# How far from a major fault line would you live?



## Freya (Dec 3, 2005)

How close or far would you feel is "ok" in the event of a major quake?



For example the New Madrid. 





(Since I asked about Nuke plants already LOL )


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

San Andreas,maybe a mile or 2.Hurricanes scare me more.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

I live pretty close to one in PA


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## Valmai (Sep 29, 2004)

If you are really serious about that there are a few facts you need to consider. What type size depth and ground acceleration will the Madrid fault most likely generate? That should give you an idea of the amount of damage within X miles of the epicentre. Once you have picked a likely safe spot, what type of soil do you have under you, are there potentially unstable hills or waterways too near? What other threats are likely, eg power plants - up wind or down wind. Sadly I have become more knowledgeable about these things than I ever wanted.

Actually the short answer is: it doesn't matter so much how close or far away you are from the epicenter of a large quake, it is if you are too close to anything that could fall on you or swallow you. Earthquakes don't kill people, stuff falling in an earthquake kills people.


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

New Madrid is extremely dangerous. That is one I would not live within several hundred miles of the epicenter. Same goes for California. Why live in an area that can be pulverized in seconds or even close enough to be affected by the aftermath. Others are not dangerous. 

There are occasionally earthquakes in the Appalachians. You barely notice them. The only one I felt, I wasn't sure if it was an earthquake. Valmai had a good summary of the concerns.


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## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

beaglebiz said:


> I live pretty close to one in PA


We don't have "major" fault lines. But we do have minor ones. Our quakes aren't generally more than tiny. But quakes can happen.

Link to Pa earthquake hazard map.

www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/hazards/es10.pdf

I'm about 60 miles from the Ramapo that runs from southern pa up into Jersey. That can have a 6+ and if the one in NYC ever goes... We would feel it and be affected here.


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## AR Cattails (Dec 22, 2005)

I'm in NE Arkansas so I'm a heck of a lot closer to the New Madrid fault line then I would like to be.


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## Pouncer (Oct 28, 2006)

I live less than ten miles from one fault, and within 30 miles of a bunch. The one closest to me....no one, not even the geologists (!!) know for sure what is going to happen. 

It is a slip fault, at the surface. The soils are so mixed up they can't tell what happened. Seriously. It's due to cut loose, generally the estimates are for under a mag 8.


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## giraffe_baby (Oct 15, 2005)

Unfourtunatly when we moved here we werent in "PREPPER" mode... So didnt think of EQ's til we were REQUIRED to have EQ insurance!! LOL We are 1 hr from Tn, Mo, Ill, In LOL so YES we are in the "CORNER" of the faults!!!


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Let's see................ THere's one less than a mile north of me and one less than a mile south of me. I figure they will cancel each other out.

The problem with most earthquakes is not so much the size of the quake but what kind of earth you have and the direction from which direction it comes and whether you live in an area where things can fall on you - like overpasses and buildings. 

If you live in an area that has few quakes then chances are the buildings, furniture, bridges, etc are not going to make it through a sizable quake. Where I live, earthquakes are considered in building codes and most new buildings are bolted down. Old public building have a seismic retrofit as do bridges and overpasses.
And frankly we have enough quakes that a lot of what could come down, already has.


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## watcher (Sep 4, 2006)

Live ON the New Madrid fault for decades. Wouldn't bother me to move back.


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## mldollins (Jun 21, 2008)

....nothing I can do.....


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

I'm basically ON an EQ fault line, not to mention close to Mt St Helens. Lived in this county all my life, so I guess I'll stay. Better than tornadoes, hurricanes, poisonous snakes, and about a hundred other threats. No matter where you live, there is something you have to deal with.


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## shaycool (Sep 1, 2004)

I'm close to the Clarendon-Linden fault system


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## Sawmill Jim (Dec 5, 2008)

I'm not to far from Reelfoot Lake how is that :run::run:


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## tambo (Mar 28, 2003)

I live about 30 miles from Reelfoot Lake. I have lived here all my life.


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## Pink_Carnation (Apr 21, 2006)

We are about 35 miles from the epicenter of the last major quake in the area a 6.8. This same fault has produced large quakes in 1949, and 1965 as well. I wasn't at home when the quake happened so I don't know what it felt like but our neighbors had a case of pepsi on a half-wall and it was still there. We didn't have any kind of damage in our neighborhood but in some of the others on fill their stuff was tossed off all the shelves.

