Los Angeles Ripe for MASSIVE Quake
 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13457472/

LONDON - The southern end of the San Andreas fault near Los Angeles, which has been still for more than two centuries, is under immense stress and could produce a massive earthquake at any moment, a scientist said Wednesday.

Yuri Fialko, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, Calif., said that given average annual movement rates in other areas of the fault, there could be enough pent-up energy in the southern end to trigger a cataclysmic jolt of up to 32 feet (10 meters).

"The observed strain rates confirm that the southern section of the San Andreas fault may be approaching the end of the interseismic phase of the earthquake cycle," he wrote in the journal Nature.

A sudden lateral movement of 23 to 32 feet (7 to 10 meters) would be among the largest ever recorded.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake that destroyed San Francisco in 1906 was produced by a sudden movement of the northern end of the fault of up to 21 feet (6.4 meters).

Fialko said there had been no recorded movement at the southern end of the fault ? the 800-mile-long (1,280-kilometer-long) geological meeting point of the Pacific and the North American tectonic plates ? since the dawn of European settlement in the area.

He said this lack of movement for 250 years correlated with the predicted gaps between major earthquakes at the southern end of the fault of between 200 and 300 years.

Elsewhere on the fault, there were average slippage rates up to a couple of centimeters a year that prevented the build-up of explosive pressure deep underground.

When these became blocked and then suddenly broke free, they produced tremors or earthquakes of varying intensity depending on the movement that had taken place before and the duration of the blockage.

USGS says the most recent major earthquakes in the northern and central zones of the San Andreas fault were in 1857 and 1906.

Three possible explanations
Fialko said there were three possible explanations for the lack of observed movement in the southern section: creepage under the surface that had no external manifestation, a scenario in which the section simply doesn't not move as much as the rest of the section, or a major blockage.

"Except for the first possibility above, the continued quiescence increases the likelihood of a future event," he wrote.


Making calculations based on a wide range of land and satellite observations, he discounted the idea of creepage and warned of impending disaster.

"Regardless of fault geometry and mechanical properties of the ambient crust, results presented in this study lend support to intermediate-term forecasts of a high probability of major earthquakes on the southern SAF system," Fialko said.

We are WAY overdue.

thats why i try not to go to cali

it will be the next atlantis

I am about as ready as I can be with supplies. If I make it through the shaking, should be ok. lets just hope it doesnt shake for a few hundred more years.

Well the west coast is way overdue for the "Big One" you got to be ready as hell or anything have all the supplies you need to last you for a few days.

if i had bacon wrapped scallops you would come.

I sleep in a helmet.

OMG, my dream was real! Get the hell out of there everybody the earth is going to open up and swallow you whole!

I may live on the shoreline sooner than I thought! Currently in Vegas...but if this story is true....Hmmm........
I best go buy some damn beach towels!
Fitz

We should make fliers and drop then from the sky. Maybe people will leave.

:1orglaugh

I haven't been in a good one in a while. I was in the SF area during the 89 quake. Now that was something.

Just wait until Palm Springs has beachfront estates... ;)

.....:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

and it shocks the shit out of me when people host here or in south florida.

Fuck earthquakes. Bring them on, bitches!

It's no surprise that we are due for an earthquake... heck, they call this earthquake zone the "Ring of Fire" for a very good reason! But I wouldn't spend my time worrying too much about if and when it will happen -- there are some things we just can't control, and if we worry about all the "what if's" out there, we'll go crackers! Live your life, prepare for what you can, and hope to be one of the "lucky ones" when doomsday arrives.

...Dammm i hope not


Mr. Romance

Yeah....we're screwed! Lol What I've always wondered is what do you do if you're driving and there's an earthquake? Do ya pull over? Lol I really don't know....

Unless it is a huge earthquake you won't even notice it. If it is enough for you to notice, it might be a good idea to stop.

http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/traffic/

http://library.thinkquest.org/3669/3...akeprepar.html

"If you are driving during an earthquake, you should move to the shoulder. Stay away from overpasses, bridges, large buildings, and power lines. Stay in your car until the shaking stops."

So was I!

Stationed at Coast Guard Island. I was playing a pinball machine, and it started to go bust, for no reason at all.

And then the barracks started to sway back and forth.

Great, tell me the this the day before I go there. So comforting :P

Sahweeeet!!!!

The end of the world is nigh - REPENT!!!

Just wait till cali and baj are an island. talk about expensive realestate.

i would fear north korea more than an earthquake...

I hope me and the family are out of town when it hits.

Drive as fast as you can. Most people will pull to the shoulder. See this as your one opportunity to get from the Valley to the LA Basin in less than 5 minutes during rush hour.

Mother earth taking out the trash!

I am scared

I'm gonna buy some property on the faultline that way when the quake hits, I'll have beachfront properties... lol

scary stuff and it will happen, its just a matter of when.
:helpme

breaking news................the world is not flat.....

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Break out the tinfoil.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Where I live and work can handle a 8.0. Odds are with me.

Thank you VERY fucking much. Stay the hell AWAY from dem parts.

There goes 3/4 of a mil in my real estate value

I love surfing.

must be a slow news day.. they've been saying this for years

well I hope it doesn't happen in our lifetime and when it does, I hope we can deal with it better than any disaster in the past!

death is eminent!!!!!!!!

sometimes i wonder if the news told you guys to jump you would..