Thursday, September 29, 2011

And Then the Ground Opens Up and Swallows You....A Quiz and Invitation

A modest little quiz....

True or False?
  • California is going to fall into the Pacific Ocean
  • The San Andreas fault causes all California earthquakes
  • California has more earthquakes and bigger earthquakes than anywhere else
  • Psychics and animals predict earthquakes
  • The ground opens up and swallows people during earthquakes
  • We in California are waiting for the "BIG ONE"
Want to find out the answers? Geotripper is giving a public presentation at Modesto Junior College this friday on the things we "know" about earthquakes. For those who live outside the region, give yourself the quiz, and I will blog some answers over the weekend. One or two answers might surprise you!

And yes, my students, I will give you extra credit if you take notes!
Comic art provided by Zeo (THANKS!)
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6 comments:

  1. treeswingSeptember 29, 2011 at 4:56 PM

    I can't make it, but I'll take a stab just for fun. Maybe you can correct me after the presentation?

    - California is going to fall into the Pacific Ocean
    False

    - The San Andreas fault causes all California earthquakes
    False, there are many faults in CA(not including our politicians ;)

    - California has more earthquakes and bigger earthquakes than anywhere else
    False - but just a guess

    - Psychics and animals predict earthquakes
    False, but maybe some animals do sense them before we as individuals do. Warrants correlating youtube videos of cute kittens and dogs with USGS data.

    - The ground opens up and swallows people during earthquakes
    OMG, yes! (False)

    - We in California are waiting for the "BIG ONE"
    True, at least *a* big one

    ReplyDelete
  2. LockwoodSeptember 29, 2011 at 5:08 PM

    It's not normally until you're in grad school for seismology that you learn this, but I overheard a couple of doctoral students saying that everything east of the San Andreas Fault will slide into the Atlantic Ocean.

    That should jazz the conspiracy theorists who come across this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Garry HayesSeptember 29, 2011 at 5:18 PM

    Oh, heck, Lockwood. I was gonna try to keep that a secret. I've been buying up land in southern California....

    ReplyDelete
  4. bSeptember 29, 2011 at 5:54 PM

    * Psychics and animals predict earthquakes

    This is a trick question. Psychics do make predictions. Can't really say about animals, but if they do I'd guess they'd be more accurate.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Randy A.September 30, 2011 at 8:56 PM

    Psychics make predictions, but they're wrong most of the time, and correct only by chance.

    Animals might sense an earthquake, but they can't talk. So if your dog is freaking out, is it an earthquake, or is the neighbor's dog in heat?

    Bottom line, the answer to every question is "false"!

    One note however -- when the Cascadia subduction zone cuts loose, we can then say that California (at least the northernmost part) gets magnitude 9 earthquakes just like Japan and Chile!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Malcolm V LOctober 1, 2011 at 2:41 PM

    The only one partially true is the "Big One", as over a long enough time (geologic, not human) California getting an 8 or 9er increases in likelihood

    ReplyDelete