# Is California still sinking...? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762 "2003-01-25T00:47:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/1 "2003-01-25T00:47:21Z")
I don’t know, maybe we had nothing better to talk about. But, when we were kids, this item always came up in conversation. So, when’s it going to happen? Or, is CA staying, and the rest of US is going :eek: - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/2 "2003-01-25T01:07:07Z")
IIRC, California isn’t and never was sinking. Part of it is on the edge of the Pacific tectonic plate, which is rotating (incredibly slowly) counterclockwise. Part of California will eventually be near Alaska, but it’s never going to “fall off.” ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/3 "2003-01-25T01:15:11Z")
Thanks, Scupper. So, continental drift is still alive and well and happening ever-so subtly? Brrr…won’t that be a cold awakening to the sun worshippers! The CA story must come from those predicting Naigara Falls was going to collapse in the 1980’s. There were a few of these nuts running wild in the 1980’s… not to mention the Al Capone tomb raiders! 😉 - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/4 "2003-01-25T01:56:42Z")
Here’s a cool map of the world in a mere 50,000,000 years: [http://www.scotese.com/future.htm](http://www.scotese.com/future.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/5 "2003-01-25T02:00:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scupper \* > \*\*IIRC, California isn’t and never was sinking. Part of it is on the edge of the Pacific tectonic plate, which is rotating (incredibly slowly) counterclockwise. Part of California will eventually be near Alaska, but it’s never going to “fall off.” \*\* Of course, this doesn’t mean California isn’t going downhill, fast. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/6 "2003-01-25T02:16:12Z")
The first two comments my mother made after I told her I was moving out here (ten years ago): \<1\> You’re going to die in an Earthquake. \<2\> You’re going to fall into the Ocean. That second one confused me mightily until I figured out the OP was what she was talking about. On a related note, aren’t London and Mexico City both slowly sinking? ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/7 "2003-01-25T03:24:36Z")
Sinking further into debt. I _wish_ all we had to worry about were tectonic plates and stuff… ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/8 "2003-01-25T03:55:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scupper \* > \*\*IIRC, California isn’t and never was sinking. Part of it is on the edge of the Pacific tectonic plate, which is rotating (incredibly slowly) counterclockwise. Part of California will eventually be near Alaska, but it’s never going to “fall off.” \*\* Well, the movement on[the San Andreas Fault](http://www.citytel.net/PRSS/depts/geog12/litho/sanandreas.htm) isn’t all that slow, averaging out to about 1"/year. The site shows some pictures. I’m pretty sure the one on the left is near Palmdale, CA and the dam and reservoir shown might be on Stevens Creek on the western edge of San Jose. My syster lived just north of the Stevens Creek dam and the creek ran along her back yard lot line. One of her neighbors when asked if she didn’t worry about living on the fault said, “Oh, we don’t live _on_ the fault, it’s over on the other side of the creek.” The Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California results from the Pacific Plate slowly diverging from the continental plate submerging the land. The same thing is happening in the Rift Valey of Africa where the Horn of Africa around Eritria is being slowly separted from the continent. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/9 "2003-01-25T04:00:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by David Simmons \* > > The Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California results from the Pacific Plate slowly diverging from the continental plate submerging the land. The same thing is happening in the Rift Valey of Africa where the Horn of Africa around Eritria is being slowly separted from the continent. \*\* Should be: "The Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) results … And I previewed too! At times I wonder if there is any hope. Other times I’m sure there isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/10 "2003-01-25T04:58:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vivalostwages \* > \*\*Sinking further into debt. I _wish_ all we had to worry about were tectonic plates and stuff… \*\* So THAT is where your money is going! 😃 [sub]That has got to be the coolest name on the boards BTW.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/11 "2003-01-25T05:07:52Z")
I keep telling people that California can’t fall into the sea because California is forty miles thick and the sea is only two miles deep. [sub]Of course I never mention _subsidence_…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-california-still-sinking/150762/12 "2003-01-25T05:21:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spit \* > \*\*So THAT is where your money is going! 😃 > > [sub]That has got to be the coolest name on the boards BTW.[/sub] \*\* * * * Thanks, **Spit**. \<------ Now _that’s_ a funny sentence.😃 Yeah, since I haven’t been over to Lost Wages recently, I’m dumping my dough into the casinos right here. And as a state employee, I’m watching my community college campuses/workplaces eat it as the budget cuts come down. ☹ (Except for the administrators, of course. They’re quite safe.)