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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
San Andreas Fault could Bankrupt California
2016-11-28
$289 billion.
[SGVTribune] A newly released analysis reveals that a major earthquake along the San Andreas fault could damage twice as many homes as previously thought.

The global property information and analytics firm based its data on revised earthquake risk science from the U.S. Geological Survey's Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast. The forecast concludes that a large temblor could occur simultaneously in both Northern and Southern California.
Better secede from the Union now, before we hafta cut you loose.
The San Andreas fault has traditionally been viewed as two independent segments with earthquake ruptures on the northern and southern faults that were deemed mutually exclusive of one another.

Bolton acknowledged that an 8.3 magnitude quake running the entire length of the San Andreas Fault would be rare.

"It would be pretty far out there," she said. "And the only way we could determine where we sit on the cycle is to know a lot about past earthquake occurrences. We would need to have a record for a good many years of how frequently they happened."
Nah, you don't need steekin' records! Talk to the climate guys; they can develop historical records for you!
Bolton said families should have earthquake kits at the ready and also have earthquake insurance. Many don't have insurance because the deductibles tend to be high.

A spokesman for the California Earthquake Authority, which provides about 75 percent of the earthquake policies that are sold in the state through participating insurance carriers, said only 10 percent of California homeowners earthquake insurance.

"In areas with a higher risk, the percentage is higher than the statewide average for obvious reasons," he said earlier this year. "In the greater Los Angeles area it's 15 to 17 percent, and in San Diego it's 20 percent."
Looks like a lot of (D) voters will depend on Uncle Sugar to bail them out.
Posted by:Bobby

#11  Illegals only allowed to live and work west of the San Andreas fault line.
Posted by: gorb   2016-11-28 23:38  

#10  Thanks to the Japanese Current, when California finally does fall into the sea, it will all wash up on the Nevada shoreline.
Posted by: SteveS   2016-11-28 22:06  

#9  just to get ahead of things

I adore engineers.
Posted by: trailing wife   2016-11-28 20:56  

#8  When I worked for USGS in 1970-1972, I worked along the San Andreas Fault, and other faults, such as the Hayward Fault, Garlock Fault and others. I measured deflections along the fault, and in other places I installed creep meters that gave real time fault movement through telemetry.

A memorable site was on the 1906 fault trace crossing Roberta Drive in Woodside, California. The fault trace had locked up since the 1906 earthquake. But on the north side of the drive,there was a 3 ft dia redwood stump that was split by earthquake as it was straddling the fault. The west half of the stump moved north 12 feet! One hell of a movement. Now there are expensive houses only 30 to 40 feet from the 1906 fault trace.

So using freshman logic, I did some figuring. From our measurements by geodimeter across the fault for regional movement, the two plates were moving 30 mm a year laterally at a steady rate. 12 feet = 3658 mm.

So 3658 mm of total movement/30 mm per year =
122 years to accumulate that strain. Add that time interval to the year 1906 when the earthquake occurred and you get year 2028 for an estimate of the next big one. Very rough estimate.

12 ft of strain is one huge amount of stored energy!

Next time I will tell you a story of surveying the fault in San Juan Batista, and telling a rather *ahem* loony fellow passing by that we were surveying for beach front property, just to get ahead of things when California would fall into the sea.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2016-11-28 18:47  

#7  Maybe a the big one will set off the Long Valley Caldera.
Posted by: phil_b   2016-11-28 18:47  

#6  Always someone else's fault with these people.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2016-11-28 17:47  

#5  Let's remember it took generations for those 'you didn't build that' to actually build that. Any 'historical' level damage is also going to take generations to recover.

A spokesman for the California Earthquake Authority, which provides about 75 percent of the earthquake policies that are sold in the state through participating insurance carriers, said only 10 percent of California homeowners earthquake insurance.

Cause, surprise, they expect Uncle Sugar to cover their losses. Can you say 'Obamacare' calculations boys and girls. You don't really pay in, but expect everyone else to cover you for catastrophic losses.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2016-11-28 17:03  

#4  Not mentioned are the large number of lateral faults running off the San Andreas fault. The likelihood of one, or many of those, being triggered alone or with a San Andreas event is higher than a simultaneous fault.
Posted by: Pappy   2016-11-28 16:07  

#3  California is bankrupt already, we just put everything on credit and pretend all is well.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2016-11-28 15:50  

#2  Tool did a nice little song about California falling into the ocean.

"Learn to swim!"
Posted by: Raj   2016-11-28 15:42  

#1  Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of kleptomaniac fuckheads.
Posted by: DarthVader   2016-11-28 15:28  

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