American Tsunami

[sunnyside]

I recently watched a documentary about the possibility of a tsunami on the west coast of the USA.

From San Diego, California, north and over the Canadian border, is a fault line where the earth's plates move a minute amount every year.

Scientists, studying the plates said, it was "not a matter of IF, but a matter of WHEN" ,one of the plates would slip under the other, causing a tsunami greater than has been seen so far. The ocean's waves would be so high that it would take out everything in it's path, and the water would not stop coming inland until it reached mountains.

Whaddaya think about this information??

[BobK]

Must have some validity because the state of Oregon has some real concern.

http://www.wsspc.org/tsunami/OR/Ore_wave.html

Living in Nevada I've heard more than once that the west coast can disappear and where I live would increase in value as beach front property.

Not a happy thought no matter how you look at it.

[Uncle Fred]

Oh I dunno ..........

[sunnyside]

Oh I dunno ..........
Well, educate yourself.

[sunnyside]

BobK - I'd always heard the "joke" about Ca. falling off into the ocean. In my imagination, I thought it could be a massive earthquake from the plates that lie under CA. and that the quake would lower the land, to some degree, so that some of the coast would be further under water, in some way.

However, the documentary that shows the effects of the plate shift in the ocean in quite another matter. That's 100% devastation of everything. It's unimaginable.

[anna7]

...my daughter lives on the coast of california so this is all very scary :(

[sunnyside]

As for me, Anna, I think I'd be making plans to move inland.
However, I know that people think it will never happen to them, and it might not. That disaster may be a 100 years away. No one ever knows.

They had predicted a disaster, such as Katrina , would happen at some time or other. They knew the levees could fail, with just the right hurricane. I'm sure they thought it would never happen in their lifetime.

It IS scary food for thought, isn't it?

[BobK]

BobK - I'd always heard the "joke" about Ca. falling off into the ocean. In my imagination, I thought it could be a massive earthquake from the plates that lie under CA. and that the quake would lower the land, to some degree, so that some of the coast would be further under water, in some way.

However, the documentary that shows the effects of the plate shift in the ocean in quite another matter. That's 100% devastation of everything. It's unimaginable.

The nature channel explained how they believe South America & the coast of Africa were joined at one time as one large land mass. They demonstrate how the coast lines of both match in curvature. Other events like the rising of the land at Yellowstone. The San Andreas, fault oceans venting heat & molten mass several miles down all make convincing arguements for something catastrophic to take place.

The WHEN is what science hasn't been able to determine. The worst possible sceanario is what the state of Oregon has on that web site. That the event will be sudden and people won't be able evacuate.

[BobK]

...my daughter lives on the coast of california so this is all very scary :(

I don't envy your daughters chosen place to live. No doubt in my mind that scary is the right word.

[jasmine]

I have lived near the coast of California for most of my adult life. I don't find it "scary" at all. Every place has its disadvantages. There are earthquake faults in nearly every part of the U.S. Some more active than others. Living directly on top of a fault line would seem to be a bad idea though! Consider the New Madrid fault which scientists say has a 9 in 10 chance of a big quake within the next 50 years - and will be devastating because no one is prepared for a big quake in the midwest.

[BobK]

Tsunamis can be generated by earth quakes generally on the ocean floor. I guess it's possible for one to be generated just inland or at least close enough to affect the closest ocean body of water.

The website livescience has a series of quizzes that touch on all kinds of subjects. I thought this one concerning earthquakes might be relative to this thread. It's a short 10 question quiz testing knowledge of earthquakes. If nothing else it's fun.

http://www.livescience.com/php/trivia/?quiz=quake

Another portion of the site has this concerning monster waves & tsunami photo. I thought this to be an overall interesting site.

http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagegallery/igviewer.php?imgid=318&gid=23&index=0

[Joyous]

BobK, you mention Africa and South America being joined at one time. If you could put all the land masses together, edge to edge, they all fit together except for erosion over the ages. It has been put forth as a possibility that the great flood caused the land mass to seperate. I have no source for this, but I recall reading it or hearing it in the telly.