TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe!

Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe!

Geoffrey Welsh (reply@newsgroup.please)
Sun, 02 Jan 2005 15:06:14 -0500

DISCLAIMER: I am not a geologist (IANAG?!?)

Wesrock@aol.com wrote:

> Isn't the San Andreas fault the boundary of two plates slipping past
> each other from time to time?

I believe that this is true, though I am somewhat confused when I
recall that the area is called a "subduction zone" (where one plate is
being pushed under the other, resulting in mountain ranges -- can you
say "the Rockies"? -- and volcanic activity -- can you say "Mount
St. Helen's" -- on the plate that slid up).

Nonetheless, the San Andreas fault is indeed where two plates slide
horizontally against each other, pressure building up until it
overcomes the friction and is released in the form of an earthquake.
I've seen dramatic photographs of roads broken by movement along that
fault: more or less intact on either side but split like a cut ribbon
glued together out of alignment.

> There is no similar likely source of tsunamis in the Atlantic.

As far as my limited knowledge goes, this is also correct, though it
may be worth pointing out that there are older, smaller fault lines
parallel to the U.S. east coast, primarily under the eastern mountain
ranges. Here where I live in southern Ontario, I hear stories on the
news from time to time about earthquakes, but only once have I ever
known that I was feeling an earthquake under my feet.

Geoffrey Welsh <Geoffrey [dot] Welsh [at] big foot [dot] com>

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