California super storm coming?

[ADS]

A group of more than 100 scientists and experts say in a new report that California faces the risk of a massive "superstorm" that could flood a quarter of the state's homes and cause $300 billion to $400 billion in damage. Researchers point out that the potential scale of destruction in this storm scenario is four or five times the amount of damage that could be wrought by a major earthquake.

Article

 

[knapplc]

This article could just as easily have been written about an impending asteroid impact. It's a slow news cycle, so they put crap like this out there they make it scary enough to attract attention when in reality it's not "news," it's just something that happened in the past and will likely happen again.

Articles like this are like the local news going to commercial with a teaser about a "hidden danger in your home that could kill you," only to find out when you return from the break that the "story" is about tripping over power cords and falling on the corner of your coffee table. Sure, it could happen and sure, it's going to happen to someone, somewhere, sometime, but it's not a true, impending threat.

 

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

I recall reading in 2004 after the earthquake and following tsunami that the quake had actually knocked the earth off its axis by a fraction. It seems that the weather worldwide has been much more severe since that happened.

 

[okaive]

What's so severe about it? San Diego getting flooded instead of Missouri?

 

[knapplc]

I recall reading in 2004 after the earthquake and following tsunami that the quake had actually knocked the earth off its axis by a fraction. It seems that the weather worldwide has been much more severe since that happened.

Technically every earthquake affects the Earth's axis. The changes are so minute that they are not having a noticeable effect on the weather.

EDIT - a 7.4 magnitude earthquake just hit Pakistan. We'll see if there are any articles about the Earth's axis after this.

 

[Street Novelist]

They have an article like this every year in California. Ever since I was in junior high school in the late 90's, scientists have always told us to brace ourselves for the 'Big One'. We still haven't had a 'Big One' since Loma Prieta (89').

 

[NUpolo8]

I'll add it to the list of thing that will destroy this state. My money's still on the state government and the unions...

 

[BIGREDFAN_in_OMAHA]

I recall reading in 2004 after the earthquake and following tsunami that the quake had actually knocked the earth off its axis by a fraction. It seems that the weather worldwide has been much more severe since that happened.

Technically every earthquake affects the Earth's axis. The changes are so minute that they are not having a noticeable effect on the weather.

EDIT - a 7.4 magnitude earthquake just hit Pakistan. We'll see if there are any articles about the Earth's axis after this.

The Sumatra quake in 2004 was measured at 9.3 second most in recorded history to the 1960 quake in Chile that was 9.5

 

[knapplc]

I recall reading in 2004 after the earthquake and following tsunami that the quake had actually knocked the earth off its axis by a fraction. It seems that the weather worldwide has been much more severe since that happened.

Technically every earthquake affects the Earth's axis. The changes are so minute that they are not having a noticeable effect on the weather.

EDIT - a 7.4 magnitude earthquake just hit Pakistan. We'll see if there are any articles about the Earth's axis after this.

The Sumatra quake in 2004 was measured at 9.3 second most in recorded history to the 1960 quake in Chile that was 9.5

But it didn't have an effect on the Earth's axis, nor did it affect the weather.

No one has ever measured a shift in Earth’s axis due to an earthquake before. Back in 2004, Gross looked for a shift from the magnitude 9.1 earthquake in Sumatra, but failed to find a signal. The Sumatra quake was less effective in altering Earth’s figure axis because of its location near the equator and the orientation of the underlying fault.

Source

That same page says the Chilean quake of 2010 may have altered the Earth's axis - by three inches. Not so noticeable, especially when the axis shifts yearly due to wind, weather, tides and the flow of magma in the core.

 

[Hingle McCringleberry]

What's so severe about it? San Diego getting flooded instead of Missouri?

Because once it happens on a coast it a huge story. Kind of like the snow storms that roll through the Midwest and move on to the east coast, once it gets past Ohio it becomes a story. Lincoln couldl be buried, but God forbid if NYC gets two inches, the world stops at that point...