RE: East Coast Earthquake 8-23-2011

[Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com>]

On Wed, 24 Aug 2011, Leigh Porter wrote:
> Indeed, we are not going to be building earthquake proof buildings in 
> London for example.

Of course there is no such thing as earthquake proof.  The Earth is still 
a single point of failure :-)

Essential facilty design usally takes the "standard" design probabilities 
for various hazards (heat, cold, wind, rain, earthquake, etc) and 
multiplies it by a larger safety factor.  It doesn't mean designing for
the most extreme situation possible anywhere.  You've got to rely on the
geologists and structual engineers to know their stuff.

In any case, its still just a probability.  No matter how small the 
probability, any facility can still have a failure.  Have a backup plan
somewhere else with a different set of hazards.