Zachary's+Story


 * I was on vacation with my family in Parkville, California. Parkville is on the San Andreas Fault, which is very prone to earthquakes. When I was reading about the San Andreas Fault, the webpage informed me that it was a strike-slip fault . My family realized that this was a dangerous place but we deiced to take the risk and go on vacation. The week before in class, my teacher Mr. Froberg taught us that the longer time between earthquakes the larger the turnout of the earthquake is. Basically the rocks hold up stress within them, when the rock jolts or moves the stress releases like a big rubber band snapping. Parkville hadn't received an earthquake in 30 years. After the Japan earthquake in 2010, which produced a massive tsunami and destroyed the land in its path, scientist questioned why the San Francisco-LA area hadn't gotten one in a long time. The night I got to my hotel in Parkville we unpacked and went to bed. The clock stroked 1 o clock, 2 o clock, and 3 o clock. At 3:11 AM there was a rumbling from the ground. Large P Waves hit my hotel pushing my hotel room and me forward and backward for a short time in reality but long in my head. It was only a matter of seconds before I knew that S Waves would come. The back and forth movements stopped but large S Waves had come. I ran to the lobby of the hotel when I slide side to side...the S waves had come. The roof started to crumble and the hotel started to si ****nk. I also learned from Mr. Fro berg my science teacher back in Kansas that earthquakes can produce liquefaction. Liquefaction can make quicksand or wet mud. I walked outside unaware that there was a series of aftershocks  waiting to happen. I saw many buildings in blazing fire, probably from broken gas lines. I told my dad to take out his pocket radio and listen to what had happened. We tuned to the Los Angeles  news radio. They mentioned that their tallest skyscraper in LA had collapsed. That building had probably been built before Base-isolated buildings were invented, structures that can take in energy and store it. **

media type="youtube" key="NqRN63iDTqA" height="315" width="420" ===I thought to myself that this earthquake has to be terrible. According to the LA news radio the earthquake hit a striking IX on the Mercalli Scale (based in the LA area). They then informed the listeners that on the Moment Magnitude it reached a 10.0. A very rare magnitude.... very little people have lived to see a 10.0 earthquake. The radio tuned to their sister station in San Francisco. They reported to the listeners that the marina district had been swept away as that area is on landfill. I then realized that the earthquake that scientist had predicted turned out worse. All the airports had either exploded from broken gas lines or are underwater from a wave called a tsunami. Scientist had predicted that the epicenter was 30 miles off the coast of California, somewhere around the L.A. area. I was outside when there was a starting of another shaking. Soon the monuments and buildings that had survived the brunt of the major earthquake soon destroyed from the terrible and long lasting aftershocks. They went on and off for 9 hours. Falling debris almost killed me. My family and I couldn't even go back home to Kansas. I felt like I was in the middle of world war III. There were bombs going off everywhere. I saw a girl laying on the ground doing the stop ,  drop ,  and roll because her clothes caught on fire. Luckily she extinguished the fire before any damage was made. My vacation turned from peaceful serenity to a deadly nightmare. ===