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ly in the region, but many are not
felt by humans.
Geologists point out that past
incidences of recorded earthquakes
prove New York City, Boston,
northwestern New York State and
eastern Canada must be consídered
earthquake p rone. So, too,
Charleston, South Carolina, severely
damaged by an earthquake in 1886.
The crustal rock properties in
the East Coast region are more
dangerous than those in the West–
ern states. The Eastern crustal rock
transmits seismic energy much
more efficiently and widely because
the area has far fewer faults to
absorb the shock. Earthquakes of
similar size would wreak far more
"The 1857 and the 1906 earth–
quakes will be repeated-there's no
way around it," comments Jerry
Eaton of the U.S. Geologícal Sur–
vey National Center for Earth–
quake Research.
The two sides of the 700-mile–
long San Andreas Fault have
slipped past each other sorne 15
feet in 140 years-in the middle of
the state. The densely populated
San Francisco and Los Angeles sec–
tions, however, have not budged.
lnevitably, when the stresses
become irresistible, the strained
rock in these areas will snap. Sorne
have called San Francisco "the city
that is waiting to die."
What alarms earthquake experts
is that officials in various
California cities have al–
lowed major industrial
and residential concentra–
tions to be built right
along many faults.
An adviser to the Cali–
fornia State Commission
on Seismic Safety says:
"The way many hospitals
and schools were built
around here [San Fran-
~
cisco area], you'd think
'í'
they used the [San An–
!
dreas] fault line as a
!
guide."
El Asnam, Algeria, again laid waste in October 1980
by a 7.5 quake, 26 years after a similar disaster.
A devastating quake in
California's Silicon Val–
ley would set back Amer–
ican leadership in sophisticated
electronics for years. Critica! water
aqueducts cross the San Andreas
severa} times. And a major earth–
quake would break water and gas
lines in thousands of places, knock
out half the electrical transmission
lines and pumping treatment
plants. Landslides would block
mountain roads.
damage over a wider area in the
East Coast than on the West Coast.
Yet for the most part, earthquake
awareness on the East Coast is very
low and preparedness is almost
nonexistent.
Cities Wai ting to Die
At both ends of the San Andreas
Fault in California, two major met–
ropolitan areas could experience a
big quake
now.
There is a 50-50
chance of a major earthquake
somewhere in California, not just
on the San Andreas, in the next 1
O
years, says Bruce Bolt, a seismolo–
gist at the University of California
at Berkeley.
The southern section of the San
Andreas Fault running close to the
Los Angeles-San Bernardino mega–
lopolis down to the Mexican border
is the greatest danger spot for an
earthquake of the magnitude that
destroyed San Francisco in 1906.
26
Alaska faces one of the highest
eartbquake dangers. 1t is the most
seismically active spot in the North
American continent. The Puget
Sound area in the state of Wash–
ington has a history of damaging
earthquakes. Montana, Wyoming,
ldaho and Utah will undoubtedly
continue to have sporadic earth–
quakes in the moderate to severe
range, earthquake experts warn.
Earthquakes are a common earth–
ly occurrence. On the average, every
30 seconds, year in and year out, the
earth trembles, rumbles, quivers or
shakes somewhere. Seismologists
record more than one million earth–
quakes every year. The vast majority
of these quakes are so slight that
only delicate measuring instruments
can detect them.
But of the average million or so
earthquakes recorded each year
severa! hundred quakes have the
destructive power for slight to con–
siderable damage if they bit areas
of human civilization. About 20
earthquakes are strong enough to
create serious or extensive damage.
About two to four of these earth–
quakes on a yearly average are
devastating or catastrophic in their
effects, resulting in death and
widespread destruction.
Great Future Quak es
Is it true there is nothing bumanity
can do to prevent such disasters?
The startling answer is, disas–
trous earthquakes can be pre–
vented!
Too many have been looking
only to human, scientific under–
standing of the physical forces
involved in natural disasters. They
totally fail to see any moral-spiri–
tual aspect to these calamities.
Why haven ' t we thought
through the fact that the Creator
has the power to control the forces
in the universe? God has the power
to intervene in the forces of the
earth for human benefit or for
chastisement according to how
nations live.
God has chosen to allow this
world's civilizations to have 6,000
years to experiment with their own
humanly devised ways of living
contrary to God's laws if that is
what they want to do. Mankind
long ago chose to follow ways that
seem right in human eyes.
Civilization after civilization has
worshiped false gods. They have
lived the way of self-centeredness,
greed, strife, violence and warfare.
Sometimes nations or large seg–
ments of a nation totally give them–
selves over to grossly lewd, violent
or corrupt life-styles. God sees.
Great cities, city-states and even
empires in past history have been
weakened or destroyed by great
earthquakes. Many don't want to
see these as God's judgments on
sinning peoples.
(Continued on page 44)
The PLAIN TRUTH