Earthquake Hazards in the United States

Earthquake Hazards in the United States
On August 24, 2014 a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near Napa, CA. The earthquake killed one person and injured over 150 people. Damages are estimated to reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The Napa earthquake was the largest earthquake in Northern California in 25 years. The last major earthquake in the United States was the 1994 magnitude 6.7 Northridge, California earthquake in which 60 people lost their lives and over 10 billion dollars worth of damage to southern California resulted.
If you live in California, you live in earthquake country. The U.S. Geological Survey has forecast a 70% probability of one or more magnitude 6.7 earthquakes by 2030 along any of the several active faults that cut the Bay Area. The forecasts for Southern California are not very different. Clearly, it is important to understand the tectonic setting of California to prepare for future earthquakes. However, directly north of Davis, there is a very different tectonic setting called the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Recent studies suggest that the Cascadia Subduction Zone has a history of large earthquakes and is more dangerous than once thought.
For this topic you will explore the two major tectonic regions of the western United States, the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the San Andreas Fault System, in a double-spaced, 5 page scientific paper, which compares the two different systems and discusses the geologic hazards of each in light of the 2014 Napa earthquake. To simplify matters, we will ignore one very tectonically active region of the U.S., Alaska, and focus on areas that are more densely populated (i.e. the western U.S.). In your paper you will want to address both geological and societal aspects of the regions, and you should strongly consider addressing some or all of the topics and questions outlined below.
Geologic aspects
o What is the tectonic setting of both zones?
o What type of fault(s) generate earthquakes in each area?
o Historically, what earthquakes have occurred in each area? Were many fatalities involved?
What can we learn from past earthquakes that may help in the future?
o What is an epicenter, and where were past major earthquakes located with respect to major population centers?
o Does the local geology of the two regions affect the magnitude of shaking felt during earthquakes (e.g. are certain areas prone to liquefaction)?
o What other geologic hazards related to the tectonic setting are possible in each region (e.g. volcanoes; tsunamis)?
Societal aspects
o What is the population of the two regions?
o What factors primarily lead to fatalities and injuries during previous earthquakes?
o When were many of the buildings in each area built?
o Were the buildings built with earthquake safety in mind? If not, were they retrofitted? o Are there any sort of warning systems in place for either tsunamis or earthquakes?
Composed by HAS, January 2015.
Be sure to include maps that illustrate the two regions. Use any other illustrations that you think help to enhance your points. Make sure you refer to your figures in your paper by using parenthetical references - (Fig. 1). The illustrations don't figure into the total page count, obviously.
The topic is intentionally wide open. We would like to see what sources, information, and direction you take with this paper. Its part of doing research. Blogs and Wikipedia dont count, and semi-informed and hyper-opinionated sources should be avoided. Try to find the most up-to- date sites possible we will visit each of your references, so make sure they are reputable and full of good information. Spend the proper amount of time looking for good sources and make sure you reference them properly in your text. Try not to depend on just one good reference using all references roughly equally will look good to us as we read them. This should not be a doom and gloom paper; instead it should be an insightful, comparative analysis of the two major seismic regions in the United States.