Japan and the United States are closer together now than they were last week because the earthquake that struck Friday moved the island of Honshu eight feet to the East. A whole effing island, with tens of millions of people living on it, eight effing feet. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that.
When I was a kid we used to camp at Grand Teton National Park, and the ranger would give a talk about how the land to the West had raised up and that we were standing on had dropped down, and where the land broke was the East face of the Grand Tetons. For years the process was described as occurring over many millions of years, but recently geologists have been seeing evidence that those 7000' mountains may have been created in as little as a few months. The jury is still out of the strength of that evidence, but... Imagine mountains rising 7000' in mere months.
Now that would produce some big honking earthquakes.
It is hard to believe the devastation that can be caused in just a few seconds. California has its' share of danger and I am wondering when the New Madrid fault will become active. When I lived in Memphis I was sorta worried that we would drop off in the MS. River.
ReplyDelete