1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,279
Speaker 1: Well, it's fall and what a great time to sleep,

2
00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:04,920
Speaker 1: and I get that sleep every night with my Sleep

3
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:07,920
Speaker 1: Number bed. The Sleep Number bed lets you choose your

4
00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:10,840
Speaker 1: ideal comfort and support on each side. It's the perfect

5
00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:14,160
Speaker 1: bed for couples. And their newest beds are so smart

6
00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:17,799
Speaker 1: They actually sent your every move and automatically adjust so

7
00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:21,079
Speaker 1: you stay sleeping comfortably throughout the night. They even have

8
00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,840
Speaker 1: an adjustment for snoring. Does your bed do that? My

9
00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:27,840
Speaker 1: Sleep Number setting is ninety. My sleep i Q score

10
00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:31,080
Speaker 1: last night was eighty two. Now Sleep Number beds cost

11
00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:34,440
Speaker 1: about the same as a traditional mattress, they last twice

12
00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:37,440
Speaker 1: as long, and nine of the owners recommend the bed

13
00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:40,920
Speaker 1: best of all. Right now, Queen Mattress has started only

14
00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:45,280
Speaker 1: six That's it. You'll only find Sleep Number at any

15
00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:49,040
Speaker 1: of the five fifty Sleep Number stores nationwide. Find one

16
00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:51,880
Speaker 1: near you by calling one eight hundred three nine zero

17
00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:56,360
Speaker 1: nine hundred. That's one eight hundred three nine zero nine hundred,

18
00:00:56,680 --> 00:00:59,720
Speaker 1: and be sure to tell them George Nori sent you.

19
00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:03,040
Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from coast to coast a m

20
00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:08,120
Speaker 1: on iHeart radio. Tell me a little bit about Quakeland. Sure, so,

21
00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:11,240
Speaker 1: so this is a road trip around America, UH, looking

22
00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:15,120
Speaker 1: at seismic hazard, looking at some of the wild and

23
00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:18,480
Speaker 1: crazy and super smart UH scientists who are trying to

24
00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:21,520
Speaker 1: figure out how our earth works UM, and looking at

25
00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:24,319
Speaker 1: seismic risk and what we've done to prepare for it,

26
00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,000
Speaker 1: what we still need to do, looking at some of

27
00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:29,360
Speaker 1: the ways, some of the really wild ways, I think

28
00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:32,560
Speaker 1: that we've set off earthquakes around the country, around the world,

29
00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:34,800
Speaker 1: really in the way in which humans are really changing

30
00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:38,199
Speaker 1: the face of seismic hazard around the world. Let's talk

31
00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:44,200
Speaker 1: science for just a second. Why do earthquakes form? What happens?

32
00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:47,280
Speaker 1: So there are a variety of different reasons why earthquakes happen.

33
00:01:47,319 --> 00:01:49,920
Speaker 1: That I sort of liken it to a you know,

34
00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:51,800
Speaker 1: sort of if you fill up a water balloon too

35
00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:54,200
Speaker 1: fast UM and it eventually explodes. I mean, what you

36
00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:56,320
Speaker 1: have is you have that in our case, that that

37
00:01:56,560 --> 00:01:59,800
Speaker 1: the water in that balloon is building pressure UM at

38
00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:03,360
Speaker 1: a weakness in the earth. It can be because UM,

39
00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:07,280
Speaker 1: two plates are moving against each other, either side by

40
00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,600
Speaker 1: side or one moving under another. UM. It can because

41
00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:14,520
Speaker 1: that weaknesses there UM and the pressure is changing around

42
00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:17,280
Speaker 1: it for for a different reason. So what's happening is

43
00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:20,400
Speaker 1: is that pressure becomes too much and it forces a

44
00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:24,239
Speaker 1: weak area in in the planet of fault, if you will,

45
00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:27,680
Speaker 1: um to give basically, and it sort of lurches as

46
00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:30,480
Speaker 1: a result of that that pressure, and that that lurch

47
00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:34,680
Speaker 1: sends out waves, seismic waves. And if you think of,

48
00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:38,120
Speaker 1: for instance, throwing a log or or a branch or

49
00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,160
Speaker 1: something into water, and you kind of imagine those rings

50
00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:43,520
Speaker 1: that would throw out as a result. Um, that's the

51
00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,600
Speaker 1: sort of physical effect in terms of physics that's happening.

