h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just thought I would chime in since these discussions have been quiet for a while, and I find them genuinely interesting.

Suprisingly enough, most people in the United States live within zones that are prone to earthquakes. Boston and New York have been hit by sizeable quakes within recorded history. Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland Oregon are all near fault lines. Ohio experiences its share of quakes -- in the mid 80's a 5+ cracked sidewalks in Cleveland and knocked out power in the Canadian province of Québec. The New Madrid fault in the central US caused three 8+ magnitude quakes within a few months of each other in 1812 and 1813, causing widespread damage throughout Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee. The Mississippi river flowed backwards in some spots for several days. Cities in the damage zone today would include St. Louis, Memphis, Cincinatti, Evansville, Indianapolis, and Louisville.

What are good earthquake survival tips? I am familiar with standing in an archway, or getting under a solid piece of furniture. I also know that one of the first things one must do after an earthquake is to turn off the gas supply to the house. I know my friends in earthquake-prone regions keep a few gallon containers of water, aspirin, and bandages around.

What else can one do to protect oneself/ones' property?

Regards,



-THDoM

Move away from earthquake prone places, of course. But then there are the hurricanes......the tornadoes....the blizzards. Perhaps a large hole in the ground is safest.....as long as it's waterproof.

But wouldn't the hole collapse in an earthquake? (Which isn't weather, anyway...)

Well, TECHNICALLY, no an earthquake isn't bad weather. It IS, however, a way of Mother Nature being VERY cranky!! So it sort of runs along the same lines...in a very wierd and warped way. My feeling is if you can't control it or predict it, IT'S BAD WEATHER!!

By the by, the "wierd" was a typo!! I know it's spelled weird.
And as for your very good point about the walls in the hole collapsing...PBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBT!! (That reply will have to do til I can get hold of some engineers to make a proper hole and make my theory plausible)

You don't say?!?!

I'm laughing with, not at...

Answer: Live on a giant spring...

Or live in Reading, England. We haven't had any substantially bad weather here ... ever ... Cos it's usually always bad, so you tend to just get used to it.