Earthquakes

 New map fingers future hot spots for U.S. earthquakes | Science | AAAS

When most people think of earthquakes here in the United States, the first state that pops in their heads is California and for a good reason. California has a whole fault that runs through the whole state. Starting at the border of Oregon and ending all the way at the border of Mexico. The famous San Andreas Fault that runs through the whole state, and historic events show that big quakes can cause major damage to the state. But California isn’t the only state at risk. Believe it or not, Alaska gets the strongest earthquakes, the Pacific Northwest faces danger from the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Even the central United States should be worried because they have the New Madrid Seismic Zone. However, earthquakes are more of a national issue than most people realize. 

The United States has put up several procedures in place to not only help keep us safe but also to help minimize the damage control. The first protocol we have is “early warning systems” the USGS has created a alert system that is called "shakealert system” that will send our phones alerts seconds before the shaking begins. But I know what you're thinking, why just seconds before? Why not minutes before. Well even if it's just  seconds before those couple seconds make a difference in preparedness versus it just shaking you by surprise. Also schools in California have this “drop,cover and hold” procedure that helps students understand that even in school they need to be prepared and protected. This practice has them hid under any sturdy and hard table to protect themselves from any falling debris that might be coming down and can harm them. Growing up here in California I practiced this a lot in school, they would call them our earthquake drills. 

Nowadays the modern buildings are like before. They may look like a regular old building but in reality it's a whole new layout and foundation. The buildings have new codes and regulations they have to follow to be "earthquake friendly" and to resist any shaking that might occur. A whole new foundation but the same old look.


My references:

* https://www.bigrentz.com/blog/earthquake-proof-buildings?*srsltid=AfmBOopErpsCoa5s7lDF4j9lnHQ7JpvbbMzIyC57HVqf9n3CPRno1hxM 

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