COMMENT:
Be careful when shooting close to the coastline, higher ground inland is better these days along the Pacific from Northern California to British Columbia Canada
BACKGROUND:
Clips and pieces from the WSJ article written by Peter Landers,
"{
After studying ancient rocks, a Japanese geologist warned that a disaster was imminent—to no avail. Masanobu Shishikura was expecting it. The thought that came to mind, he says, was "yappari," a Japanese word meaning roughly, "Sure enough, it happened."
Dr. Shishikura's studies of ancient earth layers persuaded him that every 450 to 800 years, colliding plates in the Pacific triggered waves that devastated areas around the modern city of Sendai, in Miyagi Prefecture, as well as in Fukushima Prefecture.
One early tsunami was known to historians. Caused by the 869 Jogan quake, its waves, according to one chronicle, killed 1,000 people. Dr. Shishikura had found strong evidence of a later tsunami in the same region, which probably took place between 1300 and 1600.
"We cannot deny the possibility that [such a tsunami] will occur again in the near future," he and colleagues wrote in August 2010. That article appeared in a journal published by the Active Fault and Earthquake Research Center in Tsukuba, the government-funded institute where Dr. Shishikura works.
"It appears to be almost completely unknown among the general public that in the past great tsunamis have inundated areas as far as 3-4 kilometers inland as the result of earthquakes exceeding magnitude 8."
Now, Dr. Shishikura's team is looking at the Nankai trough to the south, which could trigger tsunamis hitting the island of Shikoku and the Kii Peninsula. Dr. Shishikura says large tsunamis appear to hit there every 400 to 600 years, with the most recent in 1707.
Those rough calculations suggest the danger is at least a century away. Still, Dr. Shishikura says, "we had better be on the lookout."
}"
the entire article text is at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704101604576248722573203608.html
The public thought Shishikura's geologist methods of looking at layers in the ground digging holes as strange - and did not take him seriously when could. Often such geologist warnings are ignored - some think they have rocks in their heads.
Other geologists closer to home, say the Cascadia falt is due to throw a wave on a big part of the northern west coast:
http://www.registerguard.com/web/newsloc...rgency.html.csp
The average time between magnitude 8 and larger Cascadia earthquakes is about 240 years (see page 8, Cascadia earthquake timeline, based on Chris Goldfinger’s data, Oregon State University). The last megaquake, estimated as a magnitude 9, occurred in 1700 — that’s 311 years ago. In geologic terms, Cascadia is “9 months pregnant” and overdue.
http://www.good.is/post/cascadia-the-west-coast-fault-line-that-is-nine-months-pregnant/
Paul See, who focused his geologic study to the North Oregon Coast, told me Cascadia is going to cause a title wave again soon. Information based on sand layers when dug down in the ground of lower areas. Said was layers of sand washed inland for over a mile at areas spaced several 100s of years apart now over-due (as also documented at the above links by other geologists).
{edit 4/27/11 - changed title to encourage longer term discussion, as the Japan event fades to a memory}
Be careful when shooting close to the coastline, higher ground inland is better these days along the Pacific from Northern California to British Columbia Canada
BACKGROUND:
Clips and pieces from the WSJ article written by Peter Landers,
"{
After studying ancient rocks, a Japanese geologist warned that a disaster was imminent—to no avail. Masanobu Shishikura was expecting it. The thought that came to mind, he says, was "yappari," a Japanese word meaning roughly, "Sure enough, it happened."
Dr. Shishikura's studies of ancient earth layers persuaded him that every 450 to 800 years, colliding plates in the Pacific triggered waves that devastated areas around the modern city of Sendai, in Miyagi Prefecture, as well as in Fukushima Prefecture.
One early tsunami was known to historians. Caused by the 869 Jogan quake, its waves, according to one chronicle, killed 1,000 people. Dr. Shishikura had found strong evidence of a later tsunami in the same region, which probably took place between 1300 and 1600.
"We cannot deny the possibility that [such a tsunami] will occur again in the near future," he and colleagues wrote in August 2010. That article appeared in a journal published by the Active Fault and Earthquake Research Center in Tsukuba, the government-funded institute where Dr. Shishikura works.
"It appears to be almost completely unknown among the general public that in the past great tsunamis have inundated areas as far as 3-4 kilometers inland as the result of earthquakes exceeding magnitude 8."
Now, Dr. Shishikura's team is looking at the Nankai trough to the south, which could trigger tsunamis hitting the island of Shikoku and the Kii Peninsula. Dr. Shishikura says large tsunamis appear to hit there every 400 to 600 years, with the most recent in 1707.
Those rough calculations suggest the danger is at least a century away. Still, Dr. Shishikura says, "we had better be on the lookout."
}"
the entire article text is at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704101604576248722573203608.html
The public thought Shishikura's geologist methods of looking at layers in the ground digging holes as strange - and did not take him seriously when could. Often such geologist warnings are ignored - some think they have rocks in their heads.
Other geologists closer to home, say the Cascadia falt is due to throw a wave on a big part of the northern west coast:
http://www.registerguard.com/web/newsloc...rgency.html.csp
The average time between magnitude 8 and larger Cascadia earthquakes is about 240 years (see page 8, Cascadia earthquake timeline, based on Chris Goldfinger’s data, Oregon State University). The last megaquake, estimated as a magnitude 9, occurred in 1700 — that’s 311 years ago. In geologic terms, Cascadia is “9 months pregnant” and overdue.
http://www.good.is/post/cascadia-the-west-coast-fault-line-that-is-nine-months-pregnant/
Paul See, who focused his geologic study to the North Oregon Coast, told me Cascadia is going to cause a title wave again soon. Information based on sand layers when dug down in the ground of lower areas. Said was layers of sand washed inland for over a mile at areas spaced several 100s of years apart now over-due (as also documented at the above links by other geologists).
{edit 4/27/11 - changed title to encourage longer term discussion, as the Japan event fades to a memory}
