Saturday’s massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile, along with the recent deadly quake in Haiti have renewed fears of the “Big One” hitting here in the United States. While many believe that it is Californians who need to be concerned, there are dangerous fault lines all across the country.
The Pacific Northwest was struck by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake approximately 300 years ago that caused a devastating tsunami in far off Japan. That area of the country was sparsely populated at the time, but is now home to millions of people in major cities like Seattle. The same magnitude quake in that area today would cause massive destruction and loss of life.
Experts say it is not a question of if, but when, an earthquake like this strikes the United States again.
Chile has some of the strictest building codes in the world, which the experts say helped prevent even greater loss of life on Saturday. The U.S. has similar codes, but engineers worry about our aging infrastructure such as bridges and overpasses. These structures may disintegrate in a large quake.
Earthquakes tend to cluster based on a 50 year cycle and we are at a time of high activity now.
Annie: Those poor people in Chile!
Charlie: It is bad down there, but at least there was not as much loss of life as there could have been.
Annie: Thank goodness for modern building codes and the engineers who build modern buildings!
Charlie: The technology is improving all the time so in the future structures should be even safer!
Annie: I would not want to be in even the safest, most modern building in a big earthquake. I’m glad we live in the boring old Midwest!
Charlie: Yeah, no hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes, etc., to worry about. The trade off is we just have to live with some of the world’s worst weather on a daily basis; It’s either freezing cold and overcast or hot, humid and overcast!
Annie: It does seem like weeks since we’ve seen the sun, but I’ll take it over the natural disasters that strike the “Sun Belt”!
Charlie: Not me! I’ll take a little mayhem every 10 years or so in order not to have to deal with winter as we know it! Besides, even though we normally don’t experience earthquakes there are fault lines even here that can wreak devastation upon us.
Annie: Really? We have to deal with this lousy weather and we can STILL get hammered?
Charlie: Where are you going?
Annie: To pack my bags; I’m heading for the sunshine. If I have to deal with the danger anyway, I might as well have a nice tan!
Charlie: Now you’re talkin’! Wait for me!
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Related Reading: Earthquakes
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