Things You Should Worry About

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Things you should worry about

There are plenty of things to worry about in life but if you need something extra I have compiled a list of things that are real, and do not have political ties or government funding. These are actual things that have happened in the past and will happen in the future. Its just a matter of time. It is not what I would call a fun list because millions will be affected by these things. These are real worries.

Mega Thrust Earthquake

What are they? Mega thrust earthquakes are along plates that form subduction zones. When one plate slides under another it can slide smoothly under it or it can cause the other plate to fold under itself causing incredible pressure until one day that pressure gives and the plate on top rights itself by popping back into place. That is a mega thrust earthquake.

Why should this worry you? Its going to happen right here in North America, in the Great Pacific Northwest . Stretching from southern Oregon up through British Colombia is the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Its a 600+ mile long zone due to break any time

So how strong will it be? When it does break, the quake will be one of the strongest ever recorded on the planet. It is theorized that it will be 9.0 or stronger. It's the same type of fault that rocked Indonesia on Dec 26th, 2004. Tsunamis, massive quakes and possible volcanic eruptions are said to be associated with this type of event.

How long will it last? 5 minutes or more. The reason being is the entire fault/plate doesn't slip all at once. It starts at one end and moves several kilometers per minute, until the entire 600+ mile fault has settled into place. It is said that it will start at the Oregon end and work its way up.

So who will be affected? British Colombia, Seattle and Portland, West Coast, and Japan. The major US cities have ports deep within land and will not be affected by a tsunami. But like all coastlines, thousands of buildings and small towns dot the entire coastline. Those will be in the most danger, as well as the thousands that stroll up and down the beach. There is an estimated 30 minutes of time between the quake and tsunami to strike the shoreline which is not enough time to warn those on the beach. The violent shaking of a 9.0 moves the ground up to a yard at a time and it will roll like waves making it hard to run or keep on your feet. The tsunami moving across the pacific at 600mph and will hit Hawaii and then Japan, and given ample warning, the losses should be at the minimum due to the tsunami warning system in the Pacific.

One big problem is nobody really knows what a 9.0+ earthquake will do to a modern high rise city such as Portland or Seattle. The URM, or unreinforced masonry, buildings (those made of brick and cement with no rebar, and much of Seattle is built of this material) are certain to collapse, and everybody agrees to this. The mega sky scrapers of modern build may stay up, or may fall due to the length of such a massive quake. Nobody has ever tested a 5 minute duration of a 9.0+ on a 70-story building. Engineers are proud people and say their buildings will stand. Quake experts are in disagreement. The violent shaking of side to side, and rolling of the earth will start the building moving and they are sure to be damaged within the first couple of minutes. Its anybody's guess what will happen during the next three minutes. Frequency will play a huge part. Every building has it own wavelength and the wavelength of the quake will be one of the determining factors on what stays up and what goes down.

So when was the last one? In 1700. We know from carbon dating and records in Japan of a massive tsunami in that year. The one before that was 300 years prior in 1400. Well it's 2007, are we due for another one? Or will it be centuries away? I suggest you do a Google search on the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) and see for yourself.

Yellowstone Super Volcano

Super volcanoes are eruptions apocalyptic in scale. Normal volcanoes are formed by magma rising up through the surface as lava and ash leaving layer upon layer forming the familiar cone shaped volcano. The gas in the magma easily escapes the the freely flowing fluid magma and is released. In a super-volcano, the magma rises up from the center of the earth but unlike normal volcanoes it does not break through the earths crust. Instead it pools under the ground forming a huge reservoir trapping the gas. Its very thick and viscous magma as well. When they do erupt its on a scale unthinkable to humans. The size of the eruption depends on the size of the pool of magma. There are only a handful of these on the planet. The last one to erupt was Toba in Sumatra 75,000 years ago. What happened after it erupted is just now being understood. Its force was about 10,000 times stronger than the 1980 Mt St. Helens eruption. The last time Yellowstone erupted it left a caldera (the name of the depression left behind a super eruption) 70 km x 30 km. It has erupted three times in cycles every 600,000 years.

Why should this concern you? First, because it's been 600,000 years since the last eruption. Second, anybody who has been to Yellowstone knows it's an active geological area and there is another pool of magma under the park. Every year thousands of small quakes are recorded and lately the dome or area above the pool of magma has recently risen 5 inches. Now this doesn't sound like much but in geological terms it is very alarming. We know virtually nothing about how super eruptions start. We don't know if there will be a warning, or if it will just blow. Plus since the magma chamber is 5 miles down we really don't know how to get down to it to study it. They only way we can determine its size it when there are earthquakes. Since sound waves travel at different speeds through liquid and solid rock we can produce a picture of how big the chamber is. It is 50 km long, 20 km wide and about 10km thick. Its virtually the size of the park.

What makes super volcanoes so dangerous and violent? Most believe its the gas trapped inside the magma. When the volcano starts to erupt, the gas expands causing the magma to expand and oh wow, what an eruption. It literally blasts itself out of the earth. Imagine Yellowstone Park blasting itself into the atmosphere. The entire park!!

So what's so bad about a super eruption? Scientists have never witnessed and observed a super eruption. Mankind has no idea what sets them off, what happens before they do blow or what signs they may give before they go off. We know what happens after they do blow, but have no clue to any warnings signs of an impending eruption.

So shouldn't it just effect Wyoming, Montana, and Nevada? This is a global killer. Not from the eruption itself, but from the debris and sulfur gases that will be hurled up to 50km high into the stratosphere. That material will then start reflecting the suns heat back into space. It will cause a volcanic winter. Europe would freeze in the summer. For Years. Any rain that falls for a long period will be acid rain planet wide. Crops will fail and people will starve.

More to come...I'm gathering data on them....