The United States Women’s National Soccer Team won its record fourth World Cup yesterday. USA Today calls their title “one for the ages” and the women “a team for the ages.”
The women’s triumph was welcome news after a frightening few days.
Last Thursday, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Southern California. The next night, a 7.1-magnitude quake struck the same area. These quakes occurred on a previously unknown fault line ninety-five miles northeast of the San Andreas Fault.
Fortunately, no one was killed or injured by these earthquakes. Unfortunately, according to seismologists, they did not relieve stress on the San Andreas Fault or reset the clock for the “Big One.”
That clock is still ticking on the next catastrophe.
Are we overdue for the next “Big One”?
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the probability of an earthquake measuring magnitude 6.7 striking the Los Angeles area in the next thirty years is 60 percent. A magnitude 7 earthquake has a 46 percent probability; a magnitude 7.5 quake has a 31 percent probability.
In San Francisco, the odds of catastrophe are even higher: there is a 72 percent chance of an earthquake measuring magnitude 6.7 and a 51 percent chance of a quake measuring magnitude 7.
The “Big One” last struck the Los Angeles area in 1857, producing a 7.9 tremor. The USGS projected in 2008 that if such a quake were to strike the same area again, approximately 1,800 people would be killed and 50,000 victims would require emergency room care; economic losses would total $213 billion.
Scientists estimate that the part of the San Andreas Fault near Los Angeles ruptures roughly once every 150 years. It’s been 162 years. As CNN reports this morning, a major earthquake along the fault is likely overdue.
Every day that passes is one day closer.
“A thief in the…
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