Word: geophysicists
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Experts are unnervingly in agreement that Los Angeles is overdue for a catastrophic shaking. "We feel there is a 60% probability for an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 or larger sometime in the next 30 years," says James H. Dieterich, a geophysicist for the U.S. Geological Survey. Last year the survey reported that the Los Angeles area overlies three fault segments, any of which is capable of producing an enormous quake. Since 1857, when a monster measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale strewed destruction from the Cholame Valley in central California to the Cajon Pass near San Bernardino...
...undercuts Berkeley and Oakland, and the San Jacinto fault, near San Bernardino. Some parts of the San Andreas are more dangerous than others. One segment that lies to the south of the Santa Cruz mountains does not appear prone to large jolts at all. "It just creeps along," says geophysicist Ross Stein of the USGS. "Probably & there's some remarkable material down there that, like talcum powder, acts as a lubricant...
...occurrence has remained beyond reach. Earthquake forecasting is mostly based on past history. If a fault once generated a big earthquake, it can be assumed that it will do so again. But just where and when will the next big break occur? Here scientists are beginning to make headway. Geophysicist Wayne Thatcher of the USGS notes that the 1906 quake ruptured a 260-mile-long section of the San Andreas, extending from Cape Mendocino to San Juan Bautista. But the plate movement along the southern portion of the rupture was minor compared with the far greater movement in the north...
...Some scientists contest the global-warming theory or predict that natural processes will counter its effects. Kenneth E.F. Watt, professor of environmental studies at the University of California at Davis, has gone so far as to call the greenhouse effect "the laugh of the century." S. Fred Singer, a geophysicist working for the U.S. Department of Transportation, predicts that any greenhouse warming will be balanced by an increase in heat- reflecting clouds. The skeptics could be right, but it is far too risky to do nothing while awaiting absolute proof of disaster...
...confirmed, their findings could mean that Sir Isaac Newton's famous inverse- square law of gravity* is in danger of losing the exalted position it has held for three centuries. "It's like saying Mom and apple pie's no good anymore," admits the leader of the gravity project, Geophysicist Mark Ander. "You just don't do that lightly...