Earthquakes, should America's east cost be worried?

[flobadob]

There have been 3 sizeable earthquakes in the Pacific in as many days. With all of this activity is there a real possibility that the east coast of America could be hit next?

[237SJ]

Doubt it. It`s the west coast that borders the Pacific.

[NoMercy]

It's also the West that has a huge fault line (San Andeas) not the East.

[redman41]

East Coast of USA is OK, West Coast may be hit

[squarebear]

Hawaii should be getting it at 1pm. Mainland USA and Canada do not have a warning.

[anotheoldgit]

Yes the most powerful hit San Francisco in 1908, measuring 8.25 on the Richter scale.

The most recent 'big one' was in 1989, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale.

[Gromit]

There has been quite a bit of activity on the Pacific Rim during the last year. Two large Earthquakes in Indonesia last year, and the New Zealand quake in January, and a sizable one in China yesterday.

That is all on the other side of the ocean. Whether that is normal, or unusual I do not know. Haven't they been warning for a while that the west Coast of Merica is overdue one?

[Gromit]

West Coast of America is overdue one.

[rowanwitch]

there is the potential to impact onto connected plates as pressure gets referred along the system... depends on what type of plate interface it is

[DTCwordfan]

Somebody needs a Geography lesson, unless there has been a reversal of the Poles overnight..................

[razza]

And a reversal of the poles is actually taking place now,it is long overdue apparently.

[pa___ul3]

don't get started on polar reversals DT, some are saying that's overdue as well aren't they!!
I was wondering what impact this batch of activity could have on connecting plates, it's been too long since A-level geography for me to remember what's what.
Good to see though that the tsunami warning for NZ has been lifted, they've had a big enough hit already!

[flobadob]

Ah yes, I meant west, oopsh. So do you think America's west coast is in any peril?

[DTCwordfan]

Now if you want something to worry about

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...00/mega_tsunami.shtml

However to give some balance

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3963563.stm

And then there are the super-volcanoes - there was a fascinating programme on the Beeb showing the impact of Lake Toba (Indonesia) that came close to obliterating life 73000 years ago. Shards were found in the Greenland ice. This volcano dwarfed Krakatoa which was a mere pimple in comparison (and that reversed warming in the 1880s - note the Xmas cards with folk skating on the Thames).

Next one of these supers reckoned to go bang is Yellowstone and the caldera is 2/3rds full - the ash would stretch across to Chicago and Houston.......the good news not for over another 250k years.

[DTCwordfan]

as to pole reversal, there is no uncontested evidence that a magnetic field reversal has ever caused any biological extinctions - there could be major effects on computer systems and associated netwroks as the magnetic fluxes seek to stabilise.

However, I think it fair to say no one knows - just as there are various theories of what causes them from distortion of flux from within the Earth's mantles to major tectonic movements that dwarf a M9 earthquake......

[flobadob]

DT, going by that landslide link you posted then surely not only America but Ireland, the UK, France, Spain and Portugal would be hit by that tsunami as well.

[DTCwordfan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG3QXNkkdlI

Fascinating Nat Geo stuff.....bit simplistic but does its stuff......

[DTCwordfan]

Yes flobabdob - it happened in 1755 with a large M9 (or nearly 9) just off Portugal - well between Portugal, the Azores and Gibralter - about 120 miles WSW of Cape St Vincent. This was on the Azores-Gibralter-Transform Fault.

The earthquake did immense damage in Lisbon but, just like Sendai today, it was the tsunami that really did its worst. The Tagus estuary emptied revealing old shipwrecks etc and then in came the tsunami destroying all the lower town - the Royal Riberia palace went, most of the 16thC Manueline architecture, the new Opera House - along with a signficant collection of Titian, Rubens and Correggio paintings, and historical documents such as the papers of Vasco da Gama's circumnavigation of the globe.

Some 2/3rds of the city was inhabitable and whole communities in the Algarve were wiped out. In Spain there were over 1200 deaths.....

Just as you are seeing today, what the water did not get, the fires added to.......unfortunately it happened on a day of celebration and holiday, All Saints Day, which was also a reason for the numbers dead and the resultant questioning of God in what was a bastion of Catholicism, perhaps second only to Rome at that time.

It was considered at the time as the equivalent of the Holocaust - no-one knows the deaths but possibly 100k+ and it's profundity had significant impact on socio-philisophical-religious thinking in the emerging Age of Enlightment. It destroyed Portugal's economy and position in the world, though it did lead to the establishment of seismology as a discipline.

Yes, the South-coast of the UK was hit by the tsunami, with some 8 to 10 ft waves that caused significant damage and deaths as it swept in. Galway in Ireland even lost part of its city walls, known as the Spanish Arch........

[stokemaveric]

supermoon????????????????????????????

[boxtops]

Potentially, yes.

Re the East coast of the US, they have to look out for part of the volcanoes in the east of the Canary Islands erupting - scientists think it will - the tsunami from that could well cover some of the eastern seaboard of the States.

[flobadob]

Sort of treaded all over DT's point there boxy.