Posted by Diego Sanchez, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Mar 11, 2011 at 2:35 pm

i don't think its that big of a deal

Posted by HoleInTheHead, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Mar 11, 2011 at 2:51 pm

What are the chances (%) of this happening in MV?

Posted by Amazed (but not in a good way), a resident of the Blossom Valley neighborhood, on Mar 14, 2011 at 8:42 am

"Coastal cities are the most at risk from a tsunami, Brocher said. He also said that the Bay Area faults, such as the Hayward and San Andreas, aren't likely to cause a tsunami."

For anyone that actually needed this pointed out to them...unbelievable.

Posted by Mike Rodgers, a resident of the St. Francis Acres neighborhood, on Mar 14, 2011 at 1:27 pm

Actually, Brocher is right with respect to Mountain View. Our greatest risks here are related to the larger local faults, e.g. Hayward fault which is over due for a 7 range quake is an extreme risk for a Kobe or Port Au Prince like quake that would make a direct hit on the east Bay, even with our great resistant building codes, even resilient structures can suffer moderate to heavy damage in a direct hit 7.0 scenario (which might create up to Mercali VIII or IX level ground shaking), ditto for areas immediately above and adjascent to San Andreas (and its 7.9-8.0 potential).

However, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that slightly to the north of the Bay Area is the Cascadia subduction zone extending from Mendocino to British Columbia which is capable of producing 9 level moment magnitude quakes (& hasn't had a large event since 1700).

One thing to consider is the possibility of much larger tsunamis that could affect the CA coastal communities from a Cascadia event at perhaps 10X the heights and extent inland as was seen this weekend from the Sendai megathrust event (wwhere we had well under 1 meter tsunami here this weekend and yet saw several harbors trashed and ~$100M in damage). Areas well away from the Sendai epicenter in Japan saw large tsunamis, great loss of property and life from up to 4-6 meter tsunamis that struck the north and even west coasts of Honshu and many areas of Hokkaido.

Posted by Amazed, a resident of the Blossom Valley neighborhood, on Mar 15, 2011 at 8:43 am

Of course he is right. But do we really need to ask what the possibility of a tsunami hitting Mtn. View is?

Posted by HoleInTheHead, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Mar 15, 2011 at 12:07 pm

"United States Geological Survey said locals need not fret much about the prospect of a tsunami hitting Mountain View."

In other words, the chances for a tsunami hitting MV in not zero?

Posted by HoleInTheHead, a resident of the Old Mountain View neighborhood, on Mar 15, 2011 at 12:12 pm

"Mountain View would likely not be hit by a tsunami"

What about Los Altos Hills? Is there safer?