From: gherbert@crl3.crl.com (George Herbert)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Re: Asteroid Collision Unlikely
Date: 12 Aug 1997 19:34:28 -0700

This is off topic, but what the hey...

Jeff Greason <greason@ptdcs2.intel.com> wrote:
>One of the major hospitals in Portland recently closed down because
>they couldn't justify the >$50M cost of upgrading it to be more earthquake
>resistant (in an area not noted for the frequency of earthquakes, mind you).

Portland is believed to be in the region which will be directly
impacted by the expected huge upcoming western washington state
quake (possibly a magnitude 9+...).  The entire olympic peninsula
is one big strike-slip fault zone, if I remember the terminology right.
[someone please correct me if I got it wrong, my reference materials
for seizmology are all at home right now].  Last time it let go the
effects were that some hundreds of square miles were uplifted by
tens of feet, if I recall the papers on the last Big Quake there,
and that apparently has happened regularly there over geological
timescales.

In fact, going back through geological records, quite an amazing
number of places around the world have catastrophic earthquakes
in reasonable time intervals (1000 years or so).  California gets
most of the attention because we have them much more often, but there
are large faults in the central US, around New York City, and all
sorts of other places you never would expect them.  Remember the
New Madrid quake?


-george william herbert
Retro Aerospace
gherbert@crl.com