I wish there was a forum here called “In Your Humble Opinion” where people can ask others for opinions instead of just stating their own opinions. Or is this forum appropriate for asking others for their opinions?
Here we are on April 13, 2014 and it seems to me that so far this month, there have been at least five days where we’ve had news reports of earthquakes in various parts of the world (one of which was really huge) - although most all of them have been in the “Ring of Fire” which includes the west coast of the Americas and the east coast of Asia.
That seems to me to be the highest number of earthquakes I’ve ever seen reported in my lifetime in such a short period of time.
I wonder, do people think we are likely going to experience a really huge earthquake sometime within the remainder of this month?
Or is this just a random occurrence?
If you do believe these are pre-cursors of a huge earthquake coming somewhere to the Ring of Fire, what can a family do to prepare for that?
I’m guessing the only real thing to do is to move to a different geographical area and avoid the effects of a big quake. If you don’t do that, there are several sites that will tell you various tips and techniques that you can employ to prepare yourself if your home is damaged or destroyed but your family is still alive.
You will need to prepare for living out of doors for a few days or weeks at the minimum and you will need to prepare yourself to defend any of the supplies that you have acquired to prepare for that eventuality.
But how to reasonably prepare yourself short of living in some remote area of the country in a cave or other place where no one can find you and rob your goods?
Does it make sense to do some kind of preparation now? Or do you take the attitude that you are probably doomed to die in any serious kind of earthquake and so any kind of preparation is likely just a waste of time?
Not necessarily this month, but the US is due for a big one, yes. Worrisome to me is the one that took place in Idaho this week. Too close to The caldera of Yellowstone.
Hightail it outa there!
Actually, I have no clue. I’m in Texas.
Yes. Living in hurricane territory, we always have an emergency box. First aid kit, flashlight, batteries, radio, cash, food & water, etc. Know where your photos are, and important must have documents.
Think about how long it would take for preparing, vs. how much time you already waste. Your life is worth the effort.
History usually repeats itself. It is best to be prepared. Folks that live in earthquake areas should keep a pair of shoes (more substantial than bedroom slippers) by their bed, in case of broken glass, etc. It’s best to be prepared for any type of emergency.
We’ve had at least six in Idaho this week, most centered around the Challis area. it’s not uncommon that we have many little ones every year. It’s actually seen as a good thing as it helps relieve stress on the caldera at Yellowstone. Yellowstone is not going anytime soon.
As for my preparations when Yellowstone does go blow, living as close as I do, I’m hoping to have enough time to bend over and kiss my butt goodbye.
We have always kept 72hr bugout bags prepared since being evacuated when the Teton Dam burst, it’s something everybody should think about having for any natural disaster. They’re not really hard to maintain, and you can find cheap pamphlets on Amazon to help you put them together.
Well, the strongest recent quake I can find in the US, excluding Alaska, was in Landers, CA in 1992. One child was killed and two people died of heart attacks, but overall it wasn’t a disaster. There was the Loma Prieta (San Francisco) quake of '89 and less than 60 people were killed. Most people had their power back on within a couple days. Then there was the '94 Northridge quake with a similar number of fatalities and most people had their water and power back on fairly quickly.
Unless you happen to be on top of the epicenter, even a “big one” is probably just going to inconvenience you, not force you to live like Mad Max for weeks.
The local CERT team and the American Red Cross say be prepared to live on your own a minimum of two-four weeks if there is a significant earthquake in the Pacific Northwest. It will destroy critical transportation corridors for weeks to months, and larger utility infrastructure from months to years.
This precursor of that website shows there were 150 magnitude 6 or above earthquakes on average between 1990 and 2012, so I think the odds are pretty good there will be another one before the end of the month.
There’s an 8+ earthquake somewhere on Earth virtually every year. So I’m not sure how to answer the question other than with 100%.
Of course, many of those cause much less damage than they might because of their location. Downtown LA and way off the coast of Chile are totally different scenarios for an 8.0 earthquake.
I pay most attention to the Pacific coast. If I had to lay bets, I have high confidence of a major, population-damaging earthquake within the following time frames:
In Alaska: within 15 years
In California: within 25 years
In Washington state: within 30 years
And Washington is the least prepared. We’re in complete denial about where we live. Volcanoes? Check. Mudslides? Check (both volcanic and ordinary). Tsunamis? Check. Earthquakes? Check. Massively bottle-necked and easily disrupted transportation? Check. Birkenstocks and lattes as survival gear? Check.
