Word: berkeley
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...alarms raised by consumer groups may prove to be a mixed blessing. Some experts complain that a generation that faces fewer real health threats than did their grandparents has become hypersensitive to relatively minor perils. Biochemist Bruce Ames of the University of California, Berkeley, points out that naturally occurring carcinogens in many foods -- cabbage, broccoli and oranges -- are much more potent than traces of man-made pesticides. "Most of us are more secure with respect to basic survival than we were a generation ago," says Ann Fisher, manager of the EPA's Risk Communication Program...
...public policy at Carnegie-Mellon University. But after last week, earthquakes are going to be viewed as a much more persistent risk than they were before. That will force many communities to choose which risks to take seriously. Says Bruce Bolt, a seismologist at the University of California, Berkeley: "If you have only a certain amount of dollars to spend on risk mitigation in a particular area, do you spend it on seismic upgrading or on asbestos removal...
During the 1906 tremor, the plates on either side of the San Andreas lurched past each other by as much as 20 ft. Over time, such jumps add up. "In 30 million years," Berkeley seismologist Bruce Bolt says, "Los Angeles will become a new suburb of San Francisco...
...Andreas fault system divides the Pacific plate and the North American plate, which grind past each other at the pace of 2 in. a year. But this movement of the plates is not uniform. Along fault zones the plates tend to become "locked," resisting the overall motion. Explains Berkeley seismologist Robert Uhrhammer: "Stress builds up in these areas that are in effect welded shut. It's as if the rock were being stretched like a big rubber sheet." At a certain point the rock snaps, allowing the plates to slip and release stress. The result is an earthquake...
...reason, some geologists think that the Big One has been overemphasized as a near-term threat. There are faults up and down the California coast capable of equaling the latest quake, and that is enough reason to worry. Likely candidates for significant quakes in Northern California include not only Berkeley and Oakland but also the Silicon Valley. The Los Angeles Basin, for its part, has experienced an increase in small earthquakes, which many seismologists find alarming. The message from Mother Nature seems unmistakable: Be prepared...