Seattle Getting Hit By A Large Earthquake Options

[FlakJacket]

Someone posted a like to this article on another forum so thought I'd swipe it.

Shake, Rattle, Seattle

As an engineer who advises companies on how to make their buildings survive earthquakes, I have visited the aftermath of nearly every key quake since 1970, observing how new and old buildings have performed when the ground shook beneath them. I try to learn from each new disaster how to change our design techniques, construction practices and building codes to reduce future losses of life and damage. From my perspective, the shock that hit Chile in February was the most important earthquake of the last 100 years.

It was the first mega-quake, its magnitude near 9, to strike a developed country with rigorous building codes. Modern cities full of state-of-the-art buildings were tested by intense ground-shaking that lasted about 120 seconds — compared to about 40 seconds for the 1906 and 20 seconds for the 1989 San Francisco earthquakes, which had magnitudes of 7.9 and 6.9, respectively. Despite Chile’s exacting construction codes, which often exceed those of California and Japan, the performance of numerous high-rise buildings was worryingly poor.

We engineers and seismologists need to gather and study as much data as we can from Chile’s quake. But one thing is already clear: based on the kind of damage that buildings suffered in Chile, tall structures in the earthquake zones of the United States appear to be at much higher risk than we thought. This lesson should be of obvious concern to San Francisco and Los Angeles. But it is actually the Pacific Northwest that is most vulnerable to a mega-quake like Chile’s.

Just off Northern California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia sits the 600-mile-long Cascadia fault. Like the Nazca tectonic plate that caused the quake and tsunami in Chile, Cascadia can produce temblors with magnitudes of 9 or greater, more powerful than anything we’ve experienced or expect from California’s famous San Andreas fault.

Article continued.

Now obviously they'd never do it in a canon sourcebook as they've already shaken Japan to pieces and wrecked Los Angeles further down the west coast so why wreck one of your main setting, but I have to wonder what would happen to the Seattle of 2070 if it were to be hit by a great 9+ Richter scale earthquake that was centred very close by. If what the article says is right and combine it with IIRC Seattle on certain types of soil that react worse than others in an earthquake you could be looking at major devastation. Would certainly be fun running a one off campaign in the aftermath of it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Fatum]

Actually, that thought crossed my mind as well. For all I know, Seattle has seen its share of earthquakes, and there's no reason why it shouldn't be hit once more.
On the other hand, it's a major setting change, with much of what the runners know and love ruined - should be carefully considered, and doubly so since it'd be less cyberpunkish and more post-apocalyptic for a good deal of time until they get out the ruins at least.

[Khyron]

Could quakes be prevented by certain old ones performing certain magics?

[Headshot_Joe]

It would be a pity to see the whole thing go, but imagine watching it unfold from The Eye of the Needle? The Space Needle was built to withstand up to a 9.1 magnitude quake, and by 2072, it just might be upgraded to withstand more, what with being overhauled and all.

[pbangarth]

It would be a pity to see the whole thing go, but imagine watching it unfold from The Eye of the Needle? The Space Needle was built to withstand up to a 9.1 magnitude quake, and by 2072, it just might be upgraded to withstand more, what with being overhauled and all.

Or watching it while Levitated above the devastation.

[FlakJacket]

Nah, if you're going to do it then you have to do it big - the Space Needle is going down. As for levitation I'd much prefer a helicopter, less chance of getting distracted and letting the spell (and yourself) drop. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)