Posted on 03/30/2014 6:43:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Swiss Re, a global reinsurance company, has analyzed the disaster potential for 616 of the world’s largest cities (PDF).
Each city is ranked according to its potential for earthquakes, storms, storm surges, tsunamis, and river floods. For each type of disaster, Swiss Re devised an extreme weather scenario in which defenses fail and the human and economic toll can be enormous.
Further, each city was ranked based on the effect each scenario would have on its residents by combining population-distribution data and vulnerability estimates for each disaster. The scenarios consider fatalities, injuries, evacuations, those whose homes would be damaged or destroyed, and those who would be unable to access their workplace.
15.6 million people potentially affected.
Tehran sits on one of the most dangerous fault lines in the world — the North Anatolian fault. The entire population of the city is heavily exposed to earthquakes.
16.4 million people potentially affected.
Los Angeles, like much of California, sits along the San Andreas Fault, making it one of the most earthquake-prone places in the world; 14.7 million people are at risk directly of earthquakes at any given time in the city.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Let’s put Detroit at the top of Man-Made disasters.
Rip-roaringly funny.
Well, I thought it was kinda skeery.
Estonia doesn’t get too many natural disasters, but it has had plenty of man-made disasters.
Checked the article to make sure the correct answer was number one. Tokyo is not only located at the fastest tectonic collision boundary in the world, but there is a *third* plate just south of Tokyo coming north: a three-way collision. A geologist called Tokyo “the city waiting to die”.
Just look for the Union and Democrat label's. They are easy to spot.
Wasn’t that the country in the peter sellers movie...the mouse that roared?
San Francisco sits on top of the San Andreas fault....Los Angeles does not. The San Andreas fault is roughly 40 miles east of Los Angeles.
Don’t get me wrong....an 8.4 on the southern leg of the San Andreas is going to ruin everyone’s day in the Los Angeles basin and beyond, but there are a number of other faults that are much closer to downtown L.A. and pose a greater threat than the San Andreas, such as the Newport-Inglewood fault, amongst others.
I think the Seattle-Tacoma metroplex should be on the list as well.
1. Mount Rainier. No...it hasn’t erupted since the 1700’s. However, an eruption is NOT the greatest possibility of destruction. Geologists say that gases that have been seeping up over hundreds of years from the magma below have weakened the rock. The only thing holding it together is the sheer weight of ice on the mountain and the rock itself. If there should be an earthquake or other volcanic event of sufficient force under the mountain, it’s thought that most of the west face of Rainier could simply ‘slide off’ and crash through the river valleys coming off the mountain. It’s been shown that the Osceola Mudflow (can’t remember how long ago) went all the way to where the south end of Seattle is...and the last part of that area is highly populated. Tacoma would fare no better. Anything in the White, Green, Carbon, Puyallup, and Nisqually river valleys would pretty much cease to exist.
2. The Cascadia Subduction Zone. About 50-60 miles off the Washington coast going all the way down to northern California is the Cascadia. It’s where the Pacific Plate is sliding under the North American Plate. It’s the same type of megathrust fault that triggered the 1964 Great Alaskan Quake and the 2011 Great Tohoku Quake in Japan. Geologists say that if what they call the “Full 9.0 Rip” should occur, where the whole fault lets go, there would be massive destruction all along the entire Pacific Northwest coast. Shaking would likely last anywhere from 4 to 8 minutes. Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland would be struck hard. Accompanying tsunamis would wipe out anything along the coast, and the possibility for destructive tsunamis in Hawaii and Japan would be quite high. Scientists and historians had traced back the destruction of several Japanese villages on January 26, 1700 to the last time the Cascadia let go. Geologists tell us that the Cascadia lets loose about every 300 to 900 years. So...we’re “in the zone”. (Or, it might not happen until the year 2600...)
Actually, that was the “Duchy of Grand Fenwick”.
The Duchy of Grand Fenwick, the smallest country in the world, is nestled in the French Alps. Being as isolated as it is, its life is a throwback to olden days.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053084/plotsummary
The new Wes Anderson movie *The Grand Budapest Hotel* takes place in another mythical country somewhere in the Alps.....in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Budapest_Hotel
The brilliant *Wag the Dog* is set, in part in Albania.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wag_the_Dog
The Puente Hills thrust fault turns out to be a bigger threat to LA than the San Andreas.
All of those cities have already had earthquakes.
Laugh at Buffalo all you want - all it gets is snow (and not that much more than Boston or Cleveland). No earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, typhoons, sinkholes, forest fires, locusts or floods.
I guess the /s tag was necessary after all. :-)
Haven’t heard about the budapest hotel movie, but now that you mention it...I do remember wag the dog. The mouse that roared was a fun flick.
Good that the U.S. only has 1 city in the top 10, Los Angeles.
But clearly they aren’t factoring in the risk of divine judgement as a “natural disaster”. Or San Francisco would be on the list.
I lived in Galesburg and worked at the diesel shop as a supervisor. Many of my craft employees were from Burlington. After I left Galesburg there was a really bad flood in late 2007 or early 2008... and I happened to be watching CNN coverage and one of the electricians from the diesel shop who was also a farmer near Gulfport or... maybe it was north of there... can’t remember the town name... like straight west from Monmouth... well this guy was interviewed on CNN... and they showed his house... water up above the top of the front door... I felt sick to my stomach for Jimmy... He was the nicest guy... always helpful... proud of his craft... and a Christian.
Just saw on the news a woman searching through mud for her 4 month old infant.
Hory Mory! It’s Godzirra! RUN FOR YOUR RIVES!
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