it would be a magnitude 8, similar to what the 1906 quake was in northern california. sean: we have a mock-up of that. the silicon valley quake this was 1906 a recreation, can you walk us through this? yeah. this is a computer simulation done by scientists at the u.s. logical survey. they recreated the quake, propagated the seismic waves, and what we are looking at, sitting up in a hot-air balloon above san jose, above silicon valley watching the quake come towards us from san from san francisco at the top of the screen this is in real-time. the first wave in blue travels 14,000 miles-an-hour. the strong shaking in yellow and orange travels more like 7,000 miles-an-hour watch you can see in silicon valley the ground keeps shaking.
playbooks. fire trucks to pump seawater into the reactor which is going to destroy the reactor. has never been contemplated. it is not working well either which is why we are having sean: there s always a possibility margaret, let me bring you in. by all accounts, they even built this facility, built decades ago to withstand an 8.2 quake. there is, as i understand it a ton of redundancy and pretexts they put in place even and protections they put in place even envisioning a worst-case scenario. first, on behalf of the american nuclear society our hearts go out to what is happening in japan and the quake and the tsunami and the devastation. i especially want to congratulate and honor the workers at the plants whose families and homes have been lost, yet they ve stayed on-the-job. that said, you are right.
defense facility outside of japan. the other thing is researchers spend a lot of time interacting with our colleagues across the world to improve construction. sean: can can you tell us what we are looking at at in these videos? i assume a mock-up of a quake and structural issues, correct? correct. a shaking table that simulates an earthquake load. that causes the columns to swayback and forth. in one case they are older buildings that are looked at. sean: okay. as far as it relates to when you have a full scale 8.9 in the case of yeah, i ll go to you on this, jay, i ll go to you on this. these facilities were prepared for an 8.2 quake. go ahead. it is astounding sean,
have evidence from past quakes, digging trenches across faults that gives us an idea on average how often quakes occur, which is typically every several hundred years. in southern california on the san andreas fall it has been 300 years since the last big quake. sean: you are saying california on the san andreas fault is due, just based on southern california is overdue. well on average there s a major about every 150 years and it has been 300 years since the last one. sean: does that increase the likelihood it would be that much more devastating request many that s correct. the longer we go between earthquakes the more stress builds up and the cans of a larger quake and the chance of a larger quake is very real. sean: what magnitude are we talking about? if the whole fault breaks
breakfast is being served. people are milling about. it feels like another day. just behind the camera is a shopping mall with toys r us and coffee shops and the rest. there are signs up that indicate the stores may be opening late because of the electricity shortage and all the rest. people are still going to work, no panic in the areas where they are getting food, clothing and shelter, lines are forming, orderly like space mountain at disneyland frankly. as orderly, calm and precise as anything you could imagine. tokyo, no sign that anything has happened at all. before sunrise this morning was there was a 4.1 quake here, which is of course an aftershock. we belt it. they record it. we felt it, they recorded it. people won t on with their normal lives. vast majority of travel is mass transit. trains affected by rolling