They’re Going to get us
Just so you don’t get too wrapped up in contrivances of Mankind, here are some natural threats we all face. Today is the 100th Anniversary of the great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. These disasters are inevitable, just part of the natural processes of our earth. Some are “transitory”, just a few million years. The volcanoes of Hawaii will eventually become dormant as they move further away from the hot spot that created them. Others are just coming into they’re dangerous phase for us little humans. Here’s a short list.
La Palma
This island was created by a unique kind of explosive volcano most of the island is made up of sandy, loose soil. Columns of hard magma split the island down the middle, making large water traps. Every time the volcano erupts, the water super heats. This puts tremendous stress on the magma columns that actually hold up the island. In 1971, part of the island slid about 4 meters towards the see. La Palma is getting ready to skip the mother of all stones across the Atlantic Ocean. The kerplunk will wash a wave over west chester.
Yellowstone Park has such spectacular geological features because the Earth’s molten core is extra close to the surface, heating all the water in the park. All that land is just a cap for an enormous pool of magma. Every 600,000 years, this crust collapses into the magma, creating an eruption. On a scale that none of us humans have ever witnessed.
San Andreas Fault
Sure, California isn’t going to fall off into the Pacific, but it will be crushed under Idaho. The pacific plate, including San Francisco and Los Angeles is slowly sliding under the North American Plate. In the far future, California will slowly get thinner. The area of the San Andreas Fault is so fractured, that it’s hard to predict which particular crack will slip, causing an earthquake. That slipping and cracking is a constant thing, though. Small earthquakes are common place (geologically). Large Earthquakes are inevitable.
La Palma
This island was created by a unique kind of explosive volcano most of the island is made up of sandy, loose soil. Columns of hard magma split the island down the middle, making large water traps. Every time the volcano erupts, the water super heats. This puts tremendous stress on the magma columns that actually hold up the island. In 1971, part of the island slid about 4 meters towards the see. La Palma is getting ready to skip the mother of all stones across the Atlantic Ocean. The kerplunk will wash a wave over west chester.
Yellowstone Park has such spectacular geological features because the Earth’s molten core is extra close to the surface, heating all the water in the park. All that land is just a cap for an enormous pool of magma. Every 600,000 years, this crust collapses into the magma, creating an eruption. On a scale that none of us humans have ever witnessed.
San Andreas Fault
Sure, California isn’t going to fall off into the Pacific, but it will be crushed under Idaho. The pacific plate, including San Francisco and Los Angeles is slowly sliding under the North American Plate. In the far future, California will slowly get thinner. The area of the San Andreas Fault is so fractured, that it’s hard to predict which particular crack will slip, causing an earthquake. That slipping and cracking is a constant thing, though. Small earthquakes are common place (geologically). Large Earthquakes are inevitable.
- posted by npanth at 4/18/2006 04:22:00 PM
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