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Is L.A. the only city that has discovered fire, mudlsides and rain storms, instead of blizzards, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods?? How ridiculous is this post? Where is the data that proves that mother nature has it in for the town that the whole world keeps trying to crowd into? Are all those people looney? I would bet that the majority of the commentors are not from there.
The biggest earthquakes in the lower 48 come from the New Madrid Fault and the Cascadia subduction zone. Most people don't realize it though because neither of those go off very often but when they do they are huge. A Magnitude 9 earthquake happens in the pacific northwest every 375 to 500 years, the last one was in 1700, it also produced a tsunami comperable to the recent one in Japan. The New Madrid Fault produces Magnitude 7.5 to 8 earthquakes at an interval of 350 to 600 years, the last one was in 1812. Both of these will produce huge disasters at some point in the future.
quakes between 4.0 and 6.0 (est.) struck the same area in 1638, 1661, 1732
1755 - Cape Ann earthquake, magnitude 6.0-6.3 (est.)
epicenter: ~15 miles east of Cape Ann, MA (about 60 miles NE of Boston)
Felt from South Carolina to Nova Scotia
Earthquakes of between 5.0 and 6.0 (est.) struck the same general area in 1638, 1727, 1737, 1741, 1744, and 1817. The 1741 and 1755 quakes produced significant damage in eastern Massachusetts.
1811-1812 New Madrid earthquake series, magnitude up to 8.0-8.2 (est) with main shock and one aftershock, two other aftershocks are estimated to have surpassed 7.0
Epicenter: the general vicinity of New Madrid, MO
Felt to the East Coast, from Georgia to New York
ground subsidence created several large lakes in NW TN, the channel of sections of the Mississippi River was permanently shifted
This general area - NE Arkansas, the bootheel of Missouri, extreme southern Illinois, NW Tennessee, SW Kentucky and extreme SW Indiana has remained active ever since, with hundreds of small quakes, and occasional quakes that can be felt, some up to 5.0 magnitude. Seismic activity on the fault system has a general trend of shifting notheastward up the zone, though a recent swarm of small quakes in NE Arkansas defies that general trend.
1886 Charleston earthquake, magnitude of 7.0-7.3 (est.)
Epicenter: in the town of Summerville, SC (15 miles inland from Charleston)
Felt from Florida to Delaware, and as far west as central Tennessee.
Caused very severe damage in and around Charleston, moderate damage through much of the rest of South Carolina, and minor damage in eastern Georgia and southern North Carolina. This area remains active, with a large cluster of hundreds of mostly very small quakes continuing to the present day, aligned along a fault system that sits close to Interstate 26 within a 25 mile distance from Charleston to the northwest.
1918 Puerto Rico earthquake, magnitude 7.5
Epicenter: 5 miles NW of San Antonio, PR
Generated a 20 foot tsunami that struck the NW and W coasts of Puerto Rico, causing tremendous damage. Smaller waves (1-5 feet) were seen along the SE and Mid-Atlantic IS coast from Florida to New York.
1925 Charlevoix earthquake, magnitude 6.2
Epicenter: NE of Quebec City, PQ
Felt as far south as Virginia, and as far west as Illinois. Major damage from Trois-Rivieres to about 50 miles NE of Quebec City. 55 aftershocks that were strong enough to be felt.
1929 Grand Banks earthquake, magnitude 7.2
Epicenter: 250 miles south of Newfoundland.
Felt strongly in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, minor shaking was felt as far south as New Jersey and as far west as Montreal. Quake triggered a large submarine landslide that generated a series of localized tsunamis, up to 15 feet in height, that struck and produced severe damage on the sparsely populated south coast of Newfoundland.
1944 Cornwall/Massena earthquake, magnitude 5.8
Epicenter - near or between Massena, NY and Cornwall, ONT
Felt from New Jersey to Quebec. Significant damage, including collapses in older structures in the cities of Massena and Cornwall, felt strongly in Montreal and Tononto. On the same fault system responsible for the Charlevoix quakes in Quebec.
1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake, magnitude 7.5
Epicenter near Hebgen Lake, MT, NE edge of Yellowstone NP
Felt in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Caused a dam collapse and massive flash flood that caused many deaths at a campground below Hebgen Lake. Continuing seismic activity in the area is probably related to the Yellowstone hot spot.
