[ RadSafe ] Seattle / Puget Sound Earthquakes

[JPreisig at aol.com]

Dear JJC/Jerry Cohen,
 
     This earthquake event in Seattle is likely to  occur in the next 300 
years or so????  I don't know
what the spreading rate is in the vicinity of the Juan de Fuca ridge  
system.
 
     You're right, meteor impacts could happen.   Not so likely.  A very 
good meteor impact might knock
the Earth out of stable orbit, and we all would perish fairly  quickly.  A 
little fire, scarecrow!!!! (Sorry).
 
     I live in New Jersey:  I'm only concerned for  my one friend in 
Seattle.  And, of course,
Seattle is a very nice place to visit.
 
     You behave yourself....
 
     Regards,    Joseph R (Joe)  Preisig, PhD
 
PS  There is information about cometary impacts in the geological  
literature.
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 4/9/2012 9:04:17 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
JPreisig at aol.com writes:

Dear  Radsafe,

From: _jpreisig at aol.com_  (mailto:jpreisig at aol.com)    .


Seattle and an 8.5 or 9.0 earthquake (due to  subduction release)  
close-by boggles the mind
totally.  Ouch!!!  See Bruce Bolt's  Beginners book on Earthquakes  for 
what 
happens to tall
buildings  in earthquakes.  From what I saw of Seattle, there is a fair   
amount of unreinforced brick/
masonry used in buildings.  Heck,  the Space Needle may just fall over  
directly.

If a tsunami/flooding would occur near/in  Seattle, the loss of  life 
would be incredible.
Ever try to evacuate up to higher ground if  the hills are  liquifying???  
Ouch again.  Would  there
be helicopter or Coast Guard rescue of people from Seattle's  higher  
buildings???  People around/in the
Puget Sound would  drown directly --- it wouldn't matter if they could swim 
 
or  not.  They would be
overwhelmed by a large wall of water.   Consider debris hitting people  
also.  Cars and boats would  be
part of this debris.

My big problem  with a tsunami hitting  the Puget Sound, is that the 
tsunami going  into the 
Puget Sound would be amplified going into that rather shallow  Sound  area. 
 
I have to look at my map of Seattle again, to see  the Sound  geometry.  

There don't  appear to be any nuclear plants  in the Seattle area.

Perhaps Boeing should move a percentage of  it's plants  somewhere a 
bit inland from the
Puget Sound...

There is information about paleoseismology  and trenching  earthquake 
periodicity in the Seattle area
due to Brian Atwater and  other geologists in the UW/Seattle area.  See  
also the  popular
earthquake book by Nance.  One can do a real literature  search;   I think 
the name Heaton is
relevant.

An earthquake, of large magnitude, in the  Seattle/Puget  Sound area 
(Juan de Fuca fault zone???)
is something I don't really  want to be around to see.

Regards,     Joseph R. (Joe) Preisig, PhD






In a message dated 4/9/2012 6:35:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight  Time,  
jpower at appliedmedical.com writes:

See:   http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/pacnw/lifeline/eqhazards.html 

See the   attached USGS paper on seismic hazards in and around Puget  Sound.

One  of my Central Washington University geology professors  always pointed 
out that  he would be most concerned about  liquefaction and slope failure 
of 
unconsolidated deposits and  soils.

Jim Power
Former  Geo
Escondido,   CA

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