If we are just stating our opinions, then I think that the following areas are “overdue” for a severe earthquake:
[ol]
[li]Iran - Experienced a significant quake in the 1980s that killed thousands.[/li][li]Mexico (particularly Mexico City) - Same as Iran[/li][li]China - A huge earthquake there every decade or so.[/li][li]Armenia - Had a huge one in 1985. Probably overdue.[/li][li]The US Midwest (particularly the New Madrid Fault) - Huge quake in the 1800s and minor ones since. This one will likely kill a lot of people as most people in the area aren’t prepared.[/li][li]**Portugal **- Huge quake in the 1700s killed almost 50k. Long time since one that serious.[/li][/ol]
Frankly,beyond keeping spare food and water in your home and not panicking there really isn’t much that you can do to prepare for a major earthquake. You just never know when it will strike
This blows my mind. When I think of being in the aftermath of a big earthquake, I think of first aid, injuries, finding shelter, finding fresh water, helping others, getting out of the worst hit area, etc. I don’t think of finding a cave or thinking I’ll need to defend my supplies from hordes of robbers.
I posted this thread two days ago and today I see in The Drudge Report the following headline:
Hundreds of earthquakes strike central Idaho, rattling nerves
Hundreds of earthquakes? What the heck is going on? Here is the complete story:
SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Hundreds of low-level and medium-sized earthquakes have struck central Idaho since last month, puzzling geologists who wonder whether the ruptures portend a much larger temblor to come or are merely the rumblings of a seismic fault previously thought to be dormant.
The recent earthquake swarm, beginning on March 24 and climaxed by a 4.9 magnitude tremor on Saturday, has produced no reports of injuries or severe damage but has rattled nerves in a region where Idaho’s most powerful known quake, measured at 6.9, killed two children in 1983.
Saturday’s earthquake was the strongest recorded in the state since 2005 and was followed on Monday by a magnitude 4.4 event that struck 10 miles north of the small ranching community of Challis, Idaho, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Thanks, Charlie Wayne. The 2001 Rattle in Seattle was a wakeup call- my daughter was at the Pacific science center, and the place was evacuated. She said the earthworms were coming up out of the ground like crazy. My husband was in his shop, and thought he was having heart attack. The 3 equines gathered in the center of their pasture, nose to nose, and the dogs were berserk. Our slate floor cracked a little. We keep supplies, now, but scattered rather than centralized, as if one pace is collapsed, another might be spared. I was at work, and had just finished an exam. I watched the store windows next door wave like a cloth curtain. I still don’t understand why they didn’t shatter;). It’s still the Best Place to live…
In both of these events we were extremely lucky, esp. regarding loss of life. Northridge occurred in the wee hours of a holiday weekend, when nearly everyone was at home asleep, by far the safest place to be in a major quake. Loma Prieta took place just as Game 3 of the A’s/Giants World Series was about to start, and it’s believed that many people left work early to watch the game, so there were fewer people on the road (esp. that double-decker freeway that collapsed!!) But the damage to infrastructure was tremendous – after Northridge, entire blocks of apartment buildings were red-tagged, rendering many thousands of people homeless, and several freeway bridges had collapsed and were unusable for months. Northridge '94 remains the second most expensive natural disaster in the U.S., after Katrina.
And in each case, the magnitude was just under 7.0 – known in seismology as “moderately large.” The “Big One” is predicted to be up to 8.3, or more than 10x more powerful. Seattle, Washington is at even greater risk, with a potential 9.0 lurking off the coast (not to mention that BIG HONKING VOLCANO looming over the city!!!) and in fact they were struck by a 6.8 shortly after Northridge, but thankfully that quake didn’t do as much damage.
Luck plays a major factor in the damage done by an earthquake. Compare the 1995 Kobe Earthquake – same magnitude as Northridge (which had occurred exactly one year prior), but with more than 10x the cost in both lives and money lost, all due to location and timing. A similar sized quake struck Haiti in 2010 – 'nuff said. Yet one month after Haiti, there was an 8.8 off the coast of Chile, which only inflicted slightly more damage than Loma Prieta (and their recent 8.2 barely did any damage at all, comparatively speaking.) The largest recent earthquake in California was the Hector Mine Quake in 1999 (7.1) but it took place in such a remote part of the desert, most people don’t even know it happened.
As for prediction – nobody’s figured that part out yet. We know that over long time scales (by that I mean thousands to millions of years) a certain number of earthquakes of a certain size will occur in a certain area. But as for precisely when they will happen – nobody knows. (Here’s a previous, short-lived thread on the subject.)
