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[mrklaw]

Quake Swarm sounds like a great name for a SyFy movie.

 

[pixelation]

Impossible. The two plates are grinding past one another, not separating. Eventually (as in millions of years from now), California will be an island up near Alaska, but that isn't something that happens in a single quake.

The worst case scenario is an 8.0+ quake that massively disrupts infrastructure in ways that cannot be remedied in a reasonable amount of time. Something that big would damage or destroy electrical stations and, more importantly, could destroy the pipelines that bring water into the Los Angeles area. If one of those pipelines is damaged out in the desert, you're talking a week to fix it with everything in working order. With the chaos of the aftermath and emergency services and repair services taxed to the limit, Los Angeles could be without fresh water for weeks. That's not even taking into account fires, freeway collapses, aftershocks, and other structural damage that could make disaster relief difficult or impossible. You're talking about a total breakdown of communication and shipping in the SoCal area for up to a month or more.

It would not be good. In the case of a really big quake, your best bet is to get the hell out of Los Angeles as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that may not be possible.

That is some scary shit.

 

[Kimawolf]

Please... San Andreas fault ain't shit. The New Madrid fault is where its at these days!

I heard if it goes it will rip america in half, putting a giant river dividing the country like a long inland sea.

 

[Tagyhag]

That is some scary shit.

Think about it like this, that's worst case scenario.

Can't spend your life wondering what-if. Just be prepared, and live normally.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Feels appropriate for reflection:

On the face of it, earthquakes seem to present us with problems of space: the way we live along fault lines, in brick buildings, in homes made valuable by their proximity to the sea. But, covertly, they also present us with problems of time. The earth is 4.5 billion years old, but we are a young species, relatively speaking, with an average individual allotment of three score years and ten. The brevity of our lives breeds a kind of temporal parochialism—an ignorance of or an indifference to those planetary gears which turn more slowly than our own.

This problem is bidirectional. The Cascadia subduction zone remained hidden from us for so long because we could not see deep enough into the past. It poses a danger to us today because we have not thought deeply enough about the future. That is no longer a problem of information; we now understand very well what the Cascadia fault line will someday do. Nor is it a problem of imagination. If you are so inclined, you can watch an earthquake destroy much of the West Coast this summer in Brad Peyton’s “San Andreas,” while, in neighboring theatres, the world threatens to succumb to Armageddon by other means: viruses, robots, resource scarcity, zombies, aliens, plague. As those movies attest, we excel at imagining future scenarios, including awful ones. But such apocalyptic visions are a form of escapism, not a moral summons, and still less a plan of action. Where we stumble is in conjuring up grim futures in a way that helps to avert them.

That problem is not specific to earthquakes, of course. The Cascadia situation, a calamity in its own right, is also a parable for this age of ecological reckoning, and the questions it raises are ones that we all now face. How should a society respond to a looming crisis of uncertain timing but of catastrophic proportions? How can it begin to right itself when its entire infrastructure and culture developed in a way that leaves it profoundly vulnerable to natural disaster?

 

[SaganIsGOAT]

I saw a documentary about this with the Rock last year. Looks pretty scary.

We rebuild

 

[Jetman]

So is SoCal GAF ready for this?
Everyone I work with is expecting the big one to hit in another 30 minutes for some reason

Almost want to rush home, grab my cats, and take a week long vacation in NorCal.

 

[zeemumu]

So is SoCal GAF ready for this?
Everyone I work with is expecting the big one to hit in another 30 minutes for some reason

Almost want to rush home, grab my cats, and take a week long vacation in NorCal.

Wait, why 30 minutes? Today was just supposed to be the last day for the window?

 

[riotous]

So is SoCal GAF ready for this?
Everyone I work with is expecting the big one to hit in another 30 minutes for some reason

Almost want to rush home, grab my cats, and take a week long vacation in NorCal.

Completely misunderstood the report; the chance is much lower now.

 

[SaganIsGOAT]

So is SoCal GAF ready for this?
Everyone I work with is expecting the big one to hit in another 30 minutes for some reason

Almost want to rush home, grab my cats, and take a week long vacation in NorCal.

What, did they issue a new warning?

 

[frontovik]

The warning is expected to last until October 7th.. but the likelihood decreases as the days goes on.

