I know it’ll never happen, because Seattle is special, but when the Big One hits, no one will be worried about where to park to get their I Survived the Big One tattoo in Pioneer Square, since that’ll be in the Liquefaction Zone. Be sure to click on the map (from Seattle.gov, your wonderful mayor) and then click on Liquefaction on the left. The animation of a tsunami hitting Puget Sound is also pretty cool.
By the by, “Liquefaction Zone” sounds like a place from Naked Lunch. The Liquefactionists were one of Burroughs’s political parties of the Interzone . . . but my mind wanders this time of day. . .
That’s right — it’s after 4:20 in the midwest already, isn’t it?
Crap! I live right next to Discovery Park and thought I’d be protected by the bluff. I better haul ass if I’m home and that happens.
Only part of Pioneer Square is in the liquefaction zone. The original land extended south along what is now First Avenue as far south as King Street, about a block wide (which is why First Avenue is there). There’s a knob at the end of the spit, as the water curled back all the way to Yesler at Second Avenue, and then back out again to the east. Third, Fourth, and the ID are on solid ground, at least north of the stadiums.
There are buildings down there that have hatches in the floor that you can lift up and see water. But it was never very deep; that was all sticky mud flats originally. Encouragingly, most of the original fill down there was, uh, sawdust. But as far as liquifaction goes, most of what would go in The Big One already went, in 2001, 1965, or 1949. If the REALLY big one hits, 9.0 or something, it’s not going to matter, it’s all coming down.
We’re damn lucky to be so hilly. At least from a tsunami standpoint.
Specific link: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/th…
I’ve (coincidentally) been working on earthquake planning stuff since last week. While I know it is a serious matter, “liquefaction” may be my new favorite word. I must have read it or typed it a couple hundred times this week.
Requested additions: tsunami destruction zone, global warming sea rise zone, Mt Rainier lahar flow zone, and tunnel collapse zone.
That’ll be fun to lose the viaduct AND the stadiums.
Then we can vote against them /again/ and still have them be built regardless.
I was here in the Nisqually. What I remember the most scary was trying to get from Rainier Avenue downtown back to Kent. The traffic was so horrendous.
Seems to me the process of cramming everyone into a single point of failure with tall buildings is the worst strategy ever for an earthquake prone region.
Urbists are insane.
Liquefaction sounds like what happens when making santorum.
Haven’t seen that particular interactive map before, great resource!
@9, you really don’t know anything about anything, do you?
Too bad you didn’t look around and see what kinds of buildings were falling down during the Niqually Quake. You might have learned something. Hint: “tall ones” is the wrong answer, and there’s no such thing as a single point of failure. The very CONCEPT of a single point of failure in an earthquake doesn’t exist, since what makes earthquakes devastating isn’t single anything, it’s widespread destruction.
Same with Loma Prieta in 1989 and Mexico City in 1985. The Torre Latinoamericana just swayed a little bit, but the short old masonry buildings fell apart by the thousand. Plus all the modern brutalist stuff that was built by relatives of the President, who stole all the rebar before it ever got to the construction site.
In short, you’re dumb.
@12 Hell just compare Haiti to Japan. The more urbanized society lost a lot less lives.
@12 he just doesn’t want to admit that while Kent will die to Rainier, all those horrible urbists will be recording it via iphone from rooftops in Seattle or something. Kent East Hill = lahar deathtrap.
Hating Seattle from Kent is like my balls hating my heart.
Also Rainier Ave. does not go to downtown. Your story is false.
@16, to John Bailo, “downtown” means “anyplace with sidewalks and streetlights”. This is a guy who seriously believes that the single greatest place on the face of the earth is the Kent Station Mall.
Ummmm, so am I going to be liquified in the International District? Because I just finished my emergency preparation backpack but now I’m not sure if I’ll be able to use it.
Yes. I am playing at semantics.
Interestingly enough Rainier does run into Jackson and I was on Jackson during the Nisqually. Traffic didn’t seem bad at all. And even if it was I would have been able to walk to my apartment. IN THE CITY. In 30 minutes.
@18, look at the map. No guarantees, but liquefaction shouldn’t be one of your worries. Plenty of other ways for a building to fall down, though. But I think the ID’s about as reinforced as anyplace these days. You might want to check and see if you’ve got any newish-looking big steel crossbars on the ground level.
Thanks Fnarf, that means I can stop hyperventilating now. I live in a concrete building that was made only 3-4 years ago so I think I’ll be alright during an earthquake.
You call that a liquefaction zone? My entire city is built on a tidal marsh at the mouth of a river. The whole damn thing is liquefaction zone. My emergency preparedness kit should be a lifeboat. On my roof.
@15. You just made me laugh out loud.
@21 you’re not safe if it’s above 7.0, actually.
Anything above 8.0 means most buildings are at risk, no matter how they were built.