May 7, 2002 5:45 pm
Hi Stan;
I thought you might be interested in this: The state of Oregon Geophysics Department has just released a report (Yesterday 5/6/02) that states Klamath County is the most geologically active place in Oregon AND they EXPECT any where from a 6 to a 7.0 earthquake nearly ANY TIME!
Because of the massive amount of clay soil in the area, they expect damage to be in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to schools ( all the schools) Police Departments, Hospital and fire departments. They are urging all governments ( county, city and state) to do a massive bond issue to retrofit all the brick buildings (nearly 90% of the structures) in the area to re-inforce them from collapse.
It was quite a study with experts from Oregon, California and other states adding their comments about the findings. They are quite concerned about the bridges and other buildings on main street which will nearly all collapse in a 7.0.
They also urged home owners to look at working to stablize their dwellings because most if not ALL-- are constructed on clay soils. One home in Merrill (about 20 miles) south of Klamath Falls drilled a well and had to go through 2500 feet of clay to hit water. So the clay mixture in the soil here is quite deep.  The study noted that all this is separate from the flanks of the Cascades and is a totally separate sub stratta and soil content. It's an old lake bed, no wonder!
Any way, if you remember I told you on the Art Bell program about the increase in the Geo-thermal well temperatures from an average 110 degrees to an average 180 degrees? It was explained to me that this was caused by the 1993 earthquake opening deep fisures that allowed much hotter water to artesian into the upper geothermal layers -- ONLY IT'S CONSTANT -- not hit-and-miss. It's in ALL WELLS!
So it gets more and more interesting. But the one thing that got everyone's attention was the fact that a BIG ONE is DUE ANY DAY! OUCH! or WOOOOFFFF and I'm fond of saying.
Well, I thought you might like to know.
God bless you and yours,.
Charlie