Can california really "fall into the sea" ..

[toddzilla]

I'm no geologist, but it seems to me that something has to fall "off" of an object in order to actually "fall"

all this crap about cali tumbling into the ocean seems stupid, but i'm not knowledgable in this area, any answers?

[phantom power]

1. It could "slump" into the sea

I have always assumed that if any part of CA disappeared into the sea, it would be the parts west of the San Andreas fault, which is only a fraction of the whole state.

I'm no geolgist either. I have no idea how likely that sort of event is in real life.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

19. going in the other direction

Well, at least in the part of Salinia (the name given to the area west of the San Andreas fault) near the bay area, the land is going *up* You can see this in the hills of San Mateo county, where the evidence presents itself as a series of terraces ascending into the hills. Wave action cuts these flat terraces, and then earthquakes bring them up out of the ocean. Another terrace forms, an earthquake brings it up, et cetera.

[tridim]

2. I think it's more

the sea falling onto California.

[Spinzonner]

3. Not really

besides, if we go we're taking the rest of you with us.

[Richardo]

4. That'll be the day I go back to Annandale...

THANK YOU for the Steely Dan ref!! :bounce: :D:thumbsup:

"My Old School"

California
Tumbles in to the sea
That'll be the day
I go back to Annandale

Tried to warn you
About Chino and Daddy Gee
But I can't seem to get to you
Through the U.S. Mail

[meegbear]

5. Check this ...

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_157a.html

[amber dog democrat]

6. Parts of it will

Ever hear about Port Royal, Jamaica ? It sank in the late 6100s. Almost all of it under water now

The coast line may be a little altered - we may lose some expensive houses.

[Donkeyboy75]

7. Look!

You can see into the future!

Just tell me the next world series winner so I can bet big bucks. Please?

[amber dog democrat]

14. Chicago Cubs

you can bet on it.

[Donkeyboy75]

17. Oh, I wish that were true.

:cry:

[amber dog democrat]

18. It can

We may need to wait until the late 6100s, but it WILL happen. Keep that blue and red cap handy.

[Cicero]

8. The late 6100s???

Please, oh please, jump in your time machine and tell us how the election will come out. :hippie:

Later,

[amber dog democrat]

15. Nader

He will be appointed by the Supreme Court. His VP will be an oleander bush.

[frylock]

11. port royal sank in the late 6100s?!

are you a time traveller? Who's going to win the World Series this year? I need to make a quick buck!

[amber dog democrat]

16. Cubs

Bet on the Cubbies.

[CrispyQ]

9. A special I saw years ago said that . . .

it is actually slowly sliding northward.

[Journeyman]

10. Look at the geology of the West. . .

the West is rising, has been doing so for a couple million years. What in the East compares to the majesty of the Sierra Nevada range? The Continental Divide demarcates more than the "center" of the continent. . . everything West of it is upwardly mobile (geologically speaking), while the East is slip sliding away. So when the big one hits, trust me, it's parts east of California that're going to slip into the sea. . . the Atlantic, that is.

Now, the Great Shake Theory is quite different. The GS Theory postulates that when God created America, he grabbed the continent by its "maine" and shook, and everything loose rolled into California. This helps explain the comment my TI made to me in basic training: "You're from California, boy? Ain't nuthin' but dingbats and cars in California, boy, and you ain't got no wheels!"

[hunter]

12. California is always shedding land into the ocean.

I once watched the ocean eat a few houses near Santa Barbara, and I've visited many major slide sites in the state.

Some of these slides could be activated by earthquakes, but usually it's water, often from somthing silly, like watering one's yard too much. That happens all the time -- people build houses near the ocean on land that will slide into the ocean when it gets saturated with water, and then they decide to plant "tropical" landscapes.

Here's one link, with pictures:

http://seis.natsci.csulb.edu/VIRTUAL_FIELD/Palos_Verdes/pvportuguese.htm

But no, the idea that everything west of the San Andreas fault could fall into the ocean during a huge earthqake is silly. Sometimes I do worry about earthquake triggered "tidal waves" whenever I'm visiting certain areas, but it's not a big worry. Bad drivers scare me more, and the Bush Administration scares me worse.

[DrWeird]

13. No.

It's continental crust, it's "lighter" and "floats" on the denser, basaltic oceanic crust. That said, the western part of California is on the Pacific plate and slowly moving NW. Projections for several million years from now have it as an island off the coast of modern day oregon.

That said in the short term coastal californian areas could easily end up underwater due to global warming.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

20. Death valley

On the other hand, keep in mind that Death Valley is below sea level, so were it connected to the ocean, it would be a rather large inlet. Hmm... Death Lake?

[hunter]

21. Death Valley is isolated from the ocean.

If I remember correctly it's potential outlet is pretty high.

The Salton Sea area is more interesting if we are talking about "flooded California" scenarios. In prehistoric times the Salton Sea area (south of Palm Springs) has been a huge lake filled by the Colorado River. It almost became a huge lake again in the early 1900's as the result of an irrigation project accident.

If modern civilization in the southwestern United States collapses and sea levels rise, I can easily imagine this lake filling up again, maybe to be decorated by small boats sailing up the Colorado River from the Gulf of California.

BTW, one of my favorite books describing such a flooded California is Ursula K. Le Guin's "Always Coming Home."

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/ach/Index.html

[NNadir]

22. I have always though, maybe niavely, that the Salton Sea/Imperial Valley

has an interesting energy application. If a sea level outlet - a tunnel or a Canal through Mexico from the Gulf of California could be found, there would be a means of storing electricity for peak hours through hydroelectric systems that filled the Salton Sea. During off peak hours, the water could be pumped out or removed in desalination operations. If the desalinated water were used to irrigate the below sea level fields of the Imperial Valley, some energy would be recovered through evaporation, i.e. this would represent a new form of solar energy recovery.

Likewise one could pump the water out using windmills, possibly set up to produce low pressure water distillation, and thus adjust the time that windpower was available so as to synchronize with demand. Several variations on this theme were imaginable. (The area around the Salton Sea, as I recall, is quite windy.

All this stuff is wild speculation on my part. I have done no calculations to estimate what this system might cost, how much energy it might produce, etc, but it's kind of a fun idea.