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notunek t1_j9mrv6y wrote

It's scary with several large earthquakes worldwide lately. I hope that it isn't because too much pressure is building up and an earthquake in one place increases the pressure in another.

I live in Southern California and we've been expecting the big one for years.

Prayers to all those affected with Syria and Turkey still in a terrible state and now Tajikistan.

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96puppylover t1_j9mshy0 wrote

Me in Los Angeles right now 😬

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Abradolf1948 t1_j9mvyvb wrote

Same but Tokyo 😬

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GlutenFree_Paper t1_j9n01l7 wrote

In Tokyo right now on vacation but live in San Francisco 😬😬

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Altruistic_Price7572 t1_j9n0rxw wrote

I think I read on you tube some awful scenario that the entire bloody thing could go from California all the way up to Alaska. Don’t think it can loop down to Japan, but 2020 and it’s not getting more gooder.

That would suck, a lot.

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riverrocks452 t1_j9p7n4d wrote

That would be literally unprecedented in what we know of geologic events. It would require a quarter of the circumference of the Pacific plate to rupture all at once, with the rest of the plate behaving nearly completely rigidly: simultaneously weirdly weak at the edge and stupid strong everywhere else. Considering that the plates aren't that different between the edges and centers (including intraplate faults and weak zones), this is profoundly unlikely.

I'm not saying it could never, ever happen- but it's far more likely that a Hollywood movie featuring the above disaster as a plot and a cast of D-list actors will sweep the Oscars. Don't lose sleep over this.

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G_Wash1776 t1_j9ojmxn wrote

The rim of fire loves to set shit off all at once.

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NoodlesrTuff1256 t1_j9ni3s3 wrote

Even the 'heartland' of the US is not immune to quakes. Here in St. Louis and also in our neighbor to the south, Memphis, we wonder what will happen if the New Madrid Seismic Zone reawakens and there's a rerun of what happened in the winter of 1811/1812. Not just one but three massive earthquakes shook our then sparsely populated region at the time. One of the quakes was estimated by scientists to have perhaps been as powerful as an '8' with the other two easily equaling the ones that just devastated parts of Turkey and Syria.

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nurglingshaman t1_j9nvswk wrote

I woke up from feeling the earthquake in Oklahoma a long while back, and I lived in Kansas City! It was scary.

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Gozillasbday t1_j9oh0rh wrote

Was that from fracking though? In actuality I assume those aren't really earthquakes? I have no idea.

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MrYellowFancyPants t1_j9oif3d wrote

If theyre talking about the 2016 one, its alleged that it was from fracking, but scientists also found a previously undiscovered fault line after it happened. IIRC it was also near a known fault line. So while fracking isn't great and can cause earthquakes, the big one in OK may not have been directly caused by it.

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nurglingshaman t1_j9p0z4g wrote

You know, I didn't even think about that! I'm not sure either.

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UncannyTarotSpread t1_j9ogpao wrote

I remember the little quake from the New Madrid fault in 2008, and that was enough to give me respect for it.

Keep sleeping, big fault.

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DomHE553 t1_j9oh7k8 wrote

In southern Germany right now 😌

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T_Weezy t1_j9q7nbg wrote

Meanwhile in Yellowstone 😅

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unpluggedcord t1_j9muq2h wrote

I wouldn’t read to much into it. The quakes are an unpredictable thing and anything happening right now is just recency bias and media.

In San Francisco at the Cal Academy of Sciences(some of the research there is mainly quake related because of the founders), check out the planetarium.

They show a worldview of all quakes in real time and then do some filtering where they show 5+ and 7+ on the day and then do some expanding where it’s on the whole year.

These things happen. All. The. Time. You’re only hearing about the ones near people.

(They also have a fake house built on a shake table that simulates the 1906 and 1989 quakes and it’s insane. They only do 30 seconds of the 1906 one because it’s really terrifying.)

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the_than_then_guy t1_j9mxd6n wrote

Every time there's a major earthquake, other earthquakes become visible on social media and people start wondering if there's something going on. It happens every time.

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BasenjiBob t1_j9qh5rj wrote

My mom was pregnant with me during Loma Prieta. (My dad was actually at the World Series game that day.) Cell phones weren't a thing and they weren't able to get in touch with each other for nearly 12 hours after quake. They were both sure the other one was dead. (My mom drove on the highway that collapsed every day to commute. Luckily she stayed late at work that day since my dad was at the game with his brother.)

When they did finally both get home, my mom's first words were "I'm ok, but I'm afraid that the baby might be scrambled eggs."

I was born 5 months later and to this day my dad still sometimes calls me "scrambled eggs."

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unpluggedcord t1_j9s1qc8 wrote

Awww. That’s horrifying and cute.

The Embarcadero!

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Zaku0083 t1_j9mug4k wrote

Up here in the pnw we are expecting a big one too

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sanguine_feline t1_j9mw8u0 wrote

That's a bit of an understatement.

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Aldervale t1_j9ngh7e wrote

Yup, and we've only really been building with earthquakes in mind since the late 80s. So things will be pretty catastrophic if/when it hits.

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Nozinger t1_j9pa3cz wrote

Because noone knew of the danger. European settlers arrived in the pacific northwest after the last quake. It has been quiet ever since there was no reason to think there would be any danger.
It took some dead forests, a native american story of disappearing land and tsunami records from japan to realize just how dangerous cascadia really is.

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Aldervale t1_j9qvutp wrote

Oh ya 100%. I didn't mean to imply that there was anything corrupt or malicious about the fact we didn't consider it until a couple of decades ago. Just that a lot of buildings in the PNW are not ready for an 8+ magnitude earthquake.

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BobBelcher2021 t1_j9myv6j wrote

I actually have earthquake insurance where I live in the PNW.

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cedped t1_j9ntpio wrote

and I'm 100% sure they'll find a way to weasel their way out from paying you if there is an earthquake. Either that or they'll delay it infinitely until they declare bankruptcy.

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KINK_KING t1_j9p5ags wrote

Looks like insurance companies are excepted from the Bankruptcy Code under 11 U.S.C. § 109(b). I don’t know anything about insurance codes, but state law controls. Probably go into receivership and if liquidated, a fixed payout from the state guaranty association for policy holders (similar to state version of FDIC for banks, depending on state).

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[deleted] t1_j9n75yr wrote

[deleted]

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UtahCyan t1_j9ncfzi wrote

You can always find an underwriter for just about everything, it's just usually really expensive. My previous house was literally on a fault and the cost was insane.

But even if they can find it, it doesn't mean it will be there when you need it. Massive catastrophic events like that have a way of bankrupting insurance companies. They might be able to reinsure, but for something like this, probably not.

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nooblevelum t1_j9ne37q wrote

You aren’t exactly giving a ringing endorsement of earthquake insurance

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Slimsaiyan t1_j9ni6o9 wrote

Thats the secret scare people away from it less people claim insurance claims don't bankrupt company They get their insurance check

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upvoatsforall t1_j9n33f1 wrote

We’re waiting for what would be relatively small, but big for us, one in Canada's national capital region.

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Cultural_Magician105 t1_j9mx4c5 wrote

My 5th grade history teacher told me that a big quake would hit California and the state would fall into the ocean, I'm 70, I think he was kidding ...

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mburke6 t1_j9mu9oq wrote

It would make sense that they come in clusters though. An earthquake happens when tectonic plates slip past each other. When a plate shifts it could create or release pressure somewhere else on the plate. I think this would be a regional phenomenon, so I doubt it would affect a someplace as far away as California. That doesn't mean that an earthquake won't shake CA to little bits of rubble tomorrow, but I think that quake would be unrelated.

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notunek t1_j9mws5k wrote

That's what I remember from studying them in school. It was some kind of transfer of stress. I should have paid more attention. I don't think it was in only a small area either.

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NoodlesrTuff1256 t1_j9nija1 wrote

I've read claims that with the icecaps and glaciers melting away to global warming that with the 'weight' of all that ice removed that large sections of the earth which had been 'pressed down' by it will rebound thus triggering more quakes.

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mburke6 t1_j9njn52 wrote

I've read that about Greenland in particular. The weight of the ice on Greenland pushes it down and raises the north east area of North Easter part of the American continent up. When that ice melts, supposedly Greenland rises and NE America sinks, exacerbating the rise in sea level.

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Adventurous-Bee-5934 t1_j9ndukb wrote

As a Californian, The Big One scares the crap out of me

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Paranitis t1_j9o6i71 wrote

Why? I live in Sacramento. We used to (historically) get floods that would make the valley into a lake. And every time it rains now people panic that all the levees are going to crumble and we'll all be underwater. Our levee systems themselves are probably going to do a lot to prevent anything like that kind of thing happening. Even IF one breaks here or there.

"The Big One" isn't something to be afraid of. If it happens, it happens, and you can't do anything about it. There's no reason for it to take up space in your head as something serious to worry about. And if it is something you can't get your head away from, then do what you can to move away so that "The Big One" most likely won't affect you.

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Thor4269 t1_j9mvsnj wrote

https://youtu.be/JR-8PZ_nCvE

Yeah let's hope Cascadia doesn't go

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Proof_Device_8197 t1_j9n06z2 wrote

She has to eventually, too much pressure built up there. Isn’t she overdue now?

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scrambledeggsalad t1_j9n1xez wrote

Yes, it is overdue.

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NoodlesrTuff1256 t1_j9nidaf wrote

Wasn't the last really huge one back in like 1700? That's a long time for the pressure to build up. I think that researchers figured out that there had been a monster quake in the Cascadian zone because of old writing from Japan describing a tsunami of mysterious origin. It turned out to have traveled all the way across the Pacific after a quake in the Pacific Northwest region.

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kirbygay t1_j9phq1z wrote

The local indigenous peoples also had tales of a tsunami sweeping away tons of people.

If anyone is interested, here's a neat article: https://slate.com/technology/2015/09/earthquakes-and-tsunamis-in-the-pacific-northwest-native-american-myths-and-geoscience.html

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Kale t1_j9t3mso wrote

The Japanese were aware of the link between earthquakes and tsunamis when the last Cascadia event occurred. There are records of a tsunami in Japan without a recorded quake. It's believed this may have been Cascadia (early 1700's I think?). Indigenous people told the first European explorers about quakes, which probably had occurred not long before the explorers reached the PNW coast.

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Aldervale t1_j9ngtp3 wrote

Yup, we just have to hope it releases as a series of mid-level earthquakes instead of a single catastrophic event.

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CervantesX t1_j9myolu wrote

It's not the pressure you would worry about, it's the movement.

Two plates pressing together and going off mostly just affects the area of pressure. The local release is strong but the overall effect is just local.

Two plates slipping, that can be the start of a plate sliding, and that affects every border of it. I think that there are Keystone areas that are the main spots "holding" various plates in place (relatively). One of them letting go can set off a long series of related movement as more spots break from the increased stress.

The worst case would probably be a cataclysmic rising lava prominence getting released between two plates, pushing them apart.

Anyways, hope your emergency kit is stocked. Don't forget to worry about Yellowstone too.

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notunek t1_j9n0hpi wrote

Emergency kit stocked, plus water and food for a month. I can walk to the ocean and dig sandcrabs for bait and catch enough fish to eat. That's if there isn't a Tsunami. I live in a Tsunami zone, too.

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Kale t1_j9t3wnw wrote

I thought we shouldn't worry about Yellowstone? Since there's no real way to prepare or prevent being affected other than leaving planet earth?

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CervantesX t1_j9tq2re wrote

Not everyone who prepares properly for Yellowstone will die, but everyone who doesn't prepare will.

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ChiggaOG t1_j9nclnx wrote

I live in California and prepped myself with a chlorine generator. I'm expecting water infrastructure to be gone in a massive earthquake.

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1KushielFan t1_j9oh917 wrote

I have to look this up now. Any tips on best chlorine generator or anything to know while looking at them? Thanks!

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Kale t1_j9t3rkj wrote

There's also ozone generators for purifying water, but ozone gas is poisonous and doesn't stay in water like chlorine does. Ozone generators are pretty cheap and simple.

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jeffyoulose t1_j9n25cs wrote

Can't happen in California. California faults are not the subduction kind and can't create earth quakes stronger than 7.5. Plus California has the strongest building codes. Everything is rock solid.

People died in Turkey because of shoddy construction

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neo_sporin t1_j9n4wtf wrote

Can’t is always a funny word in this context.

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thejoeface t1_j9n9imy wrote

But there are 7.9 quakes recorded. And source on the level limit? A quick google doesn’t seem to support this. Since I live in california, I’d love this to be true.

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jeffyoulose t1_j9ogccx wrote

Not in recent memory I think all the 8.0s were from pre 1920s. And some older quake magnitudes were estimated.

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Ashmidai t1_j9n8jqv wrote

Tell that to everyone living and working in buildings constructed on reclaimed land.

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Nozinger t1_j9pb4oq wrote

And northern japan isn't in a region where earthquakes should surpass a magnitude of 8.5 and yet they famously got hit by a 9.1 in 2011.
The word can't only works until nature shows us that it absolutely can if it comes to the absolute worst case.

But it is true there are probably a lot less deaths in southern california than there are in turkey but it is still going to be a catastrophic event. There will still be thousands of deaths.

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jeffyoulose t1_j9rypge wrote

If the turkey quake happened in LA. The death toll would be in the hundreds and not 10s of thousands due to all those building collapses.

Just think of Loma prieta quake and the north ridge quake. Nothing in terms of mass deaths.

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Kale t1_j9t445a wrote

It was kind of expected, but the Webb telescope has already found galaxies that should be too massive/dense to exist. It's likely that our current models need some tweaking.

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UnluckyScorpion t1_j9nk76r wrote

And utter lack of koordination in rescue efforts, many died in the rubble waiting for help..

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Mental_Medium3988 t1_j9ocu7b wrote

newer buildings are fine, and the newer the better. plenty of older buildings either cant be or arent retrofitted and those will be the problem. same up here in the pnw. i work in a warehouse and its gonna be fucked in a big one. people will likely die from ammonia exposure alone.

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jeffyoulose t1_j9oeuyx wrote

True. Pacific north west does have subduction fault. Juan de fuca plate is full of them. So I definitely would worry about the PNW. But it also has less population than California with Seattle and Vancouver being the largest cities that are no where near the size of LA.

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tak18 t1_j9rec4v wrote

There is a subduction zone in northern California (Cascadia).

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jeffyoulose t1_j9ryibq wrote

Yes. That's Jefferson state. Too far to be considered San Francisco and more like Oregon.

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DRAWKWARD79 t1_j9nya5d wrote

I live on vancouver island and i think we are overdue as well… the whole ring of fire thing… its been a minute

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flyinthesoup t1_j9q8ep9 wrote

Chile had a huge one in 2010? 2011? Not too long ago in earthquake terms.

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SubstanceAltered t1_j9n2sr0 wrote

I live a quarter mile from the Hayward fault 😅 just waiting up here in the bay

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cbk101 t1_j9nbwol wrote

Was gonna say. Super nervous here in Burbank.

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NoodlesrTuff1256 t1_j9nirbf wrote

Here in St. Louis and other areas along the Mississippi in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee, there's the potential threat of the New Madrid fault. It occasionally gives us 'little' 5 point whatever shakers from time to time to remind us.

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huskerblack t1_j9mylo6 wrote

Lol that's not how it works.

That's not how it works at all

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