The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
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Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
#2[dead]
Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
#3What does it take to convince people to take risks like this seriously? The challenge is that hypothetical risks 'sometime in the next 50+ years' don't convince people to do things, at least in the US. The pacific northwest is at a much higher risk from an array of faults (not just the cascadia subduction zone) and volcanic hazards but even there, where the risks are very well understood, getting a large region to take it seriously looks to be a near impossible task. Most people I have talked to don't even know that there is a risk in the PNW much less the magnitude of it or how to prepare. What are steps that actually work to actually educate and convince people?
Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
#4What does it take to convince people to take risks like this seriously? The challenge is that hypothetical risks 'sometime in the next 50+ years' don't convince people to do things, at least in the US. The pacific northwest is at a much higher risk from an array of faults (not just the cascadia subduction zone) and volcanic hazards but even there, where the risks are very well understood, getting a large region to ta…
Building codes require earthquake strapping and take landslide risk into account.
What more do you want people to do? Seattle has had large earthquakes in its short history as a large American city and honestly even mid 20th century construction held up ok.
This isn't like parts of Japan where large earthquakes will happen on regular intervals. Engineers have to weigh costs vs risks.
Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
#5What does it take to convince people to take risks like this seriously? The challenge is that hypothetical risks 'sometime in the next 50+ years' don't convince people to do things, at least in the US. The pacific northwest is at a much higher risk from an array of faults (not just the cascadia subduction zone) and volcanic hazards but even there, where the risks are very well understood, getting a large region to ta…
Most people don't want to live afraid of everything. I learned that lesson in the past 3 years.
Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
#6What does it take to convince people to take risks like this seriously? The challenge is that hypothetical risks 'sometime in the next 50+ years' don't convince people to do things, at least in the US. The pacific northwest is at a much higher risk from an array of faults (not just the cascadia subduction zone) and volcanic hazards but even there, where the risks are very well understood, getting a large region to ta…
What is the outcome you're hoping for, though? It's not useful for people to live with vague anxiety. Are there specific solutions we want them to pursue, and that aren't being handled by the government?
Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
#7What does it take to convince people to take risks like this seriously? The challenge is that hypothetical risks 'sometime in the next 50+ years' don't convince people to do things, at least in the US. The pacific northwest is at a much higher risk from an array of faults (not just the cascadia subduction zone) and volcanic hazards but even there, where the risks are very well understood, getting a large region to ta…
What is the outcome you're hoping for, though? It's not useful for people to live with vague anxiety. Are there specific solutions we want them to pursue, and that aren't being handled by the government?
He's probably hoping for emergency preparedness, like any sensible person. That would include stronger building codes, evacuation plans and facilities, emergency supplies, etc. Here in Japan, we have all that stuff, and we don't live with "vague anxiety" (certainly nothing like the high anxiety that most Americans live with these days). Big earthquakes are rare, but smaller ones are very common, but everything in society is engineered to handle it well so it rarely causes problems.
Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the outcome you're hoping for, though? It's not useful for people to live with vague anxiety. Are there specific solutions we want them to pursue, and that aren't being handled by the government?
He's probably hoping for emergency preparedness, like any sensible person. That would include stronger building codes, evacuation plans and facilities, emergency supplies, etc. Here in Japan, we have all that stuff, and we don't live with "vague anxiety" (certainly nothing like the high anxiety that most Americans live with these days). Big earthquakes are rare, but smaller ones are very common, but everything in soc…
> everything in society is engineered to handle it well
Except nuclear reactor backup systems
Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
#9There are earthquakes on the Canadian shield, and the reasoning is that it is due to Earth deformation recovery.
Essentially, the ice age's massive glaciers deformed the ground, and it is slowly rebounding over 1000s of years. The result is minor tremors, sometimes larger quakes.
I am in southern Quebec, and there is a LOT of water here. Personally, I suspect there are glaciers underground which are still thawing, which would also cause additional land movement.
Some supporting thoughts...
* one year, after a lot of snow (record snowfall, where some people's 1st story windows were covered entirely), it took until July for all the snow to melt. This was in areas around my house, and in my forest, where sun didn't shine.
* if you look into how we used to store ice for the summer, we'd cut it out of lakes in massive blocks (eg, Lake Ontario or some such), and then store it in warehouses covered with sawdust. Such ice was even used residentially, delivered every once in a while, and used in a refrigerator like 'ice box'. This ice would last the whole summer, it takes time for that much mass to melt, especially with some insulation.
Which is what underground glaciers have... they're insulated.
Even a decade ago, we'd see -40C regularly here in Jan and Feb, which would counter 40C in the summer I suspect.
Anyhow, this could all be simple post-ice age land reformation.
Re: The struggle to understand why earthquakes happen in America's heartland
#10What does it take to convince people to take risks like this seriously? The challenge is that hypothetical risks 'sometime in the next 50+ years' don't convince people to do things, at least in the US. The pacific northwest is at a much higher risk from an array of faults (not just the cascadia subduction zone) and volcanic hazards but even there, where the risks are very well understood, getting a large region to ta…
What is the outcome you're hoping for, though? It's not useful for people to live with vague anxiety. Are there specific solutions we want them to pursue, and that aren't being handled by the government?
Well, some bridge maintenance would be nice. Additional work to strengthen highway passes, communication infrastructure, government owned buildings...maybe some seismic engineering or reinforcement done on the unreinforced masonry elementary schools, some of which (in Seattle) were last touched in the 1990s. On an individual level, homes built before 1980 should be updated to meet modern earthquake foundation codes.
All of these problems are known, but not funded, because who cares? Disaster management nerds? e.g the 2022 cascadia emergency exercise: https://mil.wa.gov/asset/6390e374e0f21