Scientists: differences between Japan quake and future CA "Big One" (Los Angeles: homes)

[nullgeo]

California big one expected to pale next to Japan quake | Reuters

selections:

"The colossal California quake considered inevitable and long overdue is most likely to strike along the southern end of the famed San Andreas Fault and register a magnitude of 7.5 or greater, many times less powerful than the 9.0 temblor that rocked Japan on Friday, geologists say."

"Experts predict the biggest long-term economic disruption would come from damage to water-distribution systems that would leave some homes and businesses without running water for months."

"The quake scenario for the southern San Andreas does not foresee damage to the nearest of the state's two nuclear power plants, the Southern California Edison-owned San Onofre station between Los Angeles and San Diego.Both Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric, owner of the Diablo Canyon plant to the north at San Luis Obispo, say their facilities are built to withstand quakes far greater than nearby faults are capable of producing.
And unlike Japan, California faces little if any risk of tsunamis from its own quakes."

"Geologists believe a 9.0 quake is virtually impossible along the San Andreas, a network of "strike-slip" faults smaller and more fragmented than the great chasm that exists where two continent-sized plates of the Earth's crust meet along the Japanese islands."

"The horizontal ruptures of California's seismic faults, even those offshore, displace little or no water, and thus pose no tsunami threat, except in cases when they trigger underwater landslides. Even those tsunamis, however, are small compared with the ones caused by subduction quakes at sea."

[Twinkle Toes]

People may laugh at us "desert rats", but soon, we'll be the envy of all - living on beach-front property for under a million dollars - after the "big one" transmogrifies our properties!!! Oh yes ... the "rats" will have the last laugh!

[Fontucky]

Toss me a cocktail if I come floating by, would you? Thank you.

[Snort]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

California big one expected to pale next to Japan quake | Reuters

selections:

"The colossal California quake considered inevitable and long overdue is most likely to strike along the southern end of the famed San Andreas Fault and register a magnitude of 7.5 or greater, many times less powerful than the 9.0 temblor that rocked Japan on Friday, geologists say."

"Experts predict the biggest long-term economic disruption would come from damage to water-distribution systems that would leave some homes and businesses without running water for months."

"The quake scenario for the southern San Andreas does not foresee damage to the nearest of the state's two nuclear power plants, the Southern California Edison-owned San Onofre station between Los Angeles and San Diego.Both Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric, owner of the Diablo Canyon plant to the north at San Luis Obispo, say their facilities are built to withstand quakes far greater than nearby faults are capable of producing.
And unlike Japan, California faces little if any risk of tsunamis from its own quakes."

"Geologists believe a 9.0 quake is virtually impossible along the San Andreas, a network of "strike-slip" faults smaller and more fragmented than the great chasm that exists where two continent-sized plates of the Earth's crust meet along the Japanese islands."

"The horizontal ruptures of California's seismic faults, even those offshore, displace little or no water, and thus pose no tsunami threat, except in cases when they trigger underwater landslides. Even those tsunamis, however, are small compared with the ones caused by subduction quakes at sea."

Finally, someone making sense, instead of whipping up people's anxieties or pushing an agenda.

[Belinda89]

Hope that the Japanese will recover as soon as possible.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Strike slip faults are seriously unscary in light of megathrust quakes we've seen at the subduction zones (aka deep ocean trenches) over the past ten years. The smaller vertical and thrust faults we have here are only a bit scary due to the fact many of them are in quite inconvenient locations. Echoing comments about tsunami risks, the strike slip quakes at most may trigger underwater landslides causing local tsunamis with little widespread impact. The vertical and thrust faults, particularly ones under the Catalina and Santa Barbara channels, could also cause small tsunamis. The tsunamis we need to worry about are ones generated by the Cascadia and Aleutian subduction zones.

[.highnlite]

What California will experience at some point in the future is a good sized quake in the channel islands creating a landslide tsunami, it has happened before. This time, Los Angeles,Ventura and the coast communities in the area will get it. One report indicated up to 300,000 dead.

http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/reports/re...her_MG_224.pdf

ScienceDirect - Marine Geology : Geology and tsunamigenic potential of submarine landslides in Santa Barbara Channel, Southern California

[Ceece]

Nobody knows. Nobody.

[user_id]

I find it odd how everyone focuses on California in terms of earthquakes, I guess its because we tend to get a big one every decade or so that makes the news. The real serious earthquake threats in the US aren't even in California, but rather the Cascadia subduction zone and the New Madrid Fault. Speaking of which, does anybody know what California will experience in terms of tsunamis if we have a 8.0~9.0 on the Cascadia subduction zone? I'd imagine that Northern California would get hit very badly and damage isolated to just the beach fronts in Southern California.

I'd never buy a beach house....

Anyhow, I've seen a lot of weird articles lately on earthquakes. One author was claiming the San Andreas is next because there have been big earthquakes on each region of the "ring of fire" recently except us. I guess they forget about the 7.2 earthquake last April....and all the other major faults in this segment of the ring of fire.

[Fontucky]

Don't know about the Cascadia, but the 1964 Alaska megathrust quake sent some far-flung love out there: 1964 Alaska earthquake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia