I'm a bit mixed on this.

Everyone knows I am am for thinking outside the box, exploring all possibilities and discussing/sharing the knowledge.

I have lived most of my 40 yrs here in Washington State, over 20 of them here in the NW corner. I have two kids in school, a home, job and a husband with a job. While I know it is a matter of when not if for the mega quake and everyone here is familiar with how I follow things....I am nowhere NEAR even considering 'pulling my kids out of school' and running. Frankly, I think that would be a bit ridiculous.

I am aware. That is all any of us can do...and not just in regards to cascadia. I am as prepared as I can be. In less than ten years I plan on moving, after my husband retires. We have discussed where we want this to be and why. Natural disasters/threats and social/economic factors all play into where we will chose. But that isn't happening for awhile because it simpy isn't realistic until then. There is absolutely nothing indicating a mega quake is about to happen....if it were, I would act accordingly.

Heck, the next 'big' one may be hundreds of miles down the zone from me and the affects not devastating.

I could move to wyoming and get anhilated by yellowstone. I could move to california and fall into the ocean. I could move to Florida and get taken out by a hurrican, Oklahoma and swept up by a tornado.

It is what it is. While I enjoy discussing all the possible indicators and raise awareness and educat; I surely do not want to panic anyone and cause them to uproot their lives based on nothing more than theories.

Originally posted by BO XIAN
I'm wondering . . . looking at the Pacific NW situation . . . do you imagine that such a sudden drop/rise as that cliff face might happen there?

It MUST have happened there, to what degree I don't know, but the Orphan Tsunami in Japan on Jan. 26th 1700 is the clincher. And judging by the size of the waves that hit Japan in that one, I am thinking waves as high as a hundred feet or more probably hit the PNW coast. 5 Miles inland is a pretty good bit. And there may be even worse in store. Because you gotta figure, there was a 9.1 (9.1!) in Japan and it only caused waves like what, maybe a meter high on the west coast USA, if that?

So for the reverse to be true, then what size was the quake on Cascadia that caused 8 to 12 meter waves all the way in Japan? They must have been HUGE on the PNW coast, is the point. And that's just the one case they have been able to pinpoint through the historical record. I mean you really start thinking about it, and there is no telling what may have happened thousands of years ago, even before the Japanese started keeping records. What if there is a locked spot in Cascadia that has been accumulating stress unseen for over 25,000 years? Or even 100,000 years? It could still be quite shallow, like below 50 km, and be undetectable. If that was closer to shore, as I suspect, that could be a catastrophe the likes of which no one has ever witnessed.

The Japan 9.1 is not only a warning, but a hard lesson learned. Unknown, deeper, dormant fault extensions could indeed rear their ugly head, and add another order of magnitude to what is currently thought possible.

TA - you mentioned early on that most of your focus has been on New Madrid. Do you have a thread somewhere that sheds light on that.

I have family in that area and am interested in any info I can find.

Thanks.

Originally posted by westcoast

It is what it is. While I enjoy discussing all the possible indicators and raise awareness and educat; I surely do not want to panic anyone and cause them to uproot their lives based on nothing more than theories.

My problem is that Ive lived 95% of my life on either the San Andreas or MTJ, and the more aware I become, the more I wonder about where I live. And it's no longer quakes that scare me, it's tsunamis. I have had that image of the black wall of water eating up houses and cars stuck in my mind. I think Im going to move a couple of miles to higher ground.

The day before March 11, 2011 (Japan 9.1), I could have walked up to any seismologist, and asked them if it was possible that a 9.1 quake could occur where it did. They would have probably said something like "We might see a bigger quake in southern Japan, but even then I couldn't imagine it would ever be THAT big. And especially not there. Anything over much more than a 7.5 on the northern east coast region would be unthinkable."

And see, scientists get to play the paid, maximum magnitude guessers all the way up to the end. That's such a comfortable spot, to have that authority and be able to scoff at anyone who says otherwise. All the way up to when it happens. And after it does happen, they get to scurry away back into the "See? We told you no one knew for sure" part of their diagnosis, unaccountable and unrepentant for their very own scoffing at people who thought outside their paradigm.

So here you scientists, scoff at me some more, with your noses held high, smelling the stench of a supposed fearmonger who dares to think bigger. AGAIN. And this time, I don't want any flap, see?

Just about EVERYTHING in this universe seems to occur in escalating scales. Start with the smallest molecule, and work your way up from there. The bigger the event, the rarer they occur, but the problem is...they DO occur. And just cause we're here doesn't change that one bit.

On the geologic timeline, for all we know, the fact that we've had many 9+ quakes in the last couple hundred years could be indicators of bigger events yet still to come- and that happen even more rarely. So rare that when they do, it takes a very long time for the earth to recover from them. And so rare that humans may not live through them at all. The Siberian Traps, for example, erupted for 1 million years. One MILLION years.

Buried way down below the deepest ocean bottoms, and hundreds or thousands of feet of sediment, there could be the remains of entire civilizations lost to such events. Heck, they could have even invented space travel, and some of us may have gotten off this planet to somewhere else for that very reason- never to return again. Or maybe they HAVE returned again in UFOs, and don't want to mess with our evolution. So they don't contact us outright in the open. The scenarios presented in Warehouse 13 may not be too far from the truth in some cases. The Regents- they look like humans, because, umm, maybe they ARE humans!

But the bottom line is: this place is dangerous. And if you dare tempt fate by living in known very dangerous places, such as Cascadia or Sumatra or Japan, then I can help you no further. Your choice, and not mine. 100 miles inland from the west coast and I would still be nervous living there. Cause when it comes, there is no telling HOW big it's going to be. After Japan, frankly my dear, "I just don't give a damn." The Earth's power is subject to no man's definition, except in man's own brain. The Earth, she does not care what we think.

But at least some of us are willing to concede this.