Topic: CA bracing for the Big One?

[Libertas]

The San Jacinto fault I guess is a problem, that it sits between the Elsinore and the more infamous San Andreas probably a big reason why.

I hear there are some warnings out to stock up on a couple weeks of supplies.

Geologic time can look long to our short-term linear frame of reference, but the clock has only been running down for this area, it's a question of when not if.

People ouoght to be well prepared, I mean beyond 2 weeks.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Anza-Palm-Desert-Earthquake-196993061.html

[AlanS]

If it falls off into the ocean, am I supposed to show concern?

[Libertas]

Only for Ben, and other friends we may have out there, I have an old buddy as well as a few extended family out there, hopefully they escape the worst and make it out...can't get too upset about Hollyweird or San Fran slipping away though...

[benb61]

I didn't feel it and it was news to me when someone asked if I felt it.  Anyway the Pacific plate is riding up onto the North American plate, so if anything was to be falling into the ocean it would be the eastern side falling into the Atlantic.

[IronDioPriest]

I didn't feel it and it was news to me when someone asked if I felt it.  Anyway the Pacific plate is riding up onto the North American plate, so if anything was to be falling into the ocean it would be the eastern side falling into the Atlantic.

So what you're saying is that rather than Californcation falling into the Pacific, its coastal surface area would be shaved-off by an encroaching land mass from the ocean bed and buried underneath, ridding the nation and the world of its immoral collectivist scourge... Could we throw a tsunami in there too?

[benb61]

I didn't feel it and it was news to me when someone asked if I felt it.  Anyway the Pacific plate is riding up onto the North American plate, so if anything was to be falling into the ocean it would be the eastern side falling into the Atlantic.

So what you're saying is that rather than Californcation falling into the Pacific, its coastal surface area would be shaved-off by an encroaching land mass from the ocean bed and buried underneath, ridding the nation and the world of its immoral collectivist scourge... Could we throw a tsunami in there too?

Not quite, So Cal, at least the areas west of the San Andreas fault are actually rising in elevation, northern Ca may someday sink into the Pacific.  San Fransisco is the northern end of the San Andreas and the Sea of Cortez the Southern end.  Baja California (Mexico) is on the Pacific Plate and the land east of it on the NA plate.  Eventually the Sea of Cortez will flow north and all land west of the San Andreas will become an island.

[IronDioPriest]

OK. Just get to the part about massive death and devastation of millions of Leftists and illegal immigrants.

[charlesoakwood]

I think he's saying the Mexican plate is going to overtake the American plate.

[trapeze]

OK. Just get to the part about massive death and devastation of millions of Leftists and illegal immigrants.

Wish granted:

The perfect storm of CA disaster would consist of a super massive earthquake happening during one of those seasonal episodes of very strong Santa Anna winds that have historically driven wildfires. When the quake occurs there will be fires and there will be little if any fire suppression infrastructure available to put them out. Left unchecked, the urban and suburban fires would devastate large swaths of CA. What little suppression there is would be concentrated on homes and businesses leaving the grassy foothills to burn. When the inevitable rains come, the hills, now devoid of plant life, will slough off enormous masses of earth in the form of mudslides.

Certainly a tsunami would be extremely helpful in the overall destruction but that would be, I'm afraid, too much to hope for. Maybe a big asteroid strike. You never know.

[Libertas]

Sounds like a B movie script, but OK, it's entirely possible.

Hopefully the astroid is smaller though, I'd like to get some fishing in this summer.