San Andreas Fault and all that...

[p_p_man]

...we've all heard about it and we all know that one day, if you believe the scientific pojections, that there is going to be a massive big one.

So big that parts of California may even slide into the sea...

That being the case, why do people still live anywhere near it?

 

[april-wine]

the thrill of the unknown???

 

[tuirin]

The weather of course. Lemings

 

[Aussie Worm]

Because a lot of people think that it will never happen to them? Thats the truth with everything though, some people think they are invincible.

 

[Always]

Hey, Chicago is right on an even BIGGER fault - the New Madras - fault - and when IT finally goes, there'll be a new river cutting from Lake Michigan right through Ex-Chitown and into Illinois.

 

[pabloback]

everyone knows that californians are totally mad

 

[cymbidia]

I lived within 100 miles of the San Andreas Fault, and often much closer, for most of my life. For all of that time, there were various small and large earthquakes all the time - as in weekly, sometimes daily.

Why?

Because it was home.
Because it's among the most gorgeous country in the world.
Because there are natural disasters of epic proportions everywhere you go, so why not live where it's gorgeous and the weather is good?
Because earthquakes are kinda fun, really, as long as you're not on the epicenter, and you get calls from everyone you know who lives far away after a big one.

Additionally, and i think you know this p_p_man, California is most definitely not going to slide off the continent and into the Pacific Ocean. That's an exceedingly gross exaggeration of the eventually, on a geologic time scale, of a small piece of the CA coast moving north and being subsumed by the Juan de Fuca trench (currently in existence off the WA coast).

Yes, a very large SA earthquake is overdue. Yes, it will hurt people, probably kill some. Yes, it will be bad.

When, though? When will it come?

Next Tuesday, while everyone is driving home? Three months from now, during the first rains of the year when the streets are slippery? Two years from now, at the height of the tourist season when all those people from IL and NJ and London are clogging our highways? Fifty-seven years from now? Two hundred and seventeen years from now? Three thousand nine hundred severnty five? Eleven thousand on the nose?

No one knows. Not for certain. Geologic time is measured in thousands of years, not in months or tens of years. All we have is a rock record which provides evidence for large breaks in the SA Fault that occur at relatively uniform time periods from the perspective of geologic time.

In the meantime, life moves along. People live their lives fully, not overly concerned about when the next huge earthquake will hit much like people in other places don't know and don't care when the next hurricane or typhoon is coming - or tornado - or killer frost - or incredible flood - or any of the other natural disasters to which our world is subject.

 

[p_p_man]

San Andreas, New Madras...

...and I suppose there's more.

If they all start going together in a chain reaction does that mean that the continent will just fold inwards and slowly disappear?

Seems a drastic way to get rid of 'you know who' somehow!

 

[p_p_man]

Of course you're right...

I lived within 100 miles of the San Andreas Fault, and often much closer, for most of my life. For all of that time, there were various small and large earthquakes all the time - as in weekly, sometimes daily.

Why?

Because it was home.
Because it's among the most gorgeous country in the world.
Because there are natural disasters of epic proportions everywhere you go, so why not live where it's gorgeous and the weather is good?
Because earthquakes are kinda fun, really, as long as you're not on the epicenter, and you get calls from everyone you know who lives far away after a big one.

Additionally, and i think you know this p_p_man, California is most definitely not going to slide off the continent and into the Pacific Ocean. That's an exceedingly gross exaggeration of the eventually, on a geologic time scale, of a small piece of the CA coast moving north and being subsumed by the Juan de Fuca trench (currently in existence off the WA coast).

Yes, a very large SA earthquake is overdue. Yes, it will hurt people, probably kill some. Yes, it will be bad.

When, though? When will it come?

Next Tuesday, while everyone is driving home? Three months from now, during the first rains of the year when the streets are slippery? Two years from now, at the height of the tourist season when all those people from IL and NJ and London are clogging our highways?

Who knows.

In the meantime, life moves along. People live their lives fully, not overly concerned about when the next huge earthquake will hit much like people in other places don't know and don't care when the next hurricane or typhoon is coming - or tornado - or killer frost - or incredible flood - or any of the other natural disasters to which our world is subject.

...people don't move from places they call home, especially if it's as nice as California, but isn't there a little bit of pride included in people somewhere. Pride that exists when they know they're living dangerously but to hell with consequences.

A bit like people talking after a bad bombing raid on London during WWII, they were glad someone else had "caught it" but they had an inner pride of "sticking it out" and "seeing it through".

Mind you in their case they couldn't move away even if they'd wanted to. But maybe they would have if they had been able...

Being a bit of a coward I reckon I wouldn't want to live in an area that may kill me without notice!