Lessons from Samoa: Local researcher part of team sent to tsuna...

Less than a month after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami it generated struck American Samoa, Humboldt State University geologist Lori Dengler and other researchers flew into the aftermath.

[reader]

Dengler is using FEAR MONGERING to get grand funding so she can go do this little bit of island hopping in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

Know the difference between American Samoa and Samoa, Humboldt Caounty, Californai?

American Samoa is near ACTIVE strike dip faults. The kind of faulting activity that occurs on a regular basis.

Go back and look at the expected wave amplitude height along the California coastline due to the tsunami that wiped out American Samoa. The two oceanfront regions that actually had noticable wave height were one, Crescent City and two, Port San Luis.

If you are still unclear on the concept go to Google Earth and look at the offshore terrain at both of those locations.

If you're still unclear on the concept go buy a used earth scienc book with a good chapter on tsunamis and educate yourself.

The whole "Tsunami Zone" is an absolute joke that is scaring ignorant people for no usefull purpose. Well, except for some people who get to take a trip to American Samoa. So maybe there's a benefit to one person.

[Mike]

Gotta get your money somehow!

[Bret Harte]

Perhaps our dear "reader" should read more than used earth science books. Fact is we have similar tectonic conditions a mere 50 miles offshore as exist in (the other) Samoa and Indonesia. Three tectonic plates converge just off our home shores, plates that can, have and will generate both catastrophic megathrusts capable of creating large tsunami events on our shores within minutes.

Fact is large tsunamis have occurred here. A near-shore earthquake occurred in 1700 generating wave heights up to 60' along the Humboldt coast, evidenced by buried sand layers north and south of the Klamath River (& I believe in Humboldt Bay), by Yurok American Indian oral histories, and by written records of a large tsunami that occurred in Japan a few hours after the Humboldt quake here.(Check out "The Orphan Tsunami of 1700
Japanese Clues to a Parent Earthquake in North America, by Brian F. Atwater. Univ of Washington Press)

Also consider that most flood and tsunami hazard maps are drawn with deference to local insurance costs. The more we minimize the risks of tsunamis (and local flooding) the cheaper our insurance will be...there's savings in ignorance.

Sure our coastlines are different providing many more safe zones along the Pacific Coasts, but most of our homes and communities lie along the low-slung coastal plains, not on the surrounding hillsides.

The fear-mongering here is not coming from scientists but from Palin-esque ignorance and distrust of anyone who's actually studied and learned something along the way. Hide your anti-intellectual heads in the (Humboldt) Samoan sands if you wish. The rest of us will watch you float away from our safe(r) perches outside the tsunami zones.

[Boomer Girl]

Bret Harte wrote:

Perhaps our dear "reader" should read more than used earth science books. Fact is we have similar tectonic conditions a mere 50 miles offshore as exist in (the other) Samoa and Indonesia. Three tectonic plates converge just off our home shores, plates that can, have and will generate both catastrophic megathrusts capable of creating large tsunami events on our shores within minutes.
Fact is large tsunamis have occurred here. A near-shore earthquake occurred in 1700 generating wave heights up to 60' along the Humboldt coast, evidenced by buried sand layers north and south of the Klamath River (& I believe in Humboldt Bay), by Yurok American Indian oral histories, and by written records of a large tsunami that occurred in Japan a few hours after the Humboldt quake here.(Check out "The Orphan Tsunami of 1700
Japanese Clues to a Parent Earthquake in North America, by Brian F. Atwater. Univ of Washington Press)
Also consider that most flood and tsunami hazard maps are drawn with deference to local insurance costs. The more we minimize the risks of tsunamis (and local flooding) the cheaper our insurance will be...there's savings in ignorance.
Sure our coastlines are different providing many more safe zones along the Pacific Coasts, but most of our homes and communities lie along the low-slung coastal plains, not on the surrounding hillsides.
The fear-mongering here is not coming from scientists but from Palin-esque ignorance and distrust of anyone who's actually studied and learned something along the way. Hide your anti-intellectual heads in the (Humboldt) Samoan sands if you wish. The rest of us will watch you float away from our safe(r) perches outside the tsunami zones.

THANK YOU AND AMEN!

