zombie66 wrote:I thought California was gonna get hit so hard it was gonna fall into the ocean? Still waiting..............
Is it too late to tie a cable around Seattle and attach it to Frisco?
Seattle's time is coming.... and it'll be worse than san fran.
San fran learned its lesson and has been building reinforced structures since the 40's.... while not perfect, each new building is built to tougher and tougher codes..
Seattle, OTOH, is built on marsh and reclaimed land, whose buildings are older, and fewer 'up to code'....
If a major earthquake hits, the waterfront will be gone, due to liquifaction, and Western Ave will be waterfront property...
And with the fucking morons boring a tunnel in a seismically active area?!
Having lived in/near both SF and Seattle, I'll guarantee that Seattle is WAY more fucked in the event of a major quake, for many of the reasons outlined above.
From Wikipedia article on Mt. Rainier: The volcano is highly eroded, with glaciers on its slopes, and appears to be made mostly of andesite. Rainier likely once stood even higher than today at about 16,000 ft (4,900 m) before a major debris avalanche and the resulting Osceola Mudflow approximately 5,000 years ago.[31] In the past, Rainier has had large debris avalanches, and has also produced enormous lahars (volcanic mudflows) due to the large amount of glacial ice present. Its lahars have reached all the way to Puget Sound, a distance of more than 30 mi (48 km). Around 5,000 years ago, a large chunk of the volcano slid away and that debris avalanche helped to produce the massive Osceola Mudflow, which went all the way to the site of present-day Tacoma and south Seattle.[32] This massive avalanche of rock and ice removed the top 1,600 ft (500 m) of Rainier, bringing its height down to around 14,100 ft (4,300 m). About 530 to 550 years ago, the Electron Mudflow occurred, although this was not as large-scale as the Osceola Mudflow.[33]
The amazing thing is the mountain stood at 16,000 feet all the way to a mere 5000 years ago. A modern repeat of the Osceola mudflow would be a disaster of epic proportions let alone a major eruption.
A little bit closer to home: "There have been stunning scenes as lava overflows from Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island. The summit lava lake has overflowed several times since Tuesday, said US geologists, with people gathering at an overlook to watch. Local residents had to be evacuated from their homes in late 2014 when lava burst from a new vent on Kilauea." http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32541074