Whose Fault is it?
Earthquakes. After last week, they're on everyone's mind. Though the Los Angeles area hasn't had a particularly notable earthquake since the Northridge quake in 1994, we're always expecting the big one, that 8 on the Richter scale (which, by the way, will be strong enough to knock you off your feet if you're standing.)Los Angeles sits on the border of the Pacific and North American techtonic plates. The place where the motion of the plates causes the earth to crack is called a fault. The San Andreas fault is a transform fault, meaning that the motion of the plates is sliding and grinding against each, in this case in a north-south direction. To use a term the describes the motion of the San Andreas fault, it is a right-lateral strike-slip fault. This movement can be seen in the displacement of the bedrock in places like a cutout of the fault in Palmdale where the Antelope Valley Highway runs.
At one time, shortly after the Northridge quake, one of our writers drove this particular section of highway on the San Andreas Fault and spotted a billboard which read, "Tired of Earthquakes? Move to Palmdale!" Which is exactly what you shouldn't do.
People ask, "Why do you live California? They have so many earthquakes there!" Every place has its deadly hazards -- Florida has hurricanes, Minnesota has blizzards, and from what I understand, in North Dakota, you can literally be bored to death. It's good that we have earthquakes, because at least we're prepared for it. They're supposed to have a 6 or greater in New York. None of their buildings are up to code. Now that would be disastrous.
I can think of better reasons not to want to live in CA -- like Arnold Schwarzernegger.
posted by kuaptic. @ 7:38 PM
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