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The Five Cities Most At Risk For The Next Big Earthquake
Damages from the earthquake that hit the San Francisco area this weekend are estimated to be as high as $4 billion. For many cities around the world, particularly coastal cities situated on the geologically active Ring of Fire, an earthquake could be catastrophically destructive. Bloomberg looks at the five cities that are most vulnerable to earthquakes.
As Michael Snyder rather ominously warns, the quake last weekend is just the start of the shaking in California...
Don't get too excited about what happened on Sunday. Scientists assure us that it is only a matter of time before "the Big One" hits California.
In fact, the 6.1 magnitude earthquake that hit northern California on Sunday was not even the largest earthquake along the Ring of Fire this weekend. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook the area around Valparaiso, Chile on Saturday and a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Peru on Sunday.
As I mentioned above, we have moved into a time when seismic activity is steadily rising. It has gotten to the point where even the mainstream media cannot ignore it anymore. For example, just check out the following excerpt from a recent CBS News report…
The average rate of big earthquakes — those larger than magnitude 7 — has been 10 per year since 1979, the study reports. That rate rose to 12.5 per year starting in 1992, and then jumped to 16.7 per year starting in 2010 — a 65 percent increase compared to the rate since 1979. This increase accelerated in the first three months of 2014 to more than double the average since 1979, the researchers report.
Something is happening that scientists don't understand, and that is a little scary.
As I wrote about the other day, earthquake activity seems to particularly be increasing in the United States. While the west has been relatively quiet, the number of earthquakes in the central and eastern portions of the nation has quintupled over the past 30 years…
According to the USGS, the frequency of earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S. has quintupled, to an average of 100 a year during the 2011-2013 period, up from only 20 per year during the 30-year period to 2000.
Most of these quakes were minor, but research published by the USGS earlier this year demonstrated that a relatively minor magnitude 5.0 quake caused by wastewater injection after conventional oil drilling triggered a much bigger, 5.7 magnitude quake in Prague, Okla.
“We know the hazard has increased for small and moderate size earthquakes. We don’t know as well how much the hazard has increased for large earthquakes. Our suspicion is it has but we are working on understanding this,” said William Ellsworth, a scientist with the USGS.
What in the world could be causing this to happen?
Oklahoma, which used to rarely ever have significant earthquakes, has experienced over 2,300 earthquakes so far in 2014.
That is absolutely staggering.
And of course volcanic activity has been rising all over the planet as well. In 2013, the number of eruptions around the globe set a new all-time high, and right now persistent rumbling under Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano has much of Europe on alert...
For more than a week the earth has been rumbling beneath Iceland’s looming Bardarbunga volcano. The almost continuous small earthquakes led the government to activate its National Crisis Coordination Centre this week and block off access to the largely uninhabited region around the Bardarbunga caldera.
Major airlines are making contingency plans for a potential eruption that could throw dust into the atmosphere and disrupt flight paths between North America and Europe.
Some scientists are saying that if that volcano erupts, it "could trigger Britain’s coldest winter ever".
Clearly something is happening.
All over the world seismic activity is on the rise.
That means that the shaking in California (and in much of the rest of the world) may soon get a whole lot worse.
So what do you think is causing all of this?
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This Napa quake is so overblown it's comical. The only tragedy is some of the great vintages that were taken back by the earth.
And yes, I live there. I woke up to it, promptly fell back asleep.
Next D&G article please. Maybe more about Ebola, ISIS, or Economic Collapse. This earthquake story is just not satisfying.
/SO
Agreed.
8/25: California Quake to Cost Insurers Up to $1 Billion, Eqecat Says
8/27: Damages from the earthquake that hit the San Francisco area this weekend are estimated to be as high as $4 billion.
If I do exponential interpolation, the estimated damages from the Napa quake should hit $1 trillion by 9/4.
So THAT'S how they are going to deal with the natl debt! Smart fuckers, aren't they? 17 trillion by election time.
I see what they did there....
earthquakes, ebola, Putin on Ukraine, ISIS, homegrown terrorists. I enjoy doom porn as much as the next guy but there seems to be a lot of fearmongering going on on the Hedge lately. Is this really what sells to us or have we started to attract a different readership? I like econ (though it's clear where it will end up just unsure when) and geopolitics but really, should I be scared of "the big one" earthquake. I feel distracted and "scared".
Kids got early release and I'm off today. If I post another comment before 10pm tonight I want you guys to bust my chops for it.
Long caveman preps.
Why do people doing the publishing regard Michael Snyder as an authority or an expert on anything? Blows my mind...
DAM THE EARTHQUAKES!
Jesus christ.... until you address the issue that more smaller (smaller than THE BIG ONE) earthquakes reduces the stress available to fuel THE BIG ONE, we (all the independent thinkers) think you're idiots!
Increase in seismic activity reduces the likelihood of overstressed plates releasing THE BIG ONE
It must be Global Warming, nothing else can explain it.
Actually the media should be banned from reporting any earthquake under a 5.0, it is very very rare that any damage occurs below that. It is like the wind blew 30 MPH today, run for shelter.
frack!
Shirley this august body of market manipulators and economic contributors and commentors will not take umbrage with stimulative geophysical policies! It's Keynesian geology and truly pump priming! I don't like where this is going.
Q: with the demise of the petro dollar will we have less usa-centric articles?
Q: So what do you think is causing this?
A: More quantity and more sensitive wiggle detectors.
Sorry, I couldn't resist. Not saying I'm an expert in this topic, but if anyone wants to investigate, the first thing to check is whether this area is yet another AGW-like scam (faked and manipulated data).
Wanna bet your insurance company doesn't jack up your earthquake insurance now? Ever wonder just who sponsored this so-called research? Just guessing.
Personally, I think we need to pay geologists much higher salaries because they constitute our first line of defense against Anthropogenic Seismic Change (ASC). Wink, Wink!
The "increase" is likely due to the same phenomenon as the increase diagnosis of ADD ... after it became an official medical diagnosis. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/increase_in_earthquakes.php