In Reply to: Speaking of geology posted by bruinfan13 on February 07, 2010 at 16:30:58
It's not just about money. And I know a little about geology. Earthquakes are bad but most Californians don't live smack dab on top of the San Andreas. And we have building codes that make us safe. You can't build a whole city 20 feet off the ground. And the danger of the Norleans mess gets worse all the time.
"Large portions of Orleans, St. Bernard, and Jefferson parishes are currently below sea level — and continue to sink. New Orleans is built on thousands of feet of soft sand, silt, and clay. Subsidence, or settling of the ground surface, occurs naturally due to the consolidation and oxidation of organic soils (called “marsh” in New Orleans) and local groundwater pumping. In the past, flooding and deposition of sediments from the Mississippi River counterbalanced the natural subsidence, leaving southeast Louisiana at or above sea level. However, due to major flood control structures being built upstream on the Mississippi River and levees being built around New Orleans, fresh layers of sediment are not replenishing the ground lost by subsidence." Etc., etc.