How to survive the ‘earthquakes’ of 2016
The USGS recently reported that over 8.4 million earthquakes occurred last year.
That is a large number, but it doesn’t include the magnitude 6.0 earthquake that occurred on April 15, 2016, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It also doesn’t count a 5.1 magnitude 6 magnitude quake that occurred in December, 2016 in Santa Cruz, California.
There were also several smaller quakes in 2016, including the magnitude 5.6 earthquake that hit San Francisco, California, on December 12, 2016.
“The magnitude 6, which we’ve experienced a couple times, is probably the hardest to deal with.
And that’s because it’s very unstable,” says Joe Wiederman, a professor at the University of Oklahoma.
Wiedeman says the biggest threat to humans is earthquakes, but they’re not the only threat.
“We can have a lot of things happen, and it’s hard to predict the damage,” he says.
“I’m not saying it’s a good idea to get out, because we can die in an earthquake.”
Wiedermans biggest concern about earthquakes is the possibility of a massive tsunami.
In 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that an estimated 3.6 million people were at risk of an earthquake and 4.8 million people could be inundated by a wave, which can happen in just one or two days.
In addition to earthquakes, the USGS reports more than 1,000 other types of damage from hurricanes, including tornadoes, tornados, tornadoes and mudslides.
A 2016 study by the National Research Council estimated that the cost of damage due to a hurricane in the US totaled $2.8 trillion in 2016.
But that doesn’t take into account the cost to the environment and the cost that will be incurred in the years after an earthquake.
Wiederman says it’s not just about the cost but also about the impact on the environment.
“The risk of a tsunami from a major earthquake in the United States is probably not high, but if the ocean becomes a little bit unstable, that would be very, very serious,” he explains.
“If you’re just looking at the economic consequences of a major disaster, I think that’s very important.”
The risk of tornadoes (Source: NOAA)
