How often are there earthquakes in California? (San Francisco, Mammoth Lakes: motels, tornadoes)

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

You might like Oregon. Not much earthquake risk, nice people, laid back.

Not true.

Oregon Next Big Earthquake | Cascadia Fault | LiveScience

[freepelican]

Originally Posted by Fleet

Actually, it's known as a strike-slip fault

As for recent large quakes in Southern California, I remember the 1999 Hector Mine quake, in the desert, with a 7.0 magnitude.

Strike-slip refers to horizontal movement between plates, so yes, you are correct. However, I have noticed that strike-slip is usually referred to as plain "slip" in the popular press, probably because it gets the point across. We could also talk about dip-slip and oblique slip to refer to vertical displacement, leading to subduction, tsunamis, major rises and lowering of the water column. However, these terms may not be the best to use in the popular press.

I think it would be more beneficial in the popular press to refer to earthquakes as horizontal movement/slip and vertical movement/slip because these are descriptors that get the point across better, at least in my opinion. I think people can easily visualize the difference between horizontal movement and vertical movement, and why the first would not cause tsunamis and the second can.

We should also be talking about depth. If an earthquake is shallow, even a minor one can cause significant damage. This is one of the reasons why comparing earthquakes by number only is not really indicative of how destructive they were/can be, especially in the 5-7 range or so.

Also, how far offshore a horizontal movement earthquake is affects how much damage it causes on land. For example, the recent 6.9 earthquake off Humboldt was 50 miles offshore. Horizontal earthquakes of lower magnitude in the same general area that were closer to shore have caused more damage.

[lrmsd]

Originally Posted by MynameisnotPeter

Traveling would be expensive. Some people say do it for a gap year before starting college but how can you pay for it? How can you even make money WHILE traveling?

There are programs [some cost money, some are more volunteer based where you'd just pay administrative fees-google gap year programs. Also google gap year + whatever location you might be interested in-ireland, scotland, australia, etc]. You could also do WOOF
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms - WWOOF
-where you stay on farms/urban farms around the country or world in exchange for room and board, you give a few hours of help. Or, for paid gap years, under 30 years old [sometimes higher], you can get a work visa for many european countries as well as australia and possibly new zealand. People usually end up working in a bar or restaurant, sometimes as a tour guide. I don't know all the details but you can research it. If you have a college degree, you could teach english in asia [taiwan, korea, china, vietnam, etc]. Stateside, you can do small trips-a week in CA checking out areas, save up again and another week in oregon or wherever...Stay in youth hostels, couch surfing [google it] or Air B n B, for example.

These are just ideas; obviously it depends on your particular interests. It does sound like where you are now is not the place for you, from what you've said. I'll take the contrary view to what some others have said on this thread: Moving can and sometimes does change someone's life. If you're not in the right place for you, no matter what you do, therapy, work on yourself, invest in education, etc etc, it simply may continue to be a struggle. That type of scenario builds on itself and can create a complex of its own for the person, sometimes. Again, not a blanket statement here, but just some ideas to consider.

Good luck.

[MynameisnotPeter]

Originally Posted by lrmsd

There are programs [some cost money, some are more volunteer based where you'd just pay administrative fees-google gap year programs. Also google gap year + whatever location you might be interested in-ireland, scotland, australia, etc]. You could also do WOOF
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms - WWOOF
-where you stay on farms/urban farms around the country or world in exchange for room and board, you give a few hours of help. Or, for paid gap years, under 30 years old [sometimes higher], you can get a work visa for many european countries as well as australia and possibly new zealand. People usually end up working in a bar or restaurant, sometimes as a tour guide. I don't know all the details but you can research it. If you have a college degree, you could teach english in asia [taiwan, korea, china, vietnam, etc]. Stateside, you can do small trips-a week in CA checking out areas, save up again and another week in oregon or wherever...Stay in youth hostels, couch surfing [google it] or Air B n B, for example.

These are just ideas; obviously it depends on your particular interests. It does sound like where you are now is not the place for you, from what you've said. I'll take the contrary view to what some others have said on this thread: Moving can and sometimes does change someone's life. If you're not in the right place for you, no matter what you do, therapy, work on yourself, invest in education, etc etc, it simply may continue to be a struggle. That type of scenario builds on itself and can create a complex of its own for the person, sometimes. Again, not a blanket statement here, but just some ideas to consider.

Good luck.

What'd be real comfortable is taking a friend with me to do that. But they may already have their own plans.

[SuckaFree123456]

All I can say is we are starting to get more lately in Southern California. Everyone should have earthquake supplies such as canned food, water, a lighter, blankets, etc.

[DCMann2]

The amount of earthquakes you experience in CA has a lot to do with your location. If you're in LA or on the north coast you're going to feel more quakes because you're closer to faults. If you live in Sacramento, the Sierra, or the Chico/Redding area you're not going to feel as many earthquakes because most of the more active fault lines are hundreds of miles away.

That said, most earthquakes aren't a big deal and I actually slept through the Northridge quake LOL

[MynameisnotPeter]

Originally Posted by DCMann2

The amount of earthquakes you experience in CA has a lot to do with your location. If you're in LA or on the north coast you're going to feel more quakes because you're closer to faults. If you live in Sacramento, the Sierra, or the Chico/Redding area you're not going to feel as many earthquakes because most of the more active fault lines are hundreds of miles away.

That said, most earthquakes aren't a big deal and I actually slept through the Northridge quake LOL

I've always wondered why do they have Hollywood where theres a lot of earthquakes?

[justinbro2002]

I lived in Fremont about 150 yards from the Hayward Fault and I felt earthquakes several times a year. Mind you these were very small probably under 1.0 most of the time. The bigger ones in the 3's or above are probably every several years or so.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by justinbro2002

I lived in Fremont about 150 yards from the Hayward Fault and I felt earthquakes several times a year. Mind you these were very small probably under 1.0 most of the time. The bigger ones in the 3's or above are probably every several years or so.

That's a good sign. What you want is more frequent small ones, so that (hopefully) you won't get a big one. Those plates need to move, it's best they move more smoothly and gradually, rather in a huge bang every 50 years.

[MilkDudz]

Originally Posted by MynameisnotPeter

I've always wondered why do they have Hollywood where theres a lot of earthquakes?

A number of years ago I was on a movie set when there was an earthquake, and then about a half-hour later, what was billed as an aftershock but was just a little lower on the scale than the first one. I was walking so didn't really feel it at first, but heard it. The studio's joists and the set's walls that were held up and tied back, everything was squeaking loudly. Someone threw open the big door (it was like an airplane hangar) and everyone hurried outside. I was halfway between where my kids were and where the big door was, and stopped for a second trying to decide whether to go find my kids or to "save myself." Then I headed for that big door. I knew my older daughter, age 12, would grab her sister and make sure she got out the smaller door near where they were. My sister was visiting from New York and was very casual about the whole thing. She waited for the toaster oven to finish toasting my daughter's bagel at the craft service table, and then she switched it with her own, smaller one. When everyone else came back into the studio, my daughter found her aunt eating HER bagel, slathered with all kinds of butter and cream cheese. She was pretty bitter about it. 25 years later, if you ask my daughter about that earthquake, she'll say "That's when Aunt Susan stole my bagel."

I got the feeling that this was old stuff for everyone but us. It was a five-minute break in the day. When you consider the small amount of time that the camera actually is rolling, an earthquake is much more likely than not to happen when the camera isn't on. And if it is on, it's just the next take in a series of takes. And the way the walls of the set are held up, it's a pretty ingenious system. There was a lot of sway, but no crashing.