Nearly 75% of the US Is at Risk From Damaging Earthquakes

Post Reply New Topic

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/earthquakes/nearly-75-of-the-us-is-at-risk-from-damaging-earthquakes-new-map-reveals

I thought California is the only state at risk?

Which state is Yellowstone?

I understand Yellowstone is destined to blow, could happen 50 years, 10 years or tomorrow morning? seismic readings suggest it's overdue

The juxtaposition of the population centers with the risk is confusing me a bit. From what I can see, it looks like the risk factor is about the same between where I am now and where I'm moving to in the coming months. Didn't really think I'd ever have to think about earthquakes in New England. Nevertheless, it's a low risk.

Haven't felt an earthquake where I live in a long time. However, I did feel one back in 2016. I was sleeping on a blow up mattress as I was at my parents' house away from my apartment at the time and the strongest earthquake I've ever felt happened while I was sleeping on that. It wasn't super strong, 5.0 or thereabouts I think, but I felt it on that blow up mattress! It scared me and I thought figuring how strong that felt here, wherever it originated must have been pretty bad. And yeah, it was worse at the center.

Australia is also supposed to be a safe zone not on the edge of tectonic plates. Yet I have experienced serious earth quakes in a number of capital cities. The big worry is underseas earthquakes off the Pacific plate leading to tsunamis that hit the north and east coast of Australia.

New massive earthquake threat to Seattle revealed in ancient trees

Earthquake activity in the New York City area

We need to take into account more than the risk of having an earthquake hit a certain level on the Richter scale at a certain locale. One has to take into account infrastructure and public preparedness. It is extremely unlikely that New York will ever experience an earthquake close the level of California or the Pacific Northwest. That advantage is mitigated by very old infrastructure and public mentality of bad earthquakes happen somewhere else. That means that the public will react incorrectly when one hits and even newer buildings are not built up to code.