I don't really worry about the quakes other than to try and prepare just like any other disaster.


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## poorboy (Apr 15, 2006)

I'm about 70Mi. give or take from the NM fault...minor quake a few years back cracked my basement wall..nothing serious...everybody has to be somewhere and here is as good as any for me.:shrug:


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

mightybooboo said:


> .Hurricanes scare me more.


Daresay millions in Texas and the South are praying and jonesing heavily, for a good ol fashioned hurricane to swoop in on em, and deliver a foot or two of sky juice. I'd love a 16" rain... if it don't rain here directly, everythings going to die.

My area is geologically boring.


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## Ruby (May 10, 2002)

manygoatsnmore said:


> I'm basically ON an EQ fault line, not to mention close to Mt St Helens. Lived in this county all my life, so I guess I'll stay. Better than tornadoes, hurricanes, poisonous snakes, and about a hundred other threats. No matter where you live, there is something you have to deal with.


UH, Washington and Oregon has rattle snakes. When we lived in Oregon a friend who has lived there his entire life was telling us about an island in the estern part of the Columbia river where no one could camp because of the rattle snakes.


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## Ruby (May 10, 2002)

texican said:


> Daresay millions in Texas and the South are praying and jonesing heavily, for a good ol fashioned hurricane to swoop in on em, and deliver a foot or two of sky juice. I'd love a 16" rain... if it don't rain here directly, everythings going to die.
> 
> My area is geologically boring.


Yep Texican, all our grass is dying. We haven't had to mow since I can't remember when. I think it was the first part of June. Our crepe myrtles are starting to show stress, they haven't even bloomed this year. My gardinia bush and fig tree looks bad.


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

When it shook a couple years ago (4.9-5.3 then a 4. after shock) I felt it big time at my house.
I live 6-7 hours away.

Last year we have a shake, and a BOOM from a wee bit fault line that NO ONE knew about, in my area.
Made the corn field swell, and the boom was pretty scary.

Nothing I can do about.


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## kabri (May 14, 2002)

We are building a house on the eastern side of the Olympic peninsula in WA, straight west of Seattle, too many faults to know where the closest one is! Our preps for this are a foundation built on bedrock that they had to chisel with a bobcat jackhammer to get enough depth for the slab, plus extensive EQ steel holddowns built into the walls that the framers complain about cause they take so long to install. Will it be enough to survive the big one? Worth the risk to live in such a beautiful area!


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

texican said:


> Daresay millions in Texas and the South are praying and jonesing heavily, for a good ol fashioned hurricane to swoop in on em, and deliver a foot or two of sky juice. I'd love a 16" rain... if it don't rain here directly, everythings going to die.
> 
> My area is geologically boring.


Well, 16" in one fell swoop would about wash me down river! Maybe a little less than that?


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## Ruby (May 10, 2002)

It's so dry here I thing the only thing that will save us is a slow rain that last a few days.


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## Pink_Carnation (Apr 21, 2006)

Ruby said:


> UH, Washington and Oregon has rattle snakes. When we lived in Oregon a friend who has lived there his entire life was telling us about an island in the estern part of the Columbia river where no one could camp because of the rattle snakes.


Not all of Washington and Oregon have rattlesnakes just the eastern side. They don't seem to like the wet weather much.


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

I don't know where the nearest fault line is, but I'm about 30 miles from an active volcano.

If you live with earthquakes, you discover they aren't all that scary. They are a lot less scary than a tornado, and a lot less destructive. My only big worry here is wildfire.

I know there is a fault very close to the Oregon coast and all the tsunami evacuation routes are clearly marked.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Right on top of it if I was given 20 acres for free.


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## lonelytree (Feb 28, 2008)

Horozontally or vertically?

I am less than a block from a place called "Earthquake Park"


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## 10ecn (Mar 12, 2010)

I've never lived more than about 200 miles from the closest one. Have lived much closer to a few. Some were pretty active, but the dangerous one has never done very much (yet).


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Major ones...none near by. There are some little ones around and "the Lake" has a habit of having a bit of a quake.


