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Experts say huge US quake inevitable

by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | March 1, 2010 at 06:35 am

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Quote

"It's not a matter of if, only of when an event like this strikes the people of the United States," says Marcia McNutt, director of theU.S. Geological Survey. "Shame on us if we don't prepare." As of Sunday, the death toll from the earthquake in southern Chile stood at about 700. By comparison, the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti killed about 230,000 people, the Haitian government says.

Marcia McNutt, Director US Geological Survey, to USA Today News March 1 , 2010

The Director of the US Geological Survey has told USA Today News that it is not a matter of 'if' but of 'when, and that a huge Chilean style earthquake in the US is inevitable.

Many experts are saying that the US is due for "the big one" and that it should make every effort to be prepared.

More than 300 years ago, a 9.0 earthquake hit along the Pacific Northwest, experts have told press. This could happen, and will, they say, at some point in the future.

One of the really "Big Ones" to shake theUnited States was a magnitude-9.0 earthquake along the Pacific Northwest coast more than 300 years ago, before the arrival of people and development, that sent a catastrophic tsunami to Japan.

Were something like that 1700 quake to occur today — and it certainly could, seismologists say — enormous destruction and loss of life would result in a region that is home now to big cities and millions of people.

The magnitude-8.8 earthquake that rockedChile and sent tsunami fears across the Pacific on Saturday — nearly seven weeks after the enormously deadly quake that destroyed parts of Haiti— serves as a vivid reminder of the perils posed to the United States by countless fault lines and shifting plates.

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158

at 07:46 on March 1st, 2010

It is almost certain but it could be a month or a century away.

Spydermonkey

at 13:16 on March 1st, 2010

Kinda like "experts say you will die" and you will, sooner or later :)

But then again, we have more control over our death then we do over an earthquake.

YankeeJim

at 16:17 on March 1st, 2010

I lived in Southern and Northern California through a variety of quakes between the mid 1980's and early 2000. I believe that my luck had run out when 1) the Bay Bridge between Oakland and SF began falling apart, 2) my old Victorian house built in 1891 showe massive cracks and I had to constantly fill and paint to cover them up, 3) I had to take the tube to SF underwater and over the fault line, etc. Let me out of here.