Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Los Angeles grows nervous about the ‘big one’ as helium found leaking from faultline -

Fault 2
June 2015 LOS ANGELESWhen hi-tech movies are then replicated in life – we see it as a positive step forwards. However, no-one wants to see disaster movies repeated in real-life, but it looks like LA may be on the verge of getting the ‘San Andreas’ treatment. Geologists from UC Santa Barbara have found helium leaking from the Newport-Inglewood fault in central Los Angeles increasing the potential damage of an earthquake on the mega city. This discovery comes after the US Geological Survey warned that the city is building up to a ‘big one’ in the next 30 years with chances of a magnitude 8 earthquake hitting the mega-city increasing from 4.7 to 7 per cent.
UC Santa Barbara geologist Jim Boles was reported by MailOnline saying: ‘The results are unexpected for the area, because the LA Basin is different from where most mantle helium anomalies occur. ‘The Newport-Inglewood fault appears to sit on a 30-million-year-old subduction zone, so it is surprising that it maintains a significant pathway through the crust.’ An earthquake registering 8 on the Richter scale will produce major damage to buildings, transport and energy infrastructure…not pretty stuff. All we need now is a more accurate way to predict these monsters. –Yahoo UK

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