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## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

I grew up in Northern California on the coast, pretty much sitting on a major fault line right off the coast. Got used to earthquakes and they never bothered me. Lived in Alabama for seven years and the tornadoes there scared me to death.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Ruby said:


> UH, Washington and Oregon has rattle snakes. When we lived in Oregon a friend who has lived there his entire life was telling us about an island in the eastern part of the Columbia river where no one could camp because of the rattle snakes.





Pink_Carnation said:


> Not all of Washington and Oregon have rattlesnakes just the eastern side. They don't seem to like the wet weather much.


This. ^^^

I'm on the wet side of WA, only snakes we seem to have are garter snakes, and they aren't poisonous. Even on the east side (dry side) of WA/OR, there are places with rattlesnakes and places without them.


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## naturelover (Jun 6, 2006)

Yep. The Northern Pacific black diamond rattlesnake is in southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and northern California. But they don't inhabit the wetter coastal areas where the rainforests are, they live further east in high plateaus, mountains and desert regions wherever it's arid. They're awfully pretty, and very, very shy. Say BOO! to one and it will slither away just as fast as it is able.

As to the earthquakes - I live about 20 miles from the nearest slip. It slips once every 14 months like clockwork to relieve pressure so I'm not concerned about a major EQ here.

.


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## Valmai (Sep 29, 2004)

kabri said:


> We are building a house on the eastern side of the Olympic peninsula in WA, straight west of Seattle, too many faults to know where the closest one is! Our preps for this are a foundation built on bedrock that they had to chisel with a bobcat jackhammer to get enough depth for the slab, plus extensive EQ steel holddowns built into the walls that the framers complain about cause they take so long to install. Will it be enough to survive the big one? Worth the risk to live in such a beautiful area!


The safest type of building to be in in and earthquake is a timber framed structure on piles. That is what my house is, built in 1910 and still structurally sound. The walls of lathe and plaster ..not so much. I am having the entire house gutted inside and regibbed. Your description of the foundations sounds very rigid, I think flexibility is more important. Are you aware that the "official" view is that an 'earthquake proof' building is required only to survive the earthquake long enough to allow people to escape. Provided the building doesn't kill any body it is a success even if the building needs to be demolished afterwards.


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## soulsurvivor (Jul 4, 2004)

ah well unless a sinkhole opens up and swallows it we have a FEMA camping trailer on wheels that will come through an earthquake just fine. At least that's our hope. 

We live between 2 minor fault lines but not on top of either. This area is on the edge of cave country and sinkholes will be our thorn in the side. The New Madrid quake damage zone includes us, but we're on the edge of this map for severe damage. 

Since the house is brick on a concrete block foundation, we fully expect it to act like a house of falling bricks during a major shaking.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

I've seen lots of post and pier houses come off their foundations in relatively minor earthquakes. Think Wizard of Oz and the Wicked Witch. Most of these houses are older before seismic building codes. They may do well through many quakes but, if one hits in a bad direction or a long duration, they simply slid off the foundation or piers.
The first house I rented here was about a hundred years old. When an earthquake came, the building would keep swaying for seconds after the quake stopped. It was scary as heck. But it's foundation had been bolted to the sill. So it was not fatal.


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## Nicole Irene (Jun 12, 2011)

I have lived in CA for 40 years and earthquakes do not bother me. Bridges in the Bay Area (San Francisco) *do* bother me!! Also, spent about half that time as a structural engineer, so I understand the engineering that goes into CA buildings.


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## Bluesgal (Jun 17, 2011)

It's not just the distance from the fault line but the type of soil you are on. 

Me, I'm 200 miles from a fault line.. BUT if it goes big time I will be affected by the AFTERMATH of the event (supply lines cut, refugees, food shortages etc.).


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## Wanderer0101 (Jul 18, 2007)

I'm particularly interested in the New Madrid fault because I intend to retire in an area that I thought could be impacted by a quake from that fault. I found this great report from the U. of Illinois that looks at the impact of a Magnitude 7.7 quake on an eight state area. The summary is in Vol. 1 and there's more detail in Vol. 2 all of which are available for download. I was relieved to find that my area of interest is unlikely to be impacted.

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bit...arthquakeso theCentral USAVol1.pdf?sequence=3

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/14810


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