Midwest Earthquake Hazard Downplayed 96
swellconvivialguy writes "Next year marks the bicentennial of the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes, with earthquake drills and disaster tourism events planned across the Midwest, including the Great Central US ShakeOut. But despite the fact that Earthquake Hazard Maps equate the New Madrid seismic zone with California, geologist Seth Stein says new science (especially GPS data) tells us that the hazard has been significantly overestimated, and that we should not spend billions on earthquake preparations in the Midwest."
anniversaries are forever... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So Confused on the GPS Data and Logic (Score:2, Funny)
if something is 'storing up energy' how does moving around equate to that? I mean, if the moving of the ground in violent ways is the releasing of that 'stored energy' then how is small movements indications that it's storing up energy?
I am not a geologist either, but if I hold one end of a rubber band still and move the other in one direction, it stores up energy. Releasing the rubber band releases that stored energy by moving in the other direction in a violent (and possibly painful) way.
It's a trap! (Score:1, Funny)
This is part of a vast, left-wing conspiracy to rid the nation of the so called "fly over" country and its citizens, thereby keeping the current "leadership" in place. Since they won't be prepared, the ensuing earthquake will render "Middle America" unlivable and force those from the middle of the US to the coastal areas and force them into Welfare.
New Madrid Earthquake Disaster Plan (Score:4, Funny)
congratulations (Score:5, Funny)
you've invented an acronym that bothers me more than IANAL
My mind always reads that as "I anal", or in "I'm anal", Which makes sense if you're a lawyer meaning anal in the psychological sense, but it has certain sexual overtones as well that I don't want to think about on a website mostly populated by men.
Now you've invented an acronym for saying you're not a seismologist, IANAS, and my brain processes it as "I anus" or "I'm an anus."
Never mind why you have low self esteem: basically I just want to read about earthquakes and legal issues without thinking about so much goddamn anal and anuses.
Re:It's a trap! (Score:3, Funny)
Everybody knows the proper term for this area is "Real America"
Thank God we have Sarah Palin to protect us from you fake Americans...
Don't you watch disaster movies? (Score:5, Funny)
I hate to break it to you Seth, but in every disaster movie I've ever seen, the guy who dies first (usually in an ironic way) is the scientist who says there's no danger and we don't need to prepare.
Re:It's a trap! (Score:3, Funny)
It's livable now?