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In recent past, I had this thought that Silicon Valley is sitting on top of, or very close to, potential future fault activity. And I have a hard time believing

by fizixer 11y ago

In recent past, I had this thought that Silicon Valley is sitting on top of, or very close to, potential future fault activity. And I have a hard time believing that the key component of human civilization (technology) is so vulnerable, and was built after the 1906 disaster. It's one of the factors I would consider when deciding if I really want to move to west coast.

nappy-doo 11y ago
San Francisco has been built by the grace of the grace of the 1906 quake. When the big quakes happen, they release all kinds of stress, and make a future local quake much more unlikely. It's called the stress shadow. The stress shadow of the 1906 quake was (depending on who you ask) about 100 years. SF is coming out of the stress shadow, and is become "due" for a new big one. WRT the rest of the valley, the main problem is that it's built on sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock slows the seismic waves, which since you need to conserve energy, results in larger shaking. In other words, a small quake further south could result in more damage in the valley.
codingdave 11y ago
You think technology is the key component to human civilization? I would have thought of food.
- munificent 11y ago
  Food is a technology. Horticulture, breeding, domestication, threshing, plowing, sowing, crop rotation, cooking, drying, pickling, brining, canning, curing, refrigerating, etc. Modern civilization is massively more efficient at extracting food from a given piece of arable land than our hunter gatherer forebears were able too, all thanks to thousands of years of food technology.
- jodrellblank 11y ago
  Where are you going to get food (for a population) without oil powered GPS controlled farm machinery, trucks and technological processing plants, information technology controlled distribution, electricity and on a slightly longer timescale, oil based fertilisers? OK, in a localised disaster you're going to import it. But still, you can grow squash in your back yard, but enough food for all humans means mechanised agriculture, and that's not just tractors. Food is a technology (albeit not a Google one - yet).

by fizixer 11y ago

nappy-doo 11y ago

San Francisco has been built by the grace of the grace of the 1906 quake. When the big quakes happen, they release all kinds of stress, and make a future local quake much more unlikely. It's called the stress shadow. The stress shadow of the 1906 quake was (depending on who you ask) about 100 years. SF is coming out of the stress shadow, and is become "due" for a new big one. WRT the rest of the valley, the main problem is that it's built on sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock slows the seismic waves, which since you need to conserve energy, results in larger shaking. In other words, a small quake further south could result in more damage in the valley.

codingdave 11y ago

You think technology is the key component to human civilization? I would have thought of food.

munificent 11y ago
Food is a technology. Horticulture, breeding, domestication, threshing, plowing, sowing, crop rotation, cooking, drying, pickling, brining, canning, curing, refrigerating, etc. Modern civilization is massively more efficient at extracting food from a given piece of arable land than our hunter gatherer forebears were able too, all thanks to thousands of years of food technology.
jodrellblank 11y ago
Where are you going to get food (for a population) without oil powered GPS controlled farm machinery, trucks and technological processing plants, information technology controlled distribution, electricity and on a slightly longer timescale, oil based fertilisers? OK, in a localised disaster you're going to import it. But still, you can grow squash in your back yard, but enough food for all humans means mechanised agriculture, and that's not just tractors. Food is a technology (albeit not a Google one - yet).