Earthquake watch: Interbay is toast
I’m a little bit obsessed with earthquakes, mostly because I’ve never been in one–the Nisqually quake happened before I moved here. I’m pretty terrified of them, often waking in the night convinced that an earthquake is at hand, waiting for the car alarms to go off. (I figure that if there is an earthquake, there will be lots of car alarms.)
As a result, I find studies like the newest seismic hazard assessment to be both horrifying and fascinating. People at the U.S. Geological Survey and the UW cobbled together a whole mess of earthquake studies and squished them together over a network of computers and a number of days, and what they came out with is that Interbay, northern Montlake, and parts northeast of the University are going to be far more screwed in the event of an earthquake than anyone had previously thought [PI]. Also, south Seattle is going to shake a lot longer because the seismic waves will probably get trapped in the Seattle Basin. And hey, what about that 9 to 18 foot high tsunami that could happen on Lake Washington?
This is going to do nothing to help me get a solid night’s sleep. We’re in danger for three different types of earthquakes–”The violent, shallow and so far distantly prehistoric quakes from the likes of the Seattle Fault; the massive ones produced by the Cascadian Subduction Zone Fault off the coast (the last one was in 1700); and the deep, generally milder but more frequent ones such as the 2001 Nisqually Quake.” The Seattle Fault brings a quake every 1,000 years or so, the Cascadian Subduction Zone Fault (which is similar to the fault that caused the Indian Ocean tsunami) goes every 500 years, and the Nisqually type happens about every 50 years. In theory. As long as the things all behave themselves.
Anyway, the main point right now is that all of this new information is making the engineers in charge of rebuilding 520 re-evaluate what they’re planning. Right now, the design for the new Evergreen Point Bridge will withstand an 11-foot wave. Would changing it to hold up to an 18-foot wave, just in case, be worth the time and expense? Is building for a worst case scenario worth the effort if the worst case scenario never comes?
Tomorrow at 9:30 am they’ll be having a press conference at Lowe’s on Aurora to discuss the map and encourage everyone to be prepared for disaster. I will miss it because I’ll be too scared to get out of bed, even though Eastlake is only at “moderate” risk for liquefaction and death.
I slept through the only major earthquake that happened in my space: the 1994 Northridge quake actually shook everyone in my family awake… but me. I also didn’t move here until after the Nisqually quake.
That red/orange area near UW is perilously close to my neck of the woods. I wonder exactly where that orange border ends, as my place is along the U District hillside that faces U Village. Looks like trouble, though looking at all the structures nestled along that hill, it looks like trouble in an earthquake anyway.
As someone who lived through the Northridge earthquake, I can tell you that no amount of planning ahead or even knowing where it might happen will help. I hate to sound morbid, but there’s no real planning when the earth opens up. The engineers can certainly do their best to prepare, but it’s pretty much a crapshoot.
I’m too new for Nisqually too, but I’ve been through a couple (New England gets a fair number of earthquakes, but they’re all very small… one awoke me as a child, the other was.. actually unnoticed).
I’m not afraid of it as much as I just want it to happen so I can get it over with. I move to a region ‘known’ for earthquakes and now I’m just sitting on the edge of my seat waiting…
The Nisqually quake was good fun, really. It was like a wave.
When i was in holiday in zante 2yrs ago was on the beach reading as you do,when we were hit with a tremor that lasted 10seconds approx,was terrief ied but excited at the same time,my first and only one cos i live in scotland but boy was i scared shitless
No, the Nisqually was not “good fun”. I was in the Denny Regrade area and the ground liquefied and we were all running for our lives as the building we were in bounced up and down in a very unnatural way.
The first earthquake I experienced was in Northern California. Much of the water from our classy above ground pool ended up in our living room.
Earthquakes suck ass.
We actually have earthquakes all the time up here. I routinely don’t notice minor earth shaking and have many times only known that I’d been in an earthquake when someone else mentioned it later.
Check out the USGS Earthquakes of the Past 7 Days page here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/42.52.-125.-115.php
The shake maps of various quakes can be interesting, too: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/shakemap/pn/shake/0709240620/
I agree that the Nisqually was not “good fun”; to this day I’m amazed that we got off so lightly. Injuries and damage were both way less severe than they could have been and we were really, really lucky. Earthquakes are definitely something worth fearing; there may be only so much planning you can do but you should do all you can to be prepared, like having a personal/family disaster plan, etc.
Earthquakes happen all the time, and only rarely are people hurt. And most buildings these days are built pretty well.
I’ve lived and slept through more earthquakes than I can remember. They do sound scary if you haven’t been in one. And some are dangerous, no argument. But you should feel safe. Having water and food on hand is always good (3 days worth is the last recommendation I heard).
I was here for the Nisqually, in California for large numbers of them, my brother was in Santa Cruz for the big one there in 91.
I prefer earthquakes to tornadoes. Quakes are more rare and over in minutes. Much easier to deal with.