• AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I imagine it’s how people near fault zones react to most earthquakes

    Earthquakes only happen every few decades, so most people in California don’t think about them at all. Even when the big ones hit, they typically only hit up in the bay area, or down on southern California. So when a big earthquake hits, most Californians feel it, run under a door frame, wait 10 seconds until it’s over, and then talk about how crazy it felt for the rest of the day. Unfortunately the people near the epicenter usually have major damage to deal with, but like I said, they’re a rarity. After the SF earthquake that hit in the 80’s the State issued new seismic building standards, and all of the old buildings were retrofitted. So the damage from the next major earthquake should be quite a bit less than previous earthquakes.

    • Soggy@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Every few decades? Washington state has around a dozen noticeable quakes every year (out of about a thousand measureable events) They cause damage every six years or so. I’d be surprised if coastal California was statistically very different.

      • makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, when I lived near the Sierra Nevada we had 3 earthquakes in the year I was there. Granted I slept through all 3 and the worst thing that happened was a picture fell off the wall. Which is why I drew the comparison