Major earthquake due in California with San Andreas fault 'locked, loaded and ready to roll', seismologists warn

Meanwhile in the Pacific Northwest Mount St Helens is showing new signs of life too


A computer model illustrates how shock waves from a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the San Andreas Fault would affect southern California

Residents of southern California have been warned by a top seismologist that the San Andreas fault is “locked, loaded and ready to go” and a major earthquake in the region is overdue.

The dire warning has come just a few months after the Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, pushed legislation through the City Council demanding that the most vulnerable buildings in the city be retrofitted as soon as possible so they will be able to withstand violent shaking.

It was delivered by Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Centre, speaking at an earthquake conference in Long Beach.  “The San Andreas fault is locked, loaded and ready to roll. The springs of that fault have been wound pretty tightly and the situation is there where we could have major earthquakes in California,” he told an audience of fellow seismologists.

The Earthquake Centre has meanwhile released as sobering graphic that simulates how far the shaking would travel if, as he suggests, it is of 8.0 magnitude. 

While predicting earthquakes remains an uncertain science, there has been concern among experts for some time that the San Andreas fault may be close to a new, major ruction if only by virtue of the length of time since it happened last, when the southern portion of the fault was struck by a 7.9 shaker all the way back in 1857.

Since then the tectonic plates that meet at the fault have been continuously on the move at a rate of about 2 inches per year. That means that over 159 years there has been a shift of 26 feet as the Pacific plate moves in a northwesterly direction against the American continental plate.  Every additional inch creates additional pressures on the rocks beneath the earth’s surface.

The biggest earthquakes in the world since 1900

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An 8.0 magnitude event in southern Carolina could prove far more destructive than the 1994 Northridge earthquake that hit a different fault northwest of Los Angeles killing 60 people. 

The US Geological Survey warned in 2008 that even a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the southern San Andreas Fault would cause more than 1,800 deaths, 50,000 injuries, $200 billion in damage and severe disruptions to the area’s infrastructure, including its sewage systems.

On Mayor Garcetti’s urging, Los Angeles last October required as many as 15,000 buildings be reinforced, including concrete buildings considered brittle and apartment blocks built mostly from timber.  It was an unpopular move with some owners because of the high cost. 

Mr Jordan paid tribute to the city for taking the danger seriously.  “It's remarkable that this happened,” he said. “We know politically how difficult it is to make these kinds of changes.”

Trouble of a different kind appears to be brewing further north in the Pacific Northwest with reports of a swarm of as many as 130 small earthquakes in recent weeks beneath Mount St. Helens, still an active volcano, signaling increasing dangers of an eruption. 


Confirming the activity, the US Geological Survey nonetheless played down the need for immediate alarm.  At this point, “there is absolutely no sign that it will erupt anytime soon, but the data we collect tells us that the volcano is still very much alive,” if said.

Conceding a sudden upsurge in small tremors in the area since 14 March and now reaching as many as 40 a week, the Survey sought to reassure local communities, who still have memories of the 1980 eruption of the volcano that blew a 1,000 feet off the top of the mountain, ignited forest fires and killed 57 people.

“The earthquakes are volcano-tectonic in nature, indicative of a slip on a small fault. Such events are commonly seen in active hydrothermal and magmatic systems,” it said. Most of the earthquakes now being detected are of 0.3 magnitude or less, with the largest at 1.3 magnitude.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/earthquake-california-san-andreas-fault-locked-loaded-ready-roll-seismologists-warn-a7019616.html



Don't go standing on that bridge Quill!!!

