Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Really going out on a limb....

Thanks scientists at the Center for the Obvious!

Forecast: Big quake likely in Calif.

You can skip the link, here's the gist.
Scientists say there is a 99.7 percent chance a magnitude 6.7 quake or larger will strike somewhere in California in the next 30 years.

It was 14 years ago (wow, that long!) that the Northridge quake rocked SoCal, and my mom's house, at 6.7 magnitude.
My high school was badly damaged, so much so that we had to attend classes at our crosstown rival high school. They went half the day and we went the other half.
It was like a prison yard during the crossover. Stinkeye, all around!
In 1999 there was a 7.1 quake out in the middle of the desert.
In 2000 the Napa quake rocked me at 5.2 magnitude.
Last summer I was in a earthquake while visiting my mom in SoCal. It was a 3.5 or thereabouts. I was at a karaoke place. People there were unamused and unafraid. You get used to the little ones when you live in SoCal.

I'm just saying. Yeah. Duh. California gets earthquakes, mostly they are small and you go about your day. Sometimes they are huge and make lots of damage. Sometimes they are huge and out in the desert and noone cares.
Don't believe me?
Peep this list of all the earthquakes over the last week. There's tons.

I hope this informative study was funded with public money, because it's terribly informative and totally worth the cost.
Not.

4 comments:

Maribeth said...

I heard this on the news this morning and my jaw dropped...not because I was surprised but the fact that they determined it to happen in 30 years or less. Not 30 years and 1 day...under 30 years. Also 30 years seems like a long time. I'm 34 and there have been numerous earthquakes in my time so big whoop 30 years. Now 5...they would be something!

Jessica said...

That's what I'm saying.
Since 1983, (25 years ago) when my parents moved us to California there have been a lot of major earthquakes over 6.7, so yeah, to say, we're going to get another ONE in the next 30 years.
Duh.
If they had said...NEXT WEEK!!! Bwah ha ha.
Now that's news.

debdills said...

hasn't the hayward fault been poised to go by experts "within 20 years" for the last 50 or so?

I remember in elementary school someone predicted a quake on a certain day... we wrapped up all my mom's knick knacks and slept in the living room. No quake.

I imagine in 29 years, 324 days, a slew of frightened third graders will be helping their moms box up all the breakables in fear of "the big one"... (or maybe that's what I hope?)

Jessica said...

The best thing about that '94 quake was sharing Royal High with you guys- our hours were 7-11am for the rest of the school year so we went to the beach every day!