[TimS]

reader wrote:

Dengler is using FEAR MONGERING to get grand funding so she can go do this little bit of island hopping in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.
Know the difference between American Samoa and Samoa, Humboldt Caounty, Californai?
American Samoa is near ACTIVE strike dip faults. The kind of faulting activity that occurs on a regular basis.
Go back and look at the expected wave amplitude height along the California coastline due to the tsunami that wiped out American Samoa. The two oceanfront regions that actually had noticable wave height were one, Crescent City and two, Port San Luis.
If you are still unclear on the concept go to Google Earth and look at the offshore terrain at both of those locations.
If you're still unclear on the concept go buy a used earth scienc book with a good chapter on tsunamis and educate yourself.
The whole "Tsunami Zone" is an absolute joke that is scaring ignorant people for no usefull purpose. Well, except for some people who get to take a trip to American Samoa. So maybe there's a benefit to one person.

Wow. So you are some kind of -angry- geologist? I do not think so.
Most geologists I know also know how to spell. I really doubt you understand much about the probability of a deadly Tsunami on the North Coast.
What an angry and bitter response to a scientist simply trying to learn something!
You need help dude.

[anon]

TimS wrote:

<quoted text>
Wow. So you are some kind of -angry- geologist? I do not think so.
Most geologists I know also know how to spell. I really doubt you understand much about the probability of a deadly Tsunami on the North Coast.
What an angry and bitter response to a scientist simply trying to learn something!
You need help dude.

LOL! This person is no geologist. Just an idiot who thinks he knows everything because he "googled" it.

[Heather S]

Lori Dengler why don't you get a REAL Geology Degree from a REAL University, not HSU, a retard school.

[Gioldasis]

where did everybody go?

[filibuster]

Dengler has a Ph.D in Geophysics from UC Berkeley. Afraid you're the retard, Heather S.

[TimS]

Heather S wrote:

Lori Dengler why don't you get a REAL Geology Degree from a REAL University, not HSU, a retard school.

Did you go there? If so, are YOU a 'retard'?(Nice.)
If not, how would you know?

[Bernard Fokke]

Reader take the time to look up Cascadia subduction zone

[J East the Toad]

Heather S wrote:

Lori Dengler why don't you get a REAL Geology Degree from a REAL University, not HSU, a retard school.

You know what is so great about this country, even the intellectually stagnate can find a place to share their voice.

[reader]

Boomer Girl wrote:

<quoted text>
THANK YOU AND AMEN!

You people are sheeple. You buy into the fear mongerin. Pray tell me. How extensive was the damage to Humboldt Bay after the Alaska earthquake in 1964? ZERO.

You believe there is a high potential for a 12.0+ Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake that causes an uplift so great some super-duper tsunami breaches the north and south spits and wipes out Manila, Bayside, Arcata, Fields Landing, and the Bayshore Mall?

Guess what. We don't have the subsurface geology that is capable of holding the energy that causes such great quakes. Such earthquakes have happened in Chilie, the Tonga Trench, Banda Ache, and other regions of the world. But not here.

Gary Carver started the whole fear mongering. He did so to get the Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant shut down.

Ignorance breeds fear so it's no surprise theres so much fear around Humboldt Bay.

[reader]

Bernard Fokke wrote:

Reader take the time to look up Cascadia subduction zone

Yea right Bernard. Gary Carver was claiming a 12.0 EQ with a recurrance interval of 500 years.

So why do we have 3,000 year old redwood trees still hanging around?

Why are there ZERO signs of mass landslides?

Go look at Machu Picchu. Those landforms were tilled by man thousands of years ago. Mother nature does not recover any quicker than the work of man. Any frequent occurrence of massive 12.0 earthquakes would be clearly revealed by surface features that do not exist on the North Coast of California.

A more valid fear would be driving through a green light in Eureka hoping someon on meth is not driving into the intersection on the cross street.

[reader]

TimS wrote:

<quoted text>
Wow. So you are some kind of -angry- geologist? I do not think so.
Most geologists I know also know how to spell. I really doubt you understand much about the probability of a deadly Tsunami on the North Coast.
What an angry and bitter response to a scientist simply trying to learn something!
You need help dude.

Sorry dude if I don't proof my typing before I hit post. That has nothing to do with my intellect.

I'm angry and bitter? Please spare me from your predictions of reality.

The truth is the crying wolf false hypothesis emanating (like that big word dude?) from Humboldt State has unecessarilly slandered title in regions of Humboldt Hill and Samoa due to the false hypothesis from geologist attempting to validate predictions that are at best throwing darts blindfolded.

[reader]

Oh excuse me. That was perceptions of reality.

[anon]

So I bet "reader" is one of those people who heads straight to the beach when he hears a tsunami warning. Well, when the big one really does hit at least we'll have one less idiot in the gene pool.