I've read a lot on the Pacific Northwest's Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake peril, but this article is very interesting. Published online yesterday.

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/extreme-earth/01-big-one-earthquake-could-devastate-pacific-northwest/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=

Based on historical averages, the southern end of the fault—from Cape Mendocino, California, to Newport, Oregon—has a large earthquake every 240 years. For the northern end—from mid-Oregon to mid-
Vancouver Island—the average “recurrence interval” is 480 years, according to a recent Canadian study. And while the north may have only half as many jolts, they tend to be full-size disasters in which the entire fault breaks from end to end.

With a time line of 41 events the science team at OSU has now calculated that the California–Oregon end of Cascadia’s fault has a 37 percent chance of producing a major earthquake in the next 50 years. The odds are 10 percent that an even larger quake will strike the upper end, in a full-margin rupture, within 50 years. Given that the last big quake was 312 years ago, one might argue that a very bad day on the Cascadia Subduction Zone is ominously overdue. It appears that three centuries of silence along the fault has been entirely misleading. The monster is only sleeping.

So California drops into the sea. This is how a problem, beyond not having to print " The state of California considers certain chemicals in this product to cause cancer" on every damn thing?

Actually, it is the states of Washington and Oregon, not California, that appear to be at greatest risk.

HJ

Yer wrong. California lives. It's the rest of North America that sinks.

Actually a good chunk of California is moving north. California is the new Alaska.....

Briefly. If that happens Astute will be dispatched to finish the job.

Dagny,

That statement is a complete misuse of the concept of recurrance. The average interval between earthquakes is subject to an enormous amount of variation. Even if there is a 37% chance in the next 50 years, if it does not occur in that time, the following 50 years still have only a 37% chance (given no new data).

Respectfully,

Jerry

"DOWN PERISCOPE!!!!!"

Ha! Good one Mr. Ratcliffe!

Actually, if California breaks off and floats far enough away from the US west coast, it might be able to reattach itself to some of those nutcase countries on the other side of the world where it would feel more at home. North Korea would be good.

I'd hate to see Oregon and Washington go though...

An no, Californians, ... it's not you. It's your stupid politicians.