We are coming up on the big one...

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Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:04 am

Just like Titania, we just had a 4.0 earthquake here in the Bay Area, California, although she had it in Southern California. About an hour ago.

Sitting here on my bed watching TV when the desk started vibrating and my lamp started rattling.

We haven't had an earthquake on our fault for 30 years and we are long overdue. Only hope it won't be as destructive as the 1989 SF quake or, especially, the 1906 quake.

Me and Titania need to bunker down.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:43 am

I felt it too....However, little quakes doesn't neccesarily mean we're coming up on the big one. Wink

Frequent little quakes are good as they release pressure (or so, I hope) Laughing

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:28 am

Quote:

Frequent little quakes are good as they release pressure

if only that was true...

You must be on the hayward fault as well. We have not had an earthquake in over 30 years, so we are going to have a big one. All the experts say so.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:49 am

^^^I hope they are wrong.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:00 pm

There are so many faults in California that predictions are iffy at best. And who knows but what a small quake on one fault might place more stress on a neighboring fault? Shocked

Just have your Evac Pack ready to go -- just in case. Smile

They've been predicting "the big one" for years.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:25 pm

In 1993 we had a 6.0 earthquake, followed by a 5.9 then smaller quakes for years. We still have smaller quakes, and the experts are always saying that we will have another big one since we are on a major fault.

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:39 pm

I'm sorry, that was me belting one out after drinking a beer (sorry to disappoint).

Honestly I've lived out here my whole life and only felt/noticed one earthquake. I know I've been through a few, the Northridge one I slept through solid. No idea how I did that but I didn't even wake up. Laughing

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Worrying about earthquakes will take your mind of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider and the possibility of black holes swallowing us all up.

Joking aside I'm lucky to live in a stable area.
Hubby and son felt an earthquake when in Japan

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:24 pm

The only place in the US where you won't get an earthquake is southern Florida.

Of course, they get hurricanes. Big hurricanes.

The major fault that hasn't been heard from in a long time is the New Madrid fault. when it let loose in 1811, church bells rang in Boston. It was the strongest earthquake registered in the history of the US, estimated to have been about 8.0 (although the Richter Scale had not been invented at the time.)

The New Madrid fault runs through an island in the Mississippi River near Memphis - it's where the Memphis Airport stores its jet fuel.

You do the math.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Think I'll stay in stable old Scotland.

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:13 am

Where you have an earthquake on a fault line, it releases the energy and friction in one location and that travels further down the fault to the next pressure zone. The whole process of he long build up of tension in that area starts up again. It will take a long time to reach breaking point, but it will reach it because the process that cause earthquakes are never ending.

The North Anatolian Fault is a good example. This runs along the Black Sea coast of Turkey, past Istanbul and through the Sea of Mamora. You can see that the quakes start off in the east of the fault, and travel west as the friction in the fault travels. The last major quake hit to the southeast of Istanbul a few years ago. The tension and energy moved to the Istanbul area so there will be a major quake there.

Unfortunately, you can't predict exactly when the strain will snap the fault but you do know that a major quake is coming.

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:08 pm

I'm not a geology expert, which means I'm not wrong as often as the geology experts, but I know this much.

A major quake isn't "supposed" to happen every so many years or decades or centuries. Tectonic plates are always on the move, and another major quake (maybe even the big one) will definitely happen, but I doubt our planet keeps a schedule anywhere. It could be later today, or 2 million years from now. To the Earth itself, that's the same amount of time.

If a bunch more tremors happen though, you can all hide out at my place. Just head north, look for the paved road....

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:59 pm

Another 3.0 just struck in Sonoma County.

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:13 pm

^^ Well, pop on over then. Beer's in the fridge, door's open. Can't help with the election campaigns, but you can hide from the quakes here! Very Happy

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:01 pm

The concept of earthquakes terrifies me. But for what it's worth, the "experts" have told us once a week for the last three weeks that "the big one" is coming in terms of hurricanes. And my yard is dying, for lack of rain...

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 4:48 am

It's the end times, I tell you.

Dec 21, 2012 mark your calendar.

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 5:25 am

bearkat419 wrote:

And my yard is dying, for lack of rain...

I wish my yard was dying from lack of rain up here in the Basin.... We've had nothing but rain for the past week solid (I know it doesn't sound like much, but it NEVER rains out here) and all of Odessa/Midland is flooded... I'm pretty well trapped by the water at my place.... My truck just ain't tall enough to get through all that water....

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 12:32 pm

Quote:

There are so many faults in California

You said it sister... Which is why I am now in Nevada. Smile

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