Earthquakes

We just had a tremor from an earthquake in Washington's (the state on top of Oregon) Mount St. Helen range. It was just a 4.0 quake, very small, and the typical of the ones from that fault. But the house shook slightly and my grandfather clock chimes from the brass pendulum being rattled. I also did notice that some of the pictures hanging on the walls in my house were slightly askew. Those mountains in Washington have small quakes almost every day. Usually they range from 1.8 to 4.0 in magnitude, very small. The distance is far enough from Portland that we rarely ever feel any effect, and it probably will never have any big result, even if the quake is much larger.

The fault lines that people here "worry" about are along the Oregon and California coast lines. They are huge and the prediction from earthquake scientists is that every 150 years or so they are capable of initiating a big earthquake that will cause massive damage in areas around the fault, including Portland. The last quake there that had any effect (it was small) occurred about 100 years ago.

I was told when I bought my home here that the probability of my house being affected is remote to none at all, given the earthquake building codes here after the early 90's were made very rigid. My house was built in 2005 and is supposedly almost earthquake proof structurally. When I have examined the amount of concrete and bracing in the slab portion of the house, I can see why. It is as solid as one might make it be. But people in Portland with older houses are very much vulnerable to total destruction from a house collapse.

Over the past 150 years very little damage to any part of the Portland area resulted from any earthquake in the California, Oregon, Washington region. That's why only 20% of people in the Portland area (most of them owners of older houses in the city that sit on fault lines there) have "earthquake insurance". I do not have earthquake insurance on my home, given the location and type of structure it is. It seems highly unlikely any significant damage will occur here from a quake unless it is centered along the Oregon coast fault line and unless it is a quake the size of the one that hit Japan this year.

The earthquake possibility here is interesting to me though, since I moved here to escape the all too common hurricane and flooding problems of New Orleans. That scenario is not only likely in New Orleans again, it is almost a certainty to happen in New Orleans many more times in the coming years. As for an earthquake here, the most it could do to me would be to shake some sense into me. The house I have isn't going to go anywhere and is more stable than my brain