Preliminary calculations indicate that, as of 12:00 pm (PDT) on Sept. 30, 2016, there is 0.006% to 0.2% chance (less than 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 500) of a magnitude 7 or greater earthquake being triggered on the Southern San Andreas Fault within the next seven days through October 7, with the likelihood decreasing over time.

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/misc/2016-09-27.php

 

[pje122]

probably not

Underrated post.

 

[Jetman]

The warning is expected to last until October 7th.. but the likelihood decreases as the days goes on.


https://earthquake.usgs.gov/misc/2016-09-27.php

Oh, ok, well fuck - and were still alive.

 

[Icyflamez96]

I felt a quake. Thought it was gonna be the 7.2 for a sec. Well we've made it past the date for the likelihood to start going down at least.

 

[Keri]

I felt a quake. Thought it was gonna be the 7.2 for a sec. Well we've made it past the date for the likelihood to start going down at least.

You thought we were having a big earthquake and you still rushed to post? Priorities, friend! You should be running outside, while screaming and flailing your arms wildly.

 

[Icyflamez96]

That's actually almost literally what I did lol. I was already mid opening the door to go outside to my backyard when I heard a bang, and just rushed outside where I probably wouldnt have been that safe anyway because of all trees around that area

 

[oc]

Felt it too in Riverside. Only lasted like 2 seconds tho.

 

[Septimus Prime]

You thought we were having a big earthquake and you still rushed to post? Priorities, friend! You should be running outside, while screaming and flailing your arms wildly.

Stop, drop, and post.

 

[Dunedain_Ranger]

Felt it too in Riverside. Only lasted like 2 seconds tho.

Here in riverside felt it also

 

[Mortemis]

If Cascadia ever goes off, it's been nice knowing y'all.

 

[dreamcastmaster]

It starts.

 

[Frankfurter]

Is anything being done in the areas that would probably be affected? I.e. building houses out of more solid material than 2 inch thin wood?

 

[Arol]

Is anything being done in the areas that would probably be affected? I.e. building houses out of more solid material than 2 inch thin wood?

Houses built right by the fault are probably done.

Like the poster above said, the biggest concern isn't really the earthquake itself as scary as that would be, but along with water lines, ruptured gas lines would be the biggest cause for concern and downed power lines causing fires throughout the affected areas.

Even with the amazing emergency procedures and agencies California has, its always best to have some small preparation in place. If anything the most important being water, something to filter water, or the ability to store large amounts of water following an earthquake (one of those tub things they sell).

 

[Icyflamez96]

It's gonna be straight 2012 when the big one hits goddang.

 

[friskykillface]

👀
Be safe California friends

 

[NysGAF]

Felt it in Redlands. Heard it was a 2.9 centered in Loma Linda.

 

[FFgamer20]

I live right on the san andreas fault (palmdale, ca). It's been a good life gaf.
I hope The Rock eventually makes it out here to save me if it happens.

 

[clav]

It starts.

More like reduces the chances of a large one.

 

[ElyrionX]

Can someone walk me through the premise of the emergency kit? I mean, I have one. But... My sense is that a quake bad enough to disrupt infrastructure and shut down the city will probably involve structural collapse of buildings. I mean, obviously you need water, you need food, you need light. However to give you those things, the emergency kit only works if the outside world is so destroyed that you can't make it down the street, but your house is so intact that you can get to the emergency kit and make use of it. If you're trapped under rubble, you're not being helped. If you can open your front door, you probably don't need it. Are there past studies of emergency kit effectiveness in actually saving lives? Obviously this is a counterfactual endeavor because it's hard to know how many people would have died, but I'd be interested in even very simple analyses of relative survival rates during bad disasters of families that do or don't have emergency kits, controlling for wealth and geography. Maybe it's a comforting thing to prevent panic more than an actual life-saver.

There's no way data like that exists and even if it did, it'd probably be inaccurate/unreliable.

 

[Cross-Section]

It's happening agaaaaaain

A small cluster of more than 20 earthquakes were recorded early Monday morning, Oct. 31, near the Salton Sea.

The 22 quakes range in magnitude from 1.4 to 3.3, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The shaking started about 2:30 a.m. and continued as recently as 6:55 a.m.

Spoiler

#spoopyquakes