Ring of Fire
Is there a correlation between the Alaska, Chili, Indonesia, New Zealand, Japan quakes? Is this a sign of more to come? Will the Pacific Northwest or Cali be the next spots to experience quakes.
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Is there a correlation between the Alaska, Chili, Indonesia, New Zealand, Japan quakes? Is this a sign of more to come? Will the Pacific Northwest or Cali be the next spots to experience quakes.
OP here: Yeah I'm a Tacoma
OP here: Yeah I'm a Tacoma Boy. Not a NW native by any means but we have all noticed an increase in state issued disaster preparedness fliers and I have noticed a sudden SHARP increase in infrastructure work mostly on the gas lines that occurred immediately after the Japan quake. I wonder if the folks in charge up here are getting a little nervous. I recall someone mentioning something about a professor of geology that has been touring schools up here for the last few years lecturing about the "Big One" that is about to hit the NW.
Oi. F*cking Hanford creeps me out.
isn't that funny? here in
isn't that funny? here in southern california.... just remarked to friends over the weekend the increase in PSA emergency tests on the radio, and got one from Pendleton via email.
We laughed nervously that perhaps its due to 911 anniversary.
But maybe it's more concern than normal re: earthquakes.
Yes, there is. New Zealand,
Yes, there is. New Zealand, Chile, Japan are all "corners" of the Ring of Fire. California/NW is the last corner. Seems like the Ring of Fire is really cookin' right now, what with solar flares, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions getting more intense and closer together.
Guess we're heading into that great unknown of 2012. It's one thing experience and try to ride out the planet itself going through its changes. It's another altogether to have to endure the inevitable thousands of years of horrendous pollution and destruction that will occur if/when nuclear, chemical and petroleum plants/pipelines, etc. are impacted by natural disasters.
The Devil Nuke (Diablo Canyon)
I wonder if they have safety latches on the cupboards at that cute little coastal nuke ....and how would they EVACUATE San Luis Obispo ? With so much posh real estate looking at becoming REALLY low rent I wonder what short options look like ?
Diablo Canyon via Google Earth
Why not check out the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant via Google Earth? If you bring up the satellite image of Diablo Canyon, look immediately northeast of the twin reactor buildings. You will see twin pools of water. Those pools sit on higher ground overlooking the plant and contain emergency cooling water. In case of a problem at Diablo Canyon, that water can be used to cool the reactors. Because the pools sit higher up than the reactors, there is no need for electricity to run the pumps. The water will flow downhill to the reactors by gravity. No earthquake or tsunami can take out the gravity, so Diablo Canyon has a very reliable backup cooling system.
One doesn't need to evacuate San Luis Obispo if you take care of the problem at the reactor.
"No earthquake or tsunami
"No earthquake or tsunami can take out the gravity, so Diablo Canyon has a very reliable backup cooling system. "
In theory, it is a superb plan. I mean that seriously. I was a huge proponent of nuke power (worked in the industry - but not at a plant - for years) However, we are finding out that hooooey baby there sure are a lot of variables that tend to interfere in our comfortable world of absolutes.
A plethora of extremely severe and unusual weather conditions all over the country have thrown lots of monkey wrenches into disaster response and recovery plans. Or should have.
There is no plan. We all
There is no plan.
We all know this now.
Why plan for what can never happen?
Your subject line said it
Your subject line said it all - ring of fire. If you google search, there are great simple explanations of the why and how.
Hard to predict earthquakes. I live in SoCal, so am interested.
Here's a great little fun (and free) tool: http://www.wolton.net/quake.html
Of course, there's always USGS: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php
Looks like Argentina and Alaska had a couple of whoppers today.