Ross
9th March 2011, 07:28
This Fault line is the boundary between the North American plate to the east, and the Pacific plate to the west.
For 25 million years, they have been grinding past each other to create the largest Earthquake fault in North America.
If ever there was a Fault line, that cuts through the very fabric of society, it is this one, stretching some 700 miles in length. The reason why 20 million or so people carry on living so close to this danger zone is that this plate boundary has made California rich.
It began with the California gold rush. These nuggets of gold might have been found in streams but the gold originally rose from hot mineral rich fluids forced up between the plates, infact almost everything that makes California wealthy is at least partly related to the San Andreas fault.
Take for example the scenery, it was the colliding plates that forced up mountains along the California coastline, and this dramatic landscape attracts thousands of tourists a year, who spend an estimated 2 billion dollars on sightseeing alone.
Then there’s the wine market, and that’s partly due to the San Andres.
California is mostly desert but when moist air rises off the oceans; the mountains form the rain which irrigates this otherwise arid landscape. It’s a micro climate that has made this one of the most productive farming regions in America but the ultimate wealth in the San Andreas is oil, black gold, with oil seeps, that leak to the surface, just like a natural spring. 150 years ago the early prospectors realized this was a place to drill…and drill they did. Over the years, around 200,000 wells have been sunk in California.
Most people would think of Texas as America’s oil state, but California was and still is, one of the world’s largest oil produces drawing over 700,000 barrels of crude oil out of the ground everyday.
The oil formed millions of years ago deep inside the Earth, but it was the San Andreas Fault that split the rock and brought it close enough to the surface to be exploited. So, it seems the Andres fault has brought California some serious economic benefits.
In the shaping of the land it has created conditions for oil, for agriculture, for wine and even for tourism…but how much is that really worth? The moneymen have done the sums, they reckon that this state earns around 100 billion dollars every year because of the San Andres Fault. California’s geology is a license to print money.
Earthquake geologists say that California gets struck by a big seismic quake about every 100-150 years and those major quakes are hugely destructive but that doesn’t seen to dampen the spirits of the number crunches. Its worked out that a city like LA with a real big quake will cause around 250 billion dollars worth of damage, now that is a huge sum but average that over a century you are still in profit. You have 100 billion dollars a year coming in versus a one off hit of 250 billion, that’s a gain of 40:1, any commerce will tell that is a fairly decent return.
Regards
Ross
For 25 million years, they have been grinding past each other to create the largest Earthquake fault in North America.
If ever there was a Fault line, that cuts through the very fabric of society, it is this one, stretching some 700 miles in length. The reason why 20 million or so people carry on living so close to this danger zone is that this plate boundary has made California rich.
It began with the California gold rush. These nuggets of gold might have been found in streams but the gold originally rose from hot mineral rich fluids forced up between the plates, infact almost everything that makes California wealthy is at least partly related to the San Andreas fault.
Take for example the scenery, it was the colliding plates that forced up mountains along the California coastline, and this dramatic landscape attracts thousands of tourists a year, who spend an estimated 2 billion dollars on sightseeing alone.
Then there’s the wine market, and that’s partly due to the San Andres.
California is mostly desert but when moist air rises off the oceans; the mountains form the rain which irrigates this otherwise arid landscape. It’s a micro climate that has made this one of the most productive farming regions in America but the ultimate wealth in the San Andreas is oil, black gold, with oil seeps, that leak to the surface, just like a natural spring. 150 years ago the early prospectors realized this was a place to drill…and drill they did. Over the years, around 200,000 wells have been sunk in California.
Most people would think of Texas as America’s oil state, but California was and still is, one of the world’s largest oil produces drawing over 700,000 barrels of crude oil out of the ground everyday.
The oil formed millions of years ago deep inside the Earth, but it was the San Andreas Fault that split the rock and brought it close enough to the surface to be exploited. So, it seems the Andres fault has brought California some serious economic benefits.
In the shaping of the land it has created conditions for oil, for agriculture, for wine and even for tourism…but how much is that really worth? The moneymen have done the sums, they reckon that this state earns around 100 billion dollars every year because of the San Andres Fault. California’s geology is a license to print money.
Earthquake geologists say that California gets struck by a big seismic quake about every 100-150 years and those major quakes are hugely destructive but that doesn’t seen to dampen the spirits of the number crunches. Its worked out that a city like LA with a real big quake will cause around 250 billion dollars worth of damage, now that is a huge sum but average that over a century you are still in profit. You have 100 billion dollars a year coming in versus a one off hit of 250 billion, that’s a gain of 40:1, any commerce will tell that is a fairly decent return.
Regards
Ross