digg

Join DiggAbout

Digg Townhall today!
Check out the Digg Townhall live from the Digg stage at the DNC at 1:30PST/4:30EST

See the original image at tgdaily.com

Preparing for the Katrina of earthquakes

tgdaily.com — Scientists at NCSA have a truly amazing piece of software that is essentially a SimCity for big boys - and (hopefully) helps governments to better prepare for natural disasters and especially what is considered to become the 'Katrina of earthquakes'.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • zombies187, on 06/20/2008, -4/+27Please don't call it that. It only invites unfair comparisons.
    • GrumpyFan, on 06/21/2008, -0/+6Agreed. Katrina's destruction and death toll was tiny in comparison to MANY other hurricanes.
    • cdigioia, on 06/22/2008, -1/+1I thought you meant don't compare it to Sim City.

  • JesseTheCat, on 06/21/2008, -1/+1Weird stuff...
  • MarkusX, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3Wow, that's an amazing project.
  • screwy3333, on 06/21/2008, -5/+2I wonder if they used Gimp to design initial prototypes?
  • FreeTalkLIve, on 06/21/2008, -7/+2Oh ye people of little faith.

    You know that god will protect the ones that deserve it.

    Silly "preparations" can't change the divine plan of God.
    • ralphthemagi, on 06/21/2008, -4/+1Your "God" doesn't seem to give a flying ***** about those who deserve it or not. Apparently, your God's divine plan is to kill people indiscriminately, and then sit back and laugh about it.

      Some God you have.

      My God, FSM, just wants us to all eat spaghetti, and thus, be touched. And you know what? Spaghetti is delicious. Especially those pre-packs from Whole Foods with the turkey meatballs. Oh man, so good.
      • ocharry, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3I'm wondering if we should start using the /sarcasm tag again.
        • FreeTalkLIve, on 06/21/2008, -0/+2God saved me a ton of money on saftey precautions. I don't need insurance on my house, health, or car.

          Hell, I don't even wear a seatbelt. I eat undercooked meat too. Why?

          Because I have faith that God will protect me. If God lets me get hurt, then it was indeed his will. Nothing can change Gods divine plan.

          /Yes, I'm joking God Dammit!
      • wonky73, on 06/21/2008, -0/+1Apparently the FSM isn't powerful enough to give you a brain to understand sarcasm you complete utter moron.
        • ralphthemagi, on 06/21/2008, -1/+0My bad. I forgot for a moment that everything on Digg is either misuses of sarcasm or misuses of irony. Won't happen again.
    • Lagstorm, on 06/21/2008, -3/+0Cough Gaia cough and of course Raptor Jesus.
    • titlesaysitall, on 06/21/2008, -3/+1Your god can suck my balls and then dunk them in ravioli and eat 'em off my dick.
  • magic6435, on 06/21/2008, -2/+18"Preparing for the Katrina of earthquakes"

    So a earthquake that's really not that bad but but with poor planing and bad execution of rescue and help?
    • noahhoward, on 06/21/2008, -0/+4An earthquake excabberated by local officials who ignore numerous warnings and squander aid money.
      • natchiketa, on 06/21/2008, -0/+2ex-whatty-whattered? or as Google would say, 'Did you mean "exacerbated"?'
      • RussellDovey, on 06/22/2008, -0/+1Dugg for "excabberated", my new favourite word for taking a taxi somewhere.
    • Aero347, on 06/21/2008, -1/+3It looked pretty bad when I was in a mobile home in 90 degrees without power or ac for 2 weeks in the most humid climate in america.. so screw you lol
      • magic6435, on 06/21/2008, -2/+1Screw me? why. Katrina was a low to midlevel 3 hurricane.......
    • zombies187, on 06/22/2008, -0/+2Katrina was not that bad? The levee collapse caused 80 billion in damages. 1,800 people died.
      • magic6435, on 06/22/2008, -0/+2yup. and yet it was not that bad just imagine if it had actually been a strong hurricane.

        Also "1,800 people died" .... woopty doo 200,000 in 2004 from the tsunami
        • zombies187, on 06/22/2008, -0/+2I was there dude. I find it easy to imagine a stronger hurricane. I live in fear of that. woopty doo? It shouldn't take 200,000 to get your attention.
        • magic6435, on 06/22/2008, -0/+1The point is that people seem to not understand the difference between what a strong disaster/storm is and what and average storm is, simply because it is close to them in someway. That was the point of the original comment, a Katrina like storm should not have been so much of a problem yet they act like they are preparing for a strong and uber dangerous storm. had Katrina been a level five hurricane when it hit shore ***** would have been MUCH worse.

