Quote:
Originally posted by aurora_borealis
OTW isn't it amazing an earthquake in Alaska can create waves that come all the way across the ocean and can effect other continents. We watched a movie about the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake (which leveled most of Anchorage and the surrounding areas of Seward and Valdez, then it burned), and there were stories of people in Hawaii and Crescent City, CA that were washed away by tsunamis.
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The Good Friday 1964 earthquake was measured at about a 9.3 on the Richter scale. Had an earthquake of that magnitude struck a major city like LA or San Francisco, there would be some catastrophic damage of unimaginable proportions.
Tsunamis can travel phenomenal distances from the epicenter of an earthquake. The simplest analogy is like dropping a pebble into a pool of calm water and watch the waves spreading out from the center to all corners of the pool. When they reach shallow water is when they really do some damage.
Florida just got bitch-slapped twice by two hurricanes in two weeks, with maybe a third one (Ivan) on its way by next week possibly just for GP.
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