The Oppenheimer Report 12/3/18

We haven't had all that many newsworthy earthquakes in North America, at least not in my lifetime, so I took notice last week when I heard there was a magnitude 7 quake (whatever that means) near the City of Anchorage, Alaska. The last two big quakes I can recall were both near San Francisco. The first one, in 1906, was a whopper. It registered a magnitude 7.9, destroyed over 28,000 buildings, burned down 500 city blocks, killed around 3000 residents and, after it was over, it left three quarters of the city in ruins. I wonder what would have happened if that quake had hit the more densely populated San Francisco of today. While the city is more prepared now than it was back then, who knows how it will fare if another “Big One” hits? Buildings are more earthquake resistant now and the disastrous fires which so characterized that 1906 quake would likely be better managed today than they were then, but what do we do when a chunk of California falls into the sea? How do you fix that?

I remember the second major San Francisco earthquake, the one that hit just before game three of the World Series in 1989. My cousin Ted lives in San Francisco, and somewhere in my photo archives I have a photo of Ted, shortly after the quake, standing in front of a collapsed building in the Marina District, near where he lived at the time. Much of the most obvious destruction was in the Marina District, and this area of San Francisco was, if I recall correctly, built largely on landfill. It was weird timing, because it struck just before game three of the World Series. The Oakland Athletics were just about to play The San Francisco Giants in Candlestick Park. Now we have this earthquake near Anchorage, and this was not Alaska’s first. The “Good Friday Earthquake” (another eventful day) hit the Alaska coast, March 27, 1964, by some reports measuring 9.2 in magnitude. I don’t remember hearing about it at the time – I was 9 years old and more impressed by Lloyd Bridges and Sea Hunt on TV - but I learned a little about it when I was reading about this latest earthquake. The ’64 quake originated fifteen miles below Prince William Sound, and the resulting tremors and tsunamis did major damage to Valdez, Whittier, Kodiak, Seward, and Anchorage. The photo above is a small example of that damage, and this and other photos of the damage are compelling reminders of how incredible these quakes are. I know I’m being a fatalist, and perhaps it’s the dismal, rainy weather of late, but doesn’t it seem as if we don’t really have much control over nature’s fury? Is it hubris to assume that if we reduce our output of greenhouse gas we will have an appreciable effect on the direction this train is heading? While I’ll certainly agree the climate is changing for the worse, I do not agree that man will have much control over its current trajectory. I’d like a climate scientist to give me evidence we can change the same cycle which has befallen earth many times before.  Mother Earth is a bitch and she takes no prisoners. Enjoy the ride. Singer Songwriter Jon Brooks wrote a great song for his most recent album No One Travels Alone. It is entitled Proxima B and it is about a planet that has been discovered several light years away which resembles Earth. His point is that hope lies elsewhere, and he implores his listeners, “Baby, pack light.”

Fun fact, there are over 4000 earthquakes per year in Canada, although most of them are too small to feel.

Elsewhere in the news, 41st President of the United States, George H.W. Bush, died last week at 94. Today, there was a quote from Ronald Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis. In essence it said, we mourn the death of the last dignified president. Ain’t that the truth. I don’t know if George H.W. Bush was a good president or not; he was certainly vilified during his term, as was his son “Dubya”during his tenure as POTUS, but both of these guys will go down in history as saints compared to the Bonehed-In Chief who currently holds the office. 

Remember, pack light...

- Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2018 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED