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Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent

phys.org

11–20 of 68 posts

Re: Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent

#12
post #9

I'm a non-Californian, so I'm not very familiar with the tectonics at play here. If there's an earthquake on this fault, how bad would it be? Would it trigger a tsunami? Would SF and LA be damaged? Could this cause "the big one" that gets mentioned occasionally? How bad would such a quake be?

San Andreas is a transform fault, also known as a 'strike-slip' fault.

These generally do not cause as much damage as a subduction zone event, also known as dip-slip. An example of this type of event (dip-slip) would be the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, or the violent 1700 Cascadia Megathrust Earthquake.

Personally, Cascadia is /more/ dangerous than any strike-slip earthquakes like SA. We have sedimentation records of massive Cascadia tsunamis going back to about ~900CE.

Re: Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent

#13
post #5

The paper is actually science, but it’s not news. It is, however, being portrayed that way. This type of writing seems like a job that could, and possibly should, be replaced by AI. I personally believe the Cascadia fault will go off on June 18, 2025, but I may be wrong!

That's one week before my birthday. Do you think you could push it back 7 days?

Re: Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent

#14
post #13
post #5

The paper is actually science, but it’s not news. It is, however, being portrayed that way. This type of writing seems like a job that could, and possibly should, be replaced by AI. I personally believe the Cascadia fault will go off on June 18, 2025, but I may be wrong!

That's one week before my birthday. Do you think you could push it back 7 days?

Yes, but just for you.

Re: Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent

#15
post #11

Describing this as "on San Andreas" seems deceptive. It's a particular unpopulated location.

It's "on San Andreas Fault", in the usual "the"-dropping style of headlines. The fault is named after the town of San Andreas but extends well beyond it.

Re: Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent

#16
post #2

Funny. In with the roar of multiple paragraphs spent explaining all the reasons this spot will be the next big one. And then out with a quick whimper that the scientists are not convicted.

Convinced? :-)

Likely what they meant, but convicted could be correct here, in that the scientists may not have much conviction in their assessment, i.e. do not feel certain.

Re: Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent

#17
post #9

I'm a non-Californian, so I'm not very familiar with the tectonics at play here. If there's an earthquake on this fault, how bad would it be? Would it trigger a tsunami? Would SF and LA be damaged? Could this cause "the big one" that gets mentioned occasionally? How bad would such a quake be?

One thing which isn't discussed enough is how bad the Tsunami is environmentally. The coastline of Japan is absolutely littered with crap from the 2011 Tsunami. All manner of chemicals were sucked into the nearby sea, tires, carpets, hard and soft plastics, absolutely everywhere. It almost looks unrecoverable.

I know that seems like a non-issue in the grand scale of things, but Tsunami's of the past didn't do this. Most pollution was biodegradable.

I can't imagine what the coast of LA would look like after a similar event :(

Re: Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent

#18
post #11

Describing this as "on San Andreas" seems deceptive. It's a particular unpopulated location.

It's "on San Andreas Fault", in the usual "the"-dropping style of headlines. The fault is named after the town of San Andreas but extends well beyond it.

The town motto of San Andreas explicitly disclaims responsibility for the geographic feature.

Re: Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent

#19
I sat in on a lecture by a Stanford geophysicist, and he said that seismologists have every legal incentive to communicate that a large earthquake is imminent in the Bay, even if their work is inconclusive or suggests otherwise.

They might get sued or prosecuted if they say it’s safe and a big one strikes.

Re: Seismologists suspect earthquake on San Andreas Fault is imminent

#20
post #2

Funny. In with the roar of multiple paragraphs spent explaining all the reasons this spot will be the next big one. And then out with a quick whimper that the scientists are not convicted.

And then out with a quick whimper that the scientists are not convicted. Well, no, this isn't Italy.

I think op is referring to a TS Elliot poem
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