that this really sucks.
Detailed analyses of the way the Earth warped along the Japanese coast suggest that shaking from a Cascadia megaquake could be stronger than expected along the coasts of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia, researchers reported Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
"The Cascadia subduction zone can be seen as a mirror image of the Tohoku area," said John Anderson, of the University of Nevada.
4 comments:
Except that the major damage from the Japanese earthquake was from the tsunami.
The entire west coast of the US is a "mountains meeting the sea" sort of thing. The concern that a tsunami would cause widespread damage is kind of overblown. Even water has to stop when it reaches higher ground.
I don't know about that mountains meeting sea thing stopping widespread damage. I would imagine that folks in places like Seattle, Tacoma, Portland (on a river and much of the city is only about 25' above sea level), San Fransiko, Los Angeles, San Diego and all the smaller towns and cities on or near the coast, might disagree about there not being wide spread damage. I sure don't want to find out who is right, let's hope it never happens.
Almost all communities in tsunami affected areas in Wa and Or are fairly small, less than 10,000 and high ground is nearby. As in 500-800 yards. My sister lives in Waldport on the Oregon coast and has a NOAA weather radio on 24/7, their SUV has survival materials, shelter, food, medicatications, and communications for at least a month in it as a matter of course, so the only things they need to grab are family photos, necessary papers and the cat. Then head up the logging road they live on to a prepared campsite about two miles away. We are already on high ground and only four hours away in good conditions, six to eight in poor. I have enough "emergency" foods, water, fuel and repair materials for six to eight people to be pretty independant for a year without resupply, so if she and hers can get here if things really go south on 'em we'll all be OK. That's what family is for.
You guessed it, we're Mormons and have been taught since childhood that if you can't take care of yourselves, you're pretty much useless to anyone else.
Isn't Japan one big mountain rearing up out of the sea? Sure, there are flat places where a tsunami can run for a mile or so, but isn't Japan also "mountains meeting the sea" for the most part? Same on our coast, no? Some areas are low lying, and a tsunami would go a long way inland in those areas.
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