I would love to live in California but earthquakes scare me. As a Mississippi girl, I am only equipped to handle hurricanes. I don't know what to do for earthquakes. But if I live in one of the cities listed below, I'd better prepare myself. (BTW, why can't God fix the plates and save the death and destruction to come?)
"Megacities are something new on the planet. Earthquakes are something very old. The two are a lethal combination, as seen in the recent tragedy in Port-au-Prince, where more than 200,000 people perished — a catastrophe that scientists say is certain to be repeated somewhere, and probably soon, with death tolls that once again stagger the mind.
In 1800, there was just one city with more than a million people — Beijing. Now there are 381 urban areas with at least 1 million inhabitants. Urbanization crossed a threshold last year when, for the first time, more people lived in city settings than rural ones. About 403 million people live in cities that face significant seismic hazard, according to a recent study by seismologist Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado.
The next Big One could strike Tokyo, Istanbul, Tehran, Mexico City, New Delhi, Kathmandu or the two metropolises near California's San Andreas Fault, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Or it could devastate Dhaka, Jakarta, Karachi, Manila, Cairo, Osaka, Lima or Bogota. The list goes on and on.
"You can name about 25 cities that are like Port-au-Prince. They're not going to shake but every 250 years [on average]. But if you can name 25 of them, you're going to have an event like this every 10 years," said David Wald, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey."
4 comments:
Gotta have the plates, Mama. Lots of pretty good reasons why.
The problem is building on the fault lines, but I guess that's the price of progress.
I blame the gays or was it the Jews, I get confused... ;)
When I lived in California everyone used to say that if you can't get out of the building then stand in a doorway, not sure how sensible that is, maybe they were pulling my credulous English leg?
It has to be the Jews Steve. The orthodox rabbis say all misery comes upon the earth because of Israel.
You people!!! The earth was here before we were a species, and its plate tectonics were in place long before we drug our monkey selves upright and became Homo Erectus.
This is just my silly irrelevant opinion: we pay WAYYYYY too much attention to how long we're likely to live, how to avoid inevitable natural disasters, and so on. If it's your time to shuffle your mortal coils, you're gonna do it, and no amount of careful planning will fool the ol' Grim Reaper.
As someone very wise once said, it isn't Death that's our enemy---it's Time. Death is easeful,an end to struggle and pain.
Not that I'm in any hurry for it, though...
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