Yesterday I was reading an article to Greg about the forecast for earthquakes. In the 1800's there was only one city that had over a million inhabitants...Bejing, China. Now there are several hundred cities with over a million inhabitants. For earthquake scientist and forecasters this poses a huge dilemma. How to predict and issue warnings for people who live in congested areas.
I grew up in earthquake country. We had several fault lines running around us and school fire drills also included earthquake drills. When Peter was a baby we had a big one and he and I were sitting under the dining table calling Greg on the phone (long cord)...cause our glass sliding door was waving like water.
So many places have been built without earthquake codes and there exsists a lot of structures that were built before there were even codes. Having been in Bejing while they were building like crazy in preparation for their Olympics I can say...I wouldn't want to be in one of those high rises in an earthquake!
Today I wake up and there has been an 8.8 earthquake in Chile. That is huge! Huge enough to issue tsunami warnings for the countries boarding the Pacific Ocean. Mother Nature continues to adjust her skirt and we have to have a plan. So, if there is an earthquake everyone come to my house. It is built on a hard pile of rock.
No comments:
Post a Comment