Quake?

From: Dann Lunsford <dann_at_greycat.com>
Date: Sat Oct 16 21:50:35 1999

"Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" wrote:
>
> > < I think our California members should store their more precious old
> > <computers on the east side of the fault line in case the rest of Californi
> > <should someday slide off into the Pacific.
> > Or is that the west side case it becomes an island? ;)
>
> My understanding of the tectonic plate movement is that everything east of
> the Hayward/Roger's Creek fault will slide into the Atlantic.

To inject a note of fact into this rather amusing speculation, the "San
Andreas/
Hayward/Roger's Creek/whatever" fault system is transverse, not
strike/slip.
This means that the general motions of the plates colliding is
north/south,
not up/down. What these quakes are doing is moving Southern California
and
Northern California closer together. I've heard it said that The Big
One
will *not* cause anything to sink into the ocean; instead L.A. and S.F.
will get about 30 feet closer to each other...in a tenth of a second.
You may
apply your own imaginations to that; I prefer not to. *shuddder*

Dann Lunsford
Received on Sat Oct 16 1999 - 21:50:35 BST