Buy Your Beachfront Property NOW!
Growing up in California as I did, I always knew the “Big One” could strike at any moment. We joked about it a lot, as a matter of fact, although few people considered the possibility worthy of actually moving to somewhere more safe.
But, frankly, if I were still living in California I’d start wondering if maybe now’s the time to get out. It was bad enough with the droughts, and wild fires.
Last week’s earthquake in Northern California — right near my hometown, as a matter of fact — now has scientists worried that the “Big One” is just around the corner.
The largest earthquake to hit the San Francisco Bay area in nearly two decades struck last Tuesday with a magnitude of 5.6. This tremor, centered near San Jose, lasted half a minute and was felt as far away as Oregon.
No one was reported killed or hurt from the quake, but geological experts warn that it is a sign of much worse to come.
Tuesday’s quake “significantly increased the probability” of a detrimental earthquake coming from one or both of two nearby fault lines according to the California Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council, a board that advises the state’s Office of Emergency Services on quake forecasts. Those faults are capable of producing a 7.0 magnitude earthquake or even higher, reports the Salinas Californian.
Seriously, if it were me I’d be looking into buying Arizona real estate and building myself a beach cabin… then just kicking back my heels and waiting for the Pacific Ocean to come to me.
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When I was living in the Bay Area, in the early 1970s, there were a couple of earthquakes centered in Hayward.
The first earthquake was about 5.4 on the Richter scale; I thought that there was a huge delivery truck running down my residential street in Oakland. When I figured out that it was an earthquake, I was seriously frightened and raced outdoors.
I was asleep when the aftershock hit; it was also over 5.0. I was told that on one of the local news programs, the reader announced the previous one, and then said “I think we’re having another one right now.”
I find two things hard to believe:
(1) That a 5.6 earthquake is the largest in two decades. When was the quake which collapsed an interstate and how big was it? I think that was less than two decades ago (although my memory does not reveal a year), and it must have been more severe.
(2) Earthquakes of 5.x are common in the Bay Area, and it is hard for me to believe that a 5.6 quake portends the Big One.
5.x earthquakes in the Bay Area are common. The Loma Prieta Earthquake occurred in 1989 and was 7.1. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake was about 8.0. The 1964 Alaskan quake was 9.2.
Minor seismic activity is good as it releases stress before it can build to disasterous proportions.