52
00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:48,360
Speaker 1: And why it is that we see all the damage

53
00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:51,079
Speaker 1: and the shaking after it occurs. Katherine, we just saw

54
00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:55,120
Speaker 1: the tragedy in Mexico City with that earthquake. It just

55
00:02:56,120 --> 00:03:00,560
Speaker 1: amazing what happens when Mother Nature decides to rumble. Uh

56
00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:03,280
Speaker 1: and uh. I know some people who of course still

57
00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:08,320
Speaker 1: remember the north Ridge quake in California several years ago

58
00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:12,880
Speaker 1: as well. These are big and I'm not sure even

59
00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,120
Speaker 1: though they say a lot of our buildings that they

60
00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:17,840
Speaker 1: have now are earthquake proof, I'm not sure they are.

61
00:03:17,919 --> 00:03:21,040
Speaker 1: What do you think? Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean

62
00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:23,680
Speaker 1: building codes is a really sort of complicated issue. It's

63
00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:25,400
Speaker 1: an issue as a country we need to be looking

64
00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:28,240
Speaker 1: a lot more at you know, a pound for pound,

65
00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:32,440
Speaker 1: there is no more powerful natural disaster than than an earthquake,

66
00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,200
Speaker 1: you know. And and in seconds an earthquake can do uh,

67
00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:39,040
Speaker 1: you know, frankly a lot more significant damage than you know,

68
00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,400
Speaker 1: even the worst of the hurricanes. One of the things

69
00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:44,080
Speaker 1: that really surprised me researching this book is just how

70
00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:47,720
Speaker 1: little even the best scientists know about how they start,

71
00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,640
Speaker 1: why they start, where they start. Um. So, so that's

72
00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:52,840
Speaker 1: part of what makes them so deadly too, is that

73
00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:55,640
Speaker 1: at this point we're not able to predict them. Um,

74
00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:58,320
Speaker 1: we're not able to forecast them. Our country doesn't have

75
00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:01,960
Speaker 1: an early warning system on other countries like Mexico and Japan,

76
00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:05,720
Speaker 1: so we can't even give folks that thirty second second

77
00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:08,640
Speaker 1: warning that some other countries will. That make a difference, Catherine,

78
00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:13,200
Speaker 1: that thirty absolutely absolutely, and we saw that in Mexico,

79
00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:15,280
Speaker 1: you know. Um, and I doubted this a lot, but

80
00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:17,359
Speaker 1: I I, you know, spent some time out at the

81
00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:20,840
Speaker 1: University of California, Berkeley, which is sort of the real

82
00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:23,080
Speaker 1: locust for where a lot of this research is happening,

83
00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:26,200
Speaker 1: and they have a beta early warning program out there. Um.

84
00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:29,160
Speaker 1: Congress hasn't yet funded it as a national program. Um.

85
00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:31,680
Speaker 1: But the technology is available and they're using it there.

86
00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:34,200
Speaker 1: And you know I doubted that too. I thought, what

87
00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:35,960
Speaker 1: can you really do in thirty seconds? But you know,

88
00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:40,000
Speaker 1: we practiced, and in thirty seconds, you can grab your

89
00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:42,280
Speaker 1: kid out of bed, you can grab your go bag,

90
00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:45,000
Speaker 1: you can get under a table at the household level,

91
00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:47,880
Speaker 1: at the community level, you can stop a train, you

92
00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:50,440
Speaker 1: can divert a plane that's about to land, you can

93
00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:53,400
Speaker 1: shut down a tunnel, um and and really those sorts

94
00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:56,240
Speaker 1: of things can actually be the difference between life and

95
00:04:56,279 --> 00:04:59,880
Speaker 1: death for for hundreds, if not thousands of people. Okay,

96
00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:02,320
Speaker 1: so you got involved in this in a big way,

97
00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,560
Speaker 1: and you traveled everywhere checking and we'll talk about that.

98
00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,039
Speaker 1: You've been all over the place. What was that really

99
00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:12,919
Speaker 1: piqued your interest. What surprised me more than anything was

100
00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:16,159
Speaker 1: this notion of induced seismicity, this way in which we

101
00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,200
Speaker 1: set off earthquakes. And some of your listeners are probably

102
00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:22,919
Speaker 1: familiar with what's happening in Oklahoma, um, the huge state

103
00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:25,080
Speaker 1: of earthquakes that they're seeing there as a result of

104
00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:29,120
Speaker 1: wastewater injection relating to fracking and oil extraction. And that's

105
00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,360
Speaker 1: certainly I think