          The only reason i replied to your comment with the 200,000 is because it sounded like you were saying "It must have been one hell of a storm i mean look 1,800 dead!" and i was saying in terms of even modern day storms 1,800 does not impress me but certainly 1,800 is a sad thing.
        • zombies187, on 06/22/2008, -0/+1I hear what you are saying. But Katrina was bad, my friend. Its not the worst thing to happen in America, and its far from the worst that ever WILL happen. Being dismissive of Katrina will not cause anyone to be better prepared.
  • Gutterpunk, on 06/21/2008, -2/+3Why don't you guys prepare for the Katrina of Katrina? You did such a bang up job the last time, you might want to look into that
  • MikeSetera, on 06/21/2008, -1/+19If they want to get people's attention, instead of Katrina they should name it 'Hurricane Jesus Christ Get Your ***** and Get the ***** Out of Town"
  • Faithless327, on 06/21/2008, -1/+36If this is the Katrina of Earthquakes, would that make Katrina the 9/11 of Hurricanes? I think 9/11 was probably Pearl Harbor of Plane Crash Disasters. Which makes Pearl Harbor the San Francisco Earthquake of Island Invasions.
    • fuzzybeard, on 06/21/2008, -1/+2Except Pearl Harbor wasn't an invasion; it was (allegedly) a surprise attack with the intention of disabling the US Navy's 6th Fleet and it's associated assets from allied services (Army, Army Air Corps, Marines, & Coast Guard).

      Basically it was a street mugging writ large.
    • xedd, on 06/21/2008, -0/+4Those Iranians better start preparing for the Mother of all Yom Kippur Waco Katrinas. They in for some mean ass *****.
    • rattler72, on 06/21/2008, -0/+5Except there's a world outside the US. Making this the tsunami of miseducation.
    • Hangly, on 06/22/2008, -0/+1The San Francisco earthquake was the Windows Vista or earthquakes, which in turn was the Neville Chamberlan of software releases. Neville Chamberlan was, of course, the Defenestration of Prague of British PM's.
  • wonky73, on 06/21/2008, -0/+2Dude!! I know the guys who work on this thing. I wander down to there office and go to lunch with them. Dos Reales FTW.
    I'm shocked though seeing actual science and computer news on digg.
  • ps2graphite, on 06/21/2008, -0/+1The word is PIER, not PEER. Did this bother anyone else?
  • kickcows, on 06/21/2008, -1/+2In the midwest?!

    Um...I'm sure CA should be the one to base the SimCity on.
    • bugalou, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3Not really. The strongest earthquakes in the contiguous 48 came from the New Madrid fault system and not the San Andreas. CA also has some of the most strict earthquake building codes out there, where as cities in the midsouth and midwest do not. There is also the fact that due to the underground geology, a New Madrid based earthquake would impact an area far greater than a San Andreas quake. A strong quake here would have catastrophic results in Memphis, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. See
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Charleston1895. ...
    • dima1109, on 06/22/2008, -0/+1There is a seismically unstable region on Illinois-Missouri border

      http://gldims.cr.usgs.gov/nshmp2008/viewer.htm
  • imkidred, on 06/21/2008, -1/+6Katrina did not cause much damage. It was the inadequate levee system that collapsed and allow the ocean to flood out. Hurricanes don't drop 12' of water!!!! Hurricanes blow over trees, blow roofs off of houses! Katrina is being blamed to take the focus off of the local government, Army Corp of Engineers and federal government. I'm so sick of a storm taking the blame for human error and greed when those levees could have been repaired a decade ago.
  • fudged71, on 06/21/2008, -0/+3more like... "Software Simulator Determines Effects of Hypothetical Earthquakes"
  • TinternAbbot, on 06/21/2008, -1/+9Why use Katrina? Why not just talk about the plethora of earthquakes that occur around the world annually, killing tens of thousands? Is it not dramatic when the deaths aren't American?
    • Aero347, on 06/21/2008, -0/+2Yeah even though americans want change they aren't quite ready to go outside and realize they aren't the only nation on earth. They just wouldn't feel special anymore..
    • Haoie, on 06/21/2008, -0/+1Interesting how earthquakes usually don't have any names, except being named after the location where it struck.
  • pathogenal, on 06/22/2008, -0/+3George Bush hates Virtual People.
  • sheldonnbbaker, on 06/22/2008, -0/+1Hopefully it helps the damage on California that will happen when it gets it's big earthquake in the new few years.
  • tyshro, on 06/22/2008, -0/+1How many of these earthquake simulators are there? DO they compete with each other to do the best shaking?
  • dima1109, on 06/22/2008, -0/+0UCSD/SDSC and SCEC at USC have had similar systems for years.
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.