Text 12906, 121 rader
Skriven 2007-03-11 20:28:34 av hap newsom
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson
Ärende: RE: DIVINE RETRIBUTION 70311
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Hoy there Glen!
-> 
->  ->  HN> I say the  driveway was sand...well so was the yard and the 
road as
->  ->  HN> well....Why the  large area of impact rather than a typical 
fulgurite
->  -> 
->  ->  ML> The layer of sand must have been thin, separated from the rest
->  ->  ML> of the sand or clay by some insulator - perhaps air?
->  -> 
->  ->  ML> It was very
->  ->  HN> thin perhaps only 1mm thick, and too brittle and thin to even bear
->  ->  HN> it's own  weight.
->  -> 
->  -> My theory is that the top layer of sand was damp, and therefore
->  -> conductive, while dry, insulating sand was beneath it.  Do recall
->  -> whether there had been dry weather, followed by a dew or light rain
->  -> immediately prior to the lightning strike?
->  -> 
->  HN> A rather heavy rain as a matter of fact. It happened during a 
summer 
->  HN> rainstorm, which can be quite violent in the south east during the
->  HN> summer. 
-> 
-> That seems to fit in with my theory.  Dry sand below, as result of the
-> summer heat, then the rain, and lightning hitting the wet sand.  The
-> behaviour of lightning is very unpredictable.
-> 
Indeed it is, it "struck" in the driveway less than 30 feet from the 
house...which had a tall Television Antenna sticking up from the roof! Of 
course I'm sure that you know lightning really strikes from the ground up 
rather from the clouds down, and it usually chooses the best conductive path 
and the highest conductive point to do it! When the strike hit it scared the 
bejabbers out of all of us (of course), my hair was short enough to always be 
standing on end, but I think it would have anyway at that point!

->  -> Yesterday you came to mind, as result of a BBC TV program on the
->  -> forthcoming level 9 Richter earthquake and megatsunami which will hit
->  -> your neck of the woods.  The last one was in 1700, and the one before
->  -> in about 1400.  The slippage along the Cascadia fault line is expected
-> 
->  HN> That is one Big Gollywhomping earth wiggle you are talking about 
Glen!
->  HN> I've  been through several 6+ and they are pretty impressive...and 
none
->  HN> have  lasted longer than 2 minutes most have been shorter by a large
->  HN> margin...a  five minute trembler would do an incredible amount of
->  HN> damage!  
-> 
-> The strength of your earthquake to come would be comparable with the
-> 2004 tsunami and quake off Thailand.  The length of the fault line of
-> 500 miles (not km) determines the duration of the slip generating the
-> quake.  The point of slippage travels at 100 miles per minute.
->  
->  -> The tsunami will hit the coast a half hour after the earthquake,
->  -> although Seattle and Vancouver will be shielded from that, being far
->  -> enough inland and behind Vancouver Island, which will be wiped clean.
->  -> 
->  HN> Any wave large enough to sweep over the mountains on Vancouver 
Island 
->  HN> would still pack a fair punch even down the length of Puget Sound! 
We
->  HN> do  have quite a bit of rise from sea level very close to the shoreline
->  HN> but still I would predict a HUGE amount of destruction.
-> 
-> The mountains would be an insurmountable obstacle, but if you have any
-> buildings on the coast they would be overwhelmed.
-> 
We do have a lot of buildings near sealevel...but the coast line along the 
pacific also has a range of hills that parallel the coast line about 4-5 miles 
inland...that helps a huge amount all the people have to do is make it to the 
hills ( still no mean feat as there aren't that many roads and they aren't 
particularly well laid out). Once you get in on Puget Sound the land rises 
sharply from sealevel. We are only a few miles from the water but we are at 
about 395 feet in elevation.

-> It was interesting how this awareness of the earthquake danger came to
-> be investigated.   Although no large quake had occurred in the area
-> since European settlement, the local indigenous population had a
-> legend of a huge quake and tsunami, so a local scientist investigated
-> deposits in swamp areas and on digging down, found the evidence of 3
-> previous quakes going back to about 1000 AD.  Accurate dating was made
-> from tree rings elsewhere down the coast, and further evidence came
-> from written records in Japan of the tsunami when it hit there after
-> crossing the Pacific. From them, it was deduced that it occurred at
-> 9am on 29th January, 1700.
->  
->  -> I was wondering, do you have practise runs of survival procedures for
->  -> residents, in particular for students in older school buildings?
->  -> 
->  HN> Actually yes. There are Tsunami evacuation routes leading away from
->  HN> the  coast, and a warning system to let people know it's coming. 
Around
->  HN> here we  have a lahar warning system as we are in much more 
imminent
->  HN> danger from  Mt Rainier popping off than a tsunami.
-> 
-> With a short time of only a half hour between the quake and the
-> tsunami, the coastal dwellers would not be able to go very far before
-> it hit.  They would also be rather upset by the quake at that time.
-> The Japanese would get several hours warning, though.
-> 
-> If you get lahar deposits over everything it is very difficult to
-> clean up.  After Mt Pinatubo blew in the Philippines, and some lahar
-> fell on Manila, my SIL there put the clothes from the clothes line
-> back in the washing machine, but the lahar clogged valves and hoses,
-> and made quite a mess of the machine.  Further north, bulldozers had
-> to be used to cut through the lahar to re-open the main roads.  And
-> then when the rainy season started the lahar slurry blocked rivers.
-> 
-> Good luck.  I'll be watching out for you.  :)
-> 
The nice thing (and the very bad thing at the same time) is that we live in 
rather mountainous and hilly terrain. The lahar's that would flow from Mt 
Rainier would follow the river valleys towards the sea (as they have in the 
past), people and structures in the valleys would be lost but once you get up 
the sides of the valley you are safe. 
chat with you soon
hap 
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