Text 13046, 120 rader
Skriven 2007-03-15 17:59:06 av hap newsom
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson
Ärende: RE: DIVINE RETRIBUTION 70313
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G'day Glen!


->  ->  HN> A rather heavy rain as a matter of fact. It happened during a 
->  HN> 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.
->  -> 
->  HN> Indeed it is, it "struck" in the driveway less than 30 feet from the 
->  HN> house...which had a tall Television Antenna sticking up from the roof!
->  HN> Of  course I'm sure that you know lightning really strikes from the
->  HN> ground up  rather from the clouds down, and it usually chooses the 
best
->  HN> conductive path  and the highest conductive point to do it! When the
->  HN> strike hit it scared the  bejabbers out of all of us (of course), my
->  HN> hair was short enough to always be  standing on end, but I think it
->  HN> would have anyway at that point! 
-> 
-> I have been in a house when a tree was struck just outside, and that
-> was the loudest bang I have ever heard!  That was in Darwin, supposed
-> to be the lightning capital of the world, based on the number of
-> strikes per year.  I return there in a couple of weeks.  There, the
-> life of phone answering machines and modems tends to be rather short,
-> unless they are disconnected during storms.  (How do you disconnect
-> the answering machine, which you have left on because you are not
-> home?!)  TVs tend to be affected on occasions, as well.  Did you have
-> that problem associated with your peculiar strike?
-> 
Well, it was incredibly loud yes, I don't remember if it fried any of the 
appliances...this was back in the 50's I don't remember if we even had a TV 
set at the time (although I think we did) so there were not many things to 
GET fried. 

->  ->  -> 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
->  -> 
->  -> 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
-> 
->  -> The mountains would be an insurmountable obstacle, but if you have 
any
->  -> buildings on the coast they would be overwhelmed.
->  -> 
->  HN> We do have a lot of buildings near sealevel...but the coast line along
->  HN> the  pacific also has a range of hills that parallel the coast line
->  HN> about 4-5 miles 
->  HN> inland...that helps a huge amount all the people have to do is make it
->  HN> to the  hills ( still no mean feat as there aren't that many roads and
->  HN> they aren't  particularly well laid out). Once you get in on Puget
-> 
-> And they will only have a half hour warning at the most.
-> 
->  HN> Sound the land rises  sharply from sealevel. We are only a few miles
->  HN> from the water but we are at  about 395 feet in elevation.
-> 
-> You should be safe there, at least from the tsunami.  How about the
-> school?
->
Anne's school? She's about 25 miles inland from the house and about another 
500 feet in elevation as well. She's on a morraine ridge on the eastern edge 
of the Carbon river valley, which flows out of the northern reaches of MT 
Rainier and the Lahar will go between us if she is at work when one happens.
It would take a Tsunami of more than epic proportions to reach where she 
works! 
  
->  ->  -> 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. 
-> 
-> Good that this inevitable catastrophe is known, and preparations made.
-> 
->  HN> The nice thing (and the very bad thing at the same time) is that we
->  HN> live in  rather mountainous and hilly terrain. The lahar's that would
->  HN> flow from Mt  Rainier would follow the river valleys towards the sea
->  HN> (as they have in the  past), people and structures in the valleys 
would
->  HN> be lost but once you get up  the sides of the valley you are safe. 
-> 
-> That assumes you survive the initial fall of hot ash (lahar).  At
-> least volcanoes give a lot more warning before erupting than
-> earthquakes.  Much work has been and is still being done on earthquake
-> prediction, but as far as I know, no definite results yet.  In China
-> it has been noticed that dogs often respond to some signals, unheard
-> by humans, shortly before the quake.
-> 
The hot ash itself is not the Lahar, a lahar is composed of ash, mud, water, 
ice, and it is about as thick as concrete...and flows down the river valleys at

a great speed, collecting everything in it's path and incorporating it into the

lahar itself. As our winds generally come from the west most of the ash would 
blow away from us (but towards everyone east of the mountain) just as it did 
when St Helens blew in 1980. These are threats that we live with daily and 
while we take them seriously...to obsess over them would make normal life 
impossible, so we take earthquakes and volcanos rather in stride. But we are 
prepared just in case (grin)
chat with you soon
hap 
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