Reply
Sun 5 Dec, 2004 08:35 pm
Anyone know what Hawaii uses to deal with their volcanoes and earthquakes? (Ex. san francisco has strict building codes that help out when earthquakes strike)
What about potential future disasters? (would land sliding be one?)
Probably and tsunamis too (in Hawaii).
There are no building codes comparable to San Francisco's on the Big Island where most of the volcanic activity still takes place. The island really isn't prone to the type of earthquakes that plague the California coast from time to time. It doesn't sit on that kind of 'fault.' The major damage from all the volcanic activity tends to be from sudden eruptions of lava which tend to start wildfires and flow down mountainsides in unpredictable directions, burying stretches of paved road and sometimes destroying entire towns.
A huge tsunami did serious damage to the city of Hilo in, I believe, 1947, killing a couple of hundred people in the process and causing great property damage. As a result, the retaining sea-walls have been reinforced and other steps taken to minimize damage from any future tsunamis. There's a museum devoted to the disaster on Kamehameha St. in Hilo, facing the waterfront where the wave hit. Other seacoast towns have taken similar measures to guard against future tsunamis.
There is a seismic monitoring station near the summit of Mt. Kilauea, the world's most active volcano. It can fairly accurately predict if a major eruption is soon to occur. It cannot, however, predict just where the flow of lava will go once it starts to spout. The National Park Service runs the whole operation and keeps a close and wary eye on developments. They have to as Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is visited by millions of tourists annually. You haven't seen nature at its wildest until you've stood and watched a river of lava flowing down the mountainside at night. The red river itself moves with a sinuousness that is nearly hypnotic. When the flow hits the ocean at the foot of the mountain, huge clouds of white steam billow up from below. That's why the Big Island, already the largest in the archipelago, is still growing.
San Francisco
Hi i really need help does any know what are San Francisco's potential future disasters and damage estimates to buildings aswell as the human fatalities??
wow there's alota people here that are doing my project lol
anyway I know there's supposed to be a big earthquake between years 2003 and 2032. So go search on that or something.