2006 Gulf Of Mexico earthquake, magnitude 5.8
Epicenter - anout 250 miles off the west coast of central Florida
No damage on land, and no tsunami, though shaking was felt in an area of the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Tampa.
The 1755 Lisbon, Portugal earthquake was estimated to have been in the 8.5-9.0 range. It produced a tsunami that crossed the Atlantic and was strong enough to cause damage in the Lesser Antilles. Smaller waves were seen and commented on from Florida to New England, though they produced little or no damage. This quake struck only about a week before the Boston/Cape Ann quake, which has led some seismologists to speculate that the Lisbon quake may have temporarily reactivated minor fault zones across the Atlantic, no conclusive evidence of that has been uncovered, and it would likely be impossible to prove at this late date.
Los Angeles sits on the San Andreas fault along what is known as the Pacific "ring of fire". It is going to get hit with the big one at some point. It's a mathematical certainty. How they prepare and deal with it will determine the extent of the loss.
Los Angeles does not sit on the San Andreas fault. That fault is 45-50 miles from downtown Los Angeles. It separates the northern slope of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains from the desert.
However, there are numerous (smaller) faults in and near the downtown LA area. Fortunately those faults rupture less often than the San Andreas.
The northern portion of the San Andreas fault is much, much closer to downtown San Francisco than it is to Los Angeles.
Really? Seriously? What about the liberal cities on the East Coast, or in between? Asheville? Austin? Ithaca? NYC? Miami? Key West? Chapel Hill? Boulder?
Gotta watch out for them libs. They're everywhere. I'm one. And I'm from the South - Southern as you can get, and Southern liberal while we're at it, and I can trot out all kinds of bona fides to back it up.
Most liberals - granted - would either ignore this, or look down their noses. Not a Southern liberal. We got fight in us. Evidence?: go rent the films Harlan County USA, or Dear Jesse. One's about a struggle to unionize a coal mine in E Kentucky, during which the mining company hired thugs to shoot at both the film crew and their own employees. The other is about North Carolina residents that were disgusted by Jesse Helms (whose funeral was generally ignored and swept under the rug by NC residents of many political persuasions) and thus inspired into politics - this includes some of the first out gay political figures to run and get elected in North Carolina (there have been several). Both of those films were directed by born-and-bread Southerners.
I didn't list cities that I knew wouldn't come close to others that are already on the poll. Honolulu is a good one though (I just flat out forgot about that one) but San Francisco would not be ahead of Los Angeles I don't think and why would Memphis and St. Louis be on the poll anyway? I've never heard of a disaster of any significant proportion hitting those cities. Maybe you can elaborate.
Looking back, I should have included Seattle. I completely forgot that not only is it in a seismic area, it also has an active volcano right there too.
Houston could be on the list as well. Flooding, Hurricanes, tornadoes and sinking are big issues here.
Houston could be on the list as well. Flooding, Hurricanes, tornadoes and sinking are big issues here.
They're issues, but not on the level of historical devastation. What happened in New Orleans could never happen in Houston.
A tornado could cause record breaking damage in Houston, but I guess that city wouldn't be any more susceptible to that even that most other places where tornadic activity can be expected.
Put Seattle and San Francisco on that list, because they are both directly on fault lines (particularly San Fran) and both earthquakes and their tsunami counterparts seem to be one of the most deadly natural disasters on the planet! It's imminent now -- experts say -- that the San Andreas falt will erupt. I have family there now so it's a little personal for me, but I worry for all of the residents of the San Francisco area and I think Seattle should be similarly worried.
I completely agree with the above.
My logic is that earthquakes are worse than hurricanes because at least with hurricanes, you get a warning. You can prepare, evacuate and then come back to rebuild. Earthquakes (like in Japan) are so unpredictable and any warning that you get is momentary.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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DC is probably the least most "Natural Disaster" prone major city in the country...We don't get major earthquakes, Hurricanes don't really hit us too hard because of the shape of the coast we're kind of tucked inward. Tornado's can happen anywhere, but we're definitely not in Tornado alley therefore don't have to deal with that often. Floods can happen in most areas but don't happen really often at all in DC. No wildfires, no mudslides, as far as natural disasters its about as perfect as you can get. Now God willing, of course anything can happen anywhere in the world but on average you don't see any of those major catastrophes happen here at all.
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