SC - Earthquakes (OT/OP) was Currant history

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

Huette wrote:
>
>I suspect that your earthquakes are of volcanic origin
>rather than from continental plates shifting, which is
>what usually happens here in California, but I am not
>an expert.


Thank you for your sympathy and sound advice. I actually have an earthquake
survival kit of sorts but it shouldn´t be needed here in Reykjavík. These
quakes are actually caused by continental plates shifting (the Atlantic rift
goes straight through Iceland so whenever Europe and American decide to
drift further apart, we feel the effects) but we get volcaninc earthquakes
too. We too are waiting for the big one but this was not it - the 1896 and
1912 earthquakes are estimated to have been 10-15 times more powerful than
these were. But maybe they have lessened the tension so the big one will not
hit for another 50 years. (We have been told to expect a third quake similar
to the other two but closer to Reykjavík - not very close, though, the
continental rift is around 30 kilometers south of here).
>
>My brother was driving to work during the Sierra Madre
>Earthquake, which was 6.5.  He had stopped because he
>saw the concrete and asphalt freeway he was driving on
>ripple in front of him.  He also made sure that he was
>not under any bridges or overpasses that could
>collapse on top of him.

Yeah, seeing what had happened to the concrete roads was one of the
strangest sights. The last major earthquake I experienced (around 6,2 on the
Richter scale, but I was closer to that one so it seemed more powerful than
this one to me) happened in a part of the country where there were no
concrete roads to speak of at that time, so I hadn´t seen anything like this
before.

>Of course, the most important thing about surviving
>earthquakes is to learn from them and rebuild with
>stricter building codes.  With every earthquake we
>have experienced here in California, our building
>codes became more and more stricter and safety
>conscious.


Same here. Almost all the houses that were destroyed or severely damaged in
the quake were pre-1960 houses and the bridges that were damaged (not
severely) were old. But if this had been similar to the 1896 quake, most of
the newer houses and bridges in the South would have gone too, no matter how
well built.

Nanna