Civilisation exists due to geological consent - subject to change without notice

[gemfyre]

I don't think I could deal living near a faultline. The stress, the never being safe. There WILL be quakes, and you can't have any idea exactly when they'll happen, how often or how severe. Screw that.

But my general fascination with disasters and geological phenomena have me glued to the TV.

Closer to home - the Kimberley, Pilbara and Gascoyne are still being severely cyclone/flood affected. It has about 1.5 weeks to clear up or else my trip is going to be really interesting (by that I mean frustrating, wet and not me getting where I want to get to). If it does clear sufficiently, it will be AMAZING to see the land out there after a good drenching. To see the great rivers roaring and waterfalls in Karijini.

*crossed fingers*

Comments

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Living near a fault line wouldn't stress me nearly as much as living in a place that's subject to flooding. You can built to withstand quakes, or hope to be lucky, but 5m of water will simply destroy everything. (... and even if it's slow enough not to destroy a particular building totally, it'll ruin all the contents.)

Also, earthquakes seem to avoid me. There have been two measuring 5 on the richter scale in Vic in the past 20 years. I was in Chicago during one and Denver for the other. I'd been sick of missing out, but finally felt the second of the March 2009 quakes.

[bethaniej.livejournal.com]

isn't perth on a fault line?

when we built our house in chidlow in 93, it had to have certain things added to the frame etc to make it quake proof???

[stawberi.livejournal.com]

Nope, the whole of Australia is securely on the one tectonic plate.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Australia has plenty of faults and earthquake prone areas. The nearest one to Perth I think is the Meckering fault. The 6.9 in 1968 was felt in Perth and did some minor damage to a few buildings. Not long after there was another quake in nearby Cadoux.

Adelaide and the surrounds have quakes relatively frequently.

Of course there is Newcastle, which had the 'worst' quake in Australia - because it occured in a highly built up and populated area.

The strongest earthquake recorded in Australia was a 7.2 - but that was in north-eastern W.A. and only 2 people felt it.

Being on a plate boundary will cause stronger and more frequent quakes. But being in the middle of a plate is no reassurance of safety - just ask the people in New Madrid or Hawaii!

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

I vaguely recall that the quakes you get in the middle of tectonic plates are a different type than those at the edge: more a shallow (but plenty destructive) ripple/wave than a zigzag. Too lazy to research.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Australia

[stawberi.livejournal.com]

And said tectonic plate is slowly pushing under Asia, thus we are to blame for tectonic activity in the north. :P

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

I hope it clears up too... having the devil's own job getting our freight up there and people are not at all understanding! (Thankfully I do the southwest so I don't have to deal with it much)

Don't think I'll make it your movie thing on Friday, alas - have a friend's birthday I promised to go to. You wanna do karaoke somewhere before you go?

[vegetus.livejournal.com]

But if you live near a faultline you also can get cool things like pretty mountains and geothermal power!

[carywin.livejournal.com]

Say Hi to Joffre Falls for me!