USGS, Monitoring Mount St. Helens, Lots Of SWARM Activity On the Mountain Top
 by 4EVER2 on Sat May 07, 2016 5:29 am

Earthquake swarm detected beneath Mount St. Helens
2:56 a.m. Saturday, May 7, 2016 | Filed in: News

Magma stores are recharging inside Mount St. Helens, setting off a swarm of small earthquakes since last month, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Since the catastrophic eruption of May 18, 1980, scientists have been conducting research and collecting data on the volcano to learn more about its typical behavior.
Since March 14, a number of small earthquakes have occurred beneath the volcano at a depth between 1.2 to 4 miles. The earthquakes have low magnitudes of 0.5 or less, with the largest a 1.3.
Over the last eight weeks, there have been more than 130 earthquakes located by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network and many more that are too small to be detected
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/science/earthquake-swarm-detected-beneath-mt-st-helens/nrJZz/

While this is becoming a 'bee hive' with activity the Seismologist have been predicting that the fault lines running under California are long past due for a major earthquake event.  The pressure being applied to those plates shifting and that major quakes along the 'ring of fire' have been large deep and others frequent and shallow...something going to give real soon.

While the surrounding area hasn't felt any of the tremors - not the people living near by - but the sensors that are placed up on top have been sending data that is very important for tracking St. Helen's activity.

It's the 'Ring Of Fire', pressure plate shifting that is building up under California that would scare the B-geezers out of me. 
Quill...are you in a 'Danger Zone'???

Sorry, didn't see it.   Nature is sure throwing a lot at the North American continent at the moment!

sassy wrote:Sorry, didn't see it.   Nature is sure throwing a lot at the North American continent at the moment!

NP...you've been just a little pre-occupied and my topic had no activity so why not just merge them.  I've distant cousins living back up around the last blow out region of Mount St. Helens and they raise goats; goats that the forest service use for controlling the underbrush that becomes a fire hazard along the highways - for those lesser thinking humans that keep tossing lit cigarettes out their vehicles.

Sorry, I digress; but I'm always so anxious about how they'd get all of their livestock relocated in an emergency scenario should that mountain blow again    They've got a lovely - lush - rolling hills farm...but I just couldn't do it!

Me neither, I'd be on tenderhooks all the time.   The goats would have to have bells round their necks so I could find them if the volcano started to erupt, couldn't leave them there to be burnt to a crisp!

sassy wrote:Me neither, I'd be on tenderhooks all the time.   The goats would have to have bells round their necks so I could find them if the volcano started to erupt, couldn't leave them there to be burnt to a crisp!

They lead Nanny has the collar with the Bell...so the herd always follows her; don't know what they'd do if something tragic happens to her first --- perhaps the sound of a feed bucket being banged upon will bring them running like ours did. 
Too many bells just confuses the herd and they'll run hither and dither and never go where they're supposed to

Fingers crossed the earthquake isn't as bad as they think

4EVER2 wrote:It's the 'Ring Of Fire', pressure plate shifting that is building up under California that would scare the B-geezers out of me.
Quill...are you in a 'Danger Zone'???

Anyone in the Pacific Rim (Ring of Fire) is in a danger zone.  That includes Asia, Australia, and the west coasts of So. America and No. America (Baja, California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska).  The report that sassy is referring to is in Southern California, actually east of Los Angeles around Palm Springs.  We are in Northern California, though the San Andreas fault runs through Marin County where I live (eg, Point Reyes):



The report as to Mt. St. Helens is a 'me-too' story, that came out after the major Southern California report.  Mt. St. Helens is always active to some degree.

Yep, it's all a danger zone.  They have retrofitted structures all over California to withstand earthquakes, but of course if one hits directly under you, it's over.  The great San Francisco earthquake that leveled the city in 1906 was just off the coast at about Daly City.

4EVER2 wrote:

sassy wrote:Me neither, I'd be on tenderhooks all the time.   The goats would have to have bells round their necks so I could find them if the volcano started to erupt, couldn't leave them there to be burnt to a crisp!

They lead Nanny has the collar with the Bell...so the herd always follows her; don't know what they'd do if something tragic happens to her first --- perhaps the sound of a feed bucket being banged upon will bring them running like ours did. 
Too many bells just confuses the herd and they'll run hither and dither and never go where they're supposed to

Put the bell on sassy. Then the goats can keep a sharp eye on her.