Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: tzeentch666@*********.net (Tzeentch)
Subject: 4e California (was Re: Shadowrun and Suspension of Disbelief)
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 15:39:17 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
From: "Graht" <graht1@*****.com>
>I don't have a problem with an unknown faultline, or even the
>elevation drop required to flood the central valley and LA. What I do
>have a problem with is the conflict between that and only thousands of
>deaths instead of millions, and the statement that San Francisco was
>largly unnaffected when SF Bay is the only point for sea water to flow
>through to flood the Central Valley.

-- After so much progress had been done making the canonical wierdness more logical (the
NAN states for example), this is just a slap in the face. And worst part is that it was
done for NO GOOD REASON AT ALL. It's just some illogical wierdness they slapped in at the
last moment, maybe even as an in-joke about how Cali gets screwed every edition.

-- For reference, here is exactly what it says in SR4 (p. 34)

"In early 2069, a pair of major earthquakes coming from
the San Andreas Fault line and the San Pedro Shelf caused widespread
fl ooding and destruction, killing tens of thousands. Much
of Southern California and the Central Valley found themselves
dropped below sea level and were inundated with tidal waves.
While San Francisco and the Bay Area were mostly spared, waters
have fl ooded most of the Central Valley and Los Angeles"

-- The question of where the displaced water went after that much land mass collapsed is
an open question. I guess magical tidal wave eaters cleaned up the problem so writers can
ignore its effects in the PacRim in future books.
Message no. 2
From: pb3209@****.utah.edu (Jamison Cooper-Leavitt)
Subject: 4e California (was Re: Shadowrun and Suspension of Disbelief)
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:24:45 -0600
Tzeentch wrote:

>-- For reference, here is exactly what it says in SR4 (p. 34)
>
>"In early 2069, a pair of major earthquakes coming from
>the San Andreas Fault line and the San Pedro Shelf caused widespread
>fl ooding and destruction, killing tens of thousands. Much
>of Southern California and the Central Valley found themselves
>dropped below sea level and were inundated with tidal waves.
>While San Francisco and the Bay Area were mostly spared, waters
>have fl ooded most of the Central Valley and Los Angeles"
>
>-- The question of where the displaced water went after that much land mass collapsed
is an open question. I guess magical tidal wave eaters cleaned up the problem so writers
can ignore its effects in the PacRim in future books.
>
>
>
When they mention central valley
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Central_Valley>;, do they mean
the San Joaquin valley <http://www.sjgs.com/maps/>;? such as Bakersfield,
Visallia, Fresno, Modesto, and all the way up to Sacramento. That is a
lot of land to flood, and if that valley were displaced downwards then
we are looking at global anhiliation of most life on earth, cause that
is a big chunk of land.

Besides no one has mentioned that the San Andreas fault is a stike-slip
fault and there would only be horizontal movement of the plates. No
land would be displaced. This can be found in any Geology 101 textbook,
or even online. U.S. Gealogical Survey: San Andreas
<http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq3/>;

I wish that the authors of California's destruction would at least do
some rudimentary research that even an elementary kid can do. :(

Jamison
Message no. 3
From: graht1@*****.com (Graht)
Subject: 4e California (was Re: Shadowrun and Suspension of Disbelief)
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 07:56:30 -0600
On 10/6/05, Jamison Cooper-Leavitt <pb3209@****.utah.edu> wrote:
> Tzeentch wrote:
>
> When they mention central valley
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Central_Valley>;, do they mean
> the San Joaquin valley <http://www.sjgs.com/maps/>;? such as Bakersfield,
> Visallia, Fresno, Modesto, and all the way up to Sacramento. That is a
> lot of land to flood, and if that valley were displaced downwards then
> we are looking at global anhiliation of most life on earth, cause that
> is a big chunk of land.

Probably not most life on earth. When Yellowstone last errupted (it's
a super caldera) 200,000(?) years ago there were some sections that
dropped 1000 feet. Except for the immediate vicinity and the sections
of North America that were burried under a foot of ash, life went on
just fine for the rest of the world :)

> Besides no one has mentioned that the San Andreas fault is a stike-slip
> fault and there would only be horizontal movement of the plates. No
> land would be displaced. This can be found in any Geology 101 textbook,
> or even online. U.S. Gealogical Survey: San Andreas
> <http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq3/>;

Yes, but that could trigger an unknown dip-slip fault along eastern
edge of the Central Valley. As far as I can tell it's possible (but
not without killing a *lot* of people and doing a *lot* of damage).

--
-Graht
Message no. 4
From: gpammenter@*****.com (Gareth Pammenter)
Subject: 4e California (was Re: Shadowrun and Suspension of Disbelief)
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 17:18:27 -0700 (PDT)
--- Graht <graht1@*****.com> wrote:
> Probably not most life on earth. When Yellowstone
> last errupted (it's
> a super caldera) 200,000(?) years ago there were
> some sections that
> dropped 1000 feet. Except for the immediate
> vicinity and the sections
> of North America that were burried under a foot of
> ash, life went on
> just fine for the rest of the world :)

Just to point out the sheer size of this event for
people who don't know/can't be bothered to google:
Yellowstone National Park is sitting in roughly _half_
the crater this eruption caused.

"Wait... that's huge!" you might say? You'd be right ;)



__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com
Message no. 5
From: wraith@************.com ( John Duncanson)
Subject: 4e California (was Re: Shadowrun and Suspension of Disbelief)
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 01:37:09 -0500
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Friday, October 07, 2005 12:25 AM
> To: Shadowrun Discussion
> Subject: Re: 4e California (was Re: Shadowrun and Suspension of Disbelief)
>
> Besides no one has mentioned that the San Andreas fault is a stike-slip
> fault and there would only be horizontal movement of the plates. No
> land would be displaced. This can be found in any Geology 101 textbook,
> or even online. U.S. Gealogical Survey: San Andreas
> <http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq3/>;
>
> I wish that the authors of California's destruction would at least do
> some rudimentary research that even an elementary kid can do. :(
>
> Jamison


Maybe they hacked the fault :)


--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.13/123 - Release Date: 10/6/2005

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about 4e California (was Re: Shadowrun and Suspension of Disbelief), you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!