Earthquake, another reason to build nothing in our city

And if the oceans rose

Then there could be a volcano

San Jose Mercury News/Science and Environment/Lisa M. Krieger and Matthias Gafni/Staff, 10/11/14.  "25 years after Loma Prieta:  Bay Area infrastructure is safer, but we're still on shaky ground."

Or what would happen if a meteor hit

....  "A lot has been done," said Anne Kiremidjian, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. "But to get a B, there's a lot more to be done. "Our entire region is a very complicated system, and it all has to function together."

....  Our population has surged from 6 million to 7.7 million. Our economy now holds one of the nation's highest concentrations of wealth and is a center of innovation. And the next earthquake to challenge our more complex and interdependent urban lives may not rupture in the remote Santa Cruz Mountains. It may be underneath our feet.  If the Big One ruptures we could face up to $200 billion in total residential and commercial property damage, according to Menlo Park's Risk Management Solutions, which assesses earthquake risk worldwide. By comparison, losses from Hurricane Katrina totaled $120 billion."   Read article. 

Note photographs/graphics. Asteroid crater Mravis/Physics! the science and why.  Dinosaur and alligator Mail Online, UK "Asteroid that hit the Earth 65 million years ago", 4/11/12.  Science fiction asteroid hitting Earth that looks like a volcano  CNN, "Doomsday asteroid", 1/14/14.

Posted by Kathy Meeh