to read your dribble in your dribble arrangement.
Oh, and as far as wasting paper goes, you’re wasting other things with your idiotic system. And what if someone wants to print it out someday? I’m sure in your delusional mind you think it’s a possibility that someone might want to put all of your correspondence into a book some day when you’re the father of humanity.
But it is closing the stable door after the mare has bolted
At the moment we are stuck with what we have got
and the very least we should do
is put the big brain to use
and try and think our way out of it
God helps those who help themselves
The solution right now
is to stop handicapping ourselves with the artificial fiscal restrains
of an already bankrupt capitalist ideology
and evolve into a more mature custodian mind-set
one that employs the genius of mankind without the need for pacifiers and sweeties
and start building brand new cities on sound foundations
for the eleven million trapped in the money pit
And this time
instead of yet more urban sprawl and traffic grid-lock
Go UP!
Not out.
Giant chimney cities that harvest updraft and condensation
vertical commute
complete with interior parks, lakes and tree-lined boulevards
So the debate really is:
Do we still need to exchange promissory bank notes
instead of simple human promises
to create trust and honor among ourselves
in order to evoke our collective creative potential?
Oh shit, I forgot to suggest some far flung impractical solution that has no chance of working at all in real life. My god I’m so ashamed that I didn’t mention a possible solution. That would have saved millions of people. That’s another two hours off my sleep tonight.
There isn’t one the sort of energy released is not something you’re going to be able to do anything about, the best idea is just to fortify buildings in the vain hope that that 8.4+ doesn’t strike.
Aye I don’t think you can do jack against anything of the magnitude that is forecast eventually any more than you could when the last one struck, I mean it’s like duck and cover, sure at the end of the day you’re going to be under a blanket cuddling the kids, but funnily enough blankets are ill able to cope with that sort of energy. The largest Earthquake on Earth was close to 9 on the Richter scale, this is 1000 atomic bombs going off at once. The best and only solution is to sit tight and hope your arse is still there after the big one strikes.
It’s easy to make policies but harder to make Earthquake proof shelters. In fact some Earthquakes are so big that they will be felt on the other side of the globe, let’s hope it stays below a 8.5. That’s all you can do. With current technology you certainly can’t plan for it, just plan for the fallout.
Not that I’m an engineer or anything but what are the major sources of damage during the quake? Violent shaking of the ground is a no-brainer, but you mentioned 25 feet of lateral sheer? Ground liquefying? What else? (I’m not going to look it all up.)
Most modern buildings in quake zones are specially engineered to withstand ridiculous amounts of vibration/shaking. I know this without having to look it up. Older buildings could still be a problem. But other than jacking the building off its foundation to install some sort of dampener, the old building might as well come down anyway. (Preferably with nobody around it.)
If the fault line runs directly under a building it’s obvious how 25 feet of lateral shift could be a problem. What if the fault line could be moved? A series of thousands of ‘miles deep’ angled bore holes might be able to allow the shear to be shifted to a different line. Think 3D perforated paper. It may be possible that the ground could slide under the foundation too. Maybe a giant concrete pad could be built under the buildings foundation allowing the entire pad and building to either move or not move. Even if there’s no way to move it, it’s better than a 25 foot vertical shift.
Not sure about the liquefying ground though. Hopefully buildings are buoyant. To stop sinking in quicksand or from falling through thin ice a person is supposed to spread their weight out over as much area as possible. ‘Super foundations’ covering many city blocks and supporting many buildings might have a better chance of surviving than the old school single building foundations. Although, what’s already built is built and this idea couldn’t be implemented unless there was a massive rebuilding effort, likely after widespread destruction.
I’m really just throwing ideas out there. Not to be offensive, but bombing the fault just wouldn’t be a good idea for many reasons. There definitely could be less destructive ways to go about saving lives and current structures.
Also, what’s with the ad hominem and lack of useful ideas? Not every major challenge is impossible to overcome. Having a bit of foresight could potentially save lives, buildings, and money all at the same time. Unfortunately, most life saving inventions are hindsight ideas. e.g. car seat belts, redundant systems in practically anything that has them, etc.
I challenge everyone to add to or improve the ideas I’ve already listed–not because I don’t think anything can be added, but because I’d like to see ideas added. Maybe someone will be inspired to create and market something. A city like LA would pay its weight in gold for such inventions.
](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/uploads/default/original/2X/7/7c349bf1053f368a5729d053e1e91215f22ce66c.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
To stop sinking in quicksand or from falling through thin ice a person is supposed to spread their weight out over as much area as possible. ‘Super foundations’ covering many city blocks and supporting many buildings might have a better chance of surviving than the old school single building foundations. Although, what’s already built is built and this idea couldn’t be implemented unless there was a massive rebuilding effort, likely after widespread destruction.