9.0 Undersea Quake / Tsunamis / Massive Coastal Devastation

[krys]

I had a Geology professor who said that there was a huge fault under the Hudson River. It's called the Ramapo Fault. He said the tension there is very very great...and that if it went, it was likely that it would all go at once and change the landscape so that the new coast would be 50 - 100 miles inland.

He said that it was unlikely to slip since the area has been inactive for so long....but....I wonder. Every once in a while we are getting little quakes here in NJ. I thought I was having a stroke (literally) when I became very disoriented on my deck one summer...I thought my yard was twisting.

A good friend from California said it was a small earthquake...but it took reading about it in the paper to prove it to me.

[Steve!]

Krys -

Put your hands side by side, so your thumbs are touching.

Push them together real hard.

One of 2 things can happen. Either one hand will go under the other, or one will slide south, the other north.

In the case of the Ramapo fault, as in the case of the San Andreas fault, one part will slide north and one south. So it won't be that a huge chunk of New Jersey (or California) will slide into the sea.

[krys]

Steve!

I don't have all the answers either, but I know your analogy with the hands isn't correct because the right hand is pushing harder than the left.

The right hand represents the Atlantic Ocean and we know it's floor is spreading...so equal forces are not part of this "equation"

[reikilady]

Colon Powell was on face the nation this morning and he said that 2 billion dollars so far as been pledged to help the different places that were effected by this disaster. Elephants have been brought to places where vehicles can't get through and India is helping Sri Lanka. Japan has pledged a half a million dollars to help.

Helicopters that can come in from the ocean are going to really aid the places without a strong infrastucture because they can land without a big runway. The distribution of the supportive goods and services will be a challenge in some areas. Our government doesn't want to step on any toes of the countries that need help and hopefully everyone will work together.

Thailand's people were very quick to step in and volunteer. It will take a lot of planning, people power, and money to bring much needed aid and assistance to this horrific disastor.

[OnionEater]

quote:

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Japan has pledged a half a million dollars to help.

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I think it's a half billion dollars.

[George Aar]

Here's a quote from Richard Dawkins from the U.K. Guardian newspaper:

"Not only does science know why the tsunami happened, it can give precious hours of warning. If a small fraction of the tax breaks handed out to churches, mosques and synagogues had been diverted into an early warning system, tens of thousands of people, now dead, would have been moved to safety.

Let's get up off our knees, stop cringing before bogeymen and virtual fathers, face reality, and help science to do something constructive about human suffering."

I know that's not the majority viewpoint around these parts, but I gotta say, I agree with him wholeheartedly.

[OnionEater]

quote:

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Let's get up off our knees, stop cringing before bogeymen and virtual fathers, face reality, and help science to do something constructive about human suffering."

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I second that motion.

[excathedra]

i'm with ya

[Steve!]

Krys - yes, I should have prefaced my response with "this is a gross oversimplification". The fact of the matter is that most likely, we will NOT lose hundreds of square miles of land when (not if) that quake occurs, but rather that land will become part of southern New Jersey instead of northern New Jersey.

[TheSongRemainsTheSame]

There is no way to prevent such a force of change according to "acts of God".

The witness of such an extraordinary event is beyound my measure its reality.

[reikilady]

Onion Eater I stand corrected about the half a billion dollars from Japan...

[Kit Sober]

here are some satellite before/after tsunami pictures: http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami

kit.

[herbiejuan]

I've been looking at the south (SF) bay area alot lately and it doesn't look all that good to me :(-->

From what I can tell, there are many faults running through the area and I imagine any major quake there would significantly alter the landscape. Depending on what shifts where I can see the low lying areas (along 101) breaking up and the peninsula turning into an island of sorts, surrounded by ocean on one side and a tidal estuary on the other. I imagine alot of the coastline will be changed due to the fact that it is quite unstable in and of itself. This would of course lead to problems elsewhere.

I think it would behove most of us to start being more aware of our environment and to think through the how whats whys and wherefores.

I've heard to expect a major quake that within the next 20 yrs, I'm guessing it will be sooner.