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wdolson -> RE: earthquake in vanuata 7.2 (8/3/2007 4:08:34 AM)
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Earthquakes are over so quickly the likelyhood of them disrupting major operations are fairly slim I suppose...unless the result is a tsunami.
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ORIGINAL: ChezDaJez
Large quakes are quite damaging and can devastate entire areas without needing a Tsunami. The disruption in transportation facilities alone (roadways, railroads, airports, etc...) can be huge.
A lot of locations in the Pacific never had much in the way of infrastructure to start with, so there wasn't much to destroy. It's permanent facilities that are most affected, which were more common in home countries than near the front lines.
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Did a sizeable quake ever hit a base in the pacific. I can't think of a single incident. However, given the plate techtonics aroung the pacific rim it would not be unlikely.
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The Solomons and New Guinea had several during the war. The Aleutians have small quakes nearly every day. During my 2 years in Adak we had at least 4-5 size 4 quakes or larger every month. We had several 6+ quakes and one 7.2 quake while I was there.
Earthquakes seem to follow me no matter where I go. Besides the quakes in Adak, I was in the 1989 San Francisco quake, the 1965 and 2001 Seattle quakes, the 1974 Sicily quake and the 1997 northern Japan quake!
I've heard some of the military facilities built in the Aleutians are built on gimbles to flex with the quakes. I talked with someone once who had been at a radar facility in Dutch Harbor or one of the other islands. He said that the first time he saw the building flex radically in an earthquake he ran outside and his co-workers just about died laughing. He was sure the building was going to collapse because the walls and ceiling were flexing so much.
You have been in a lot of quakes. The only two major ones I've been in was the 1971 Sylmar quake near Los Angeles and the 2001 Seattle quake. I've lived on the west coast my whole life and I've felt a lot of small ones though. My sister is a geologist and I have a strong scientific bent. I learned a fair bit of geology hanging around her. My first reaction to the Seattle quake was "interesting, an earthquake. I wonder how close it is?" Then I heard an ominous creak and climbed under my desk.
My wife's views on earthquakes are very different. She freaks when we have a small 3.0. She happened to be working from home the day of the 2001 quake and it was one of those spots which shook longer than most other places. She looked at the clock when she ran for a doorway and then looked again when it stopped. It was 5 minutes of shaking. I verified this from the phone message she left me, which had a timestamp a little over 5 minutes after the earthquake started. She said the first thing she did was call me at work and leave a message.
Bill
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