California's Next Big One?

[xwacky]

Saw a "News from Barbara Boxer, US Senator from California" blurb in my inbox today.  It says California has 99% chance of having a magnitude of 6.7 or larger earthquake within the next 30 years.

Apparently, there's a new United States Geological Survey (USGS) report published recently. The summary of the report and the full report (with comprehensive maps) listed the most likely affected area.

In a gist, the following is the excerpt from the summary report:

The probability of a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake over the next 30 years striking the greater Los Angeles area is 67%, and in the San Francisco Bay Area it is 63%, similar to previous Bay Area estimates. For the entire California region, the fault with the highest probability of generating at least one magnitude 6.7 quake or larger is the southern San Andreas (59% in the next 30 years).

For northern California, the most likely source of such earthquakes is the Hayward-Rodgers Creek Fault (31% in the next 30 years). Such quakes can be deadly, as shown by the 1989 magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta and the 1994 magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquakes.

Am I worried?  Yeah, sure.  Even though my area isn't named as the epicenter, it's close enough.  But am I going to move?  Certainly not because of that!  But I do hope the house for which I'm slaving to pay the mortgage will be left standing after the BIG one blows over... Heh.

Comments

[silwyna.livejournal.com]

I read about that one. I hope it doesn't come as bad as everyone's expecting.

I don't think I could ever live in an area where earthquakes are quite common. I'd be afraid most of the time :/

[xwacky.livejournal.com]

Before I moved to California, I could never imagine living in an area that has so many earthquakes. Yet here I am, twelve years later, those small tremors don't bother me any more.

Last year, we were at a User's Conference dinner hosted by the company I work for at this really fancy place. In the middle of the dinner, the chandeliers started to shake and clink, and we felt the ground moving! Yap, we sat through a magnitude 5+ close to where we were! What did we do? We all shrugged and continued eating!

The amazing thing is, apparently most people don't think much of the threat either--just look at the housing prices in California--it boggles my mind how expensive they can get here!

Or maybe it's just because people go where jobs take them...