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Ignoring The Big One

The Big One certainly hit Japan—a double whammy ultra powerful earthquake followed by humongous tidal waves. Everyone in the U.S. wrings their hands over the possibility of a similar situation here—red flags go up in the face of recently reviving plans to expand nuclear power.

By Jonathan D. Miller | Updated on March 29, 2011

 The Big One certainly hit Japan—a double whammy ultra powerful earthquake followed by humongous tidal waves. Everyone in the U.S. wrings their hands over the possibility of a similar situation here—red flags go up in the face of recently reviving plans to expand nuclear power. The relatively good news in Japan is that Greater Tokyo and other major urban population centers were spared direct hits from earthquake damage. It’s bad enough that probably 20,000 lives were lost, but it could have been much worse given the off the charts size of the quake.

 Of course, the U.S. West Coast has been warned to anticipate a quake of exceptional proportions for decades. In my lifetime, Seattle and Alaska have had major quakes, SF suffered through the World Series earthquake in 1989 and LA had a sizeable shaker back in 1994. But none qualified as a really Big One. And as we’re reminded by other recent incidents in New Zealand and Chile, not only does size matter, but also where the trembler strikes and at what depth below the surface. The Christchurch quake in New Zealand was much less intense than Japan’s, but it hit close to the city center with devastating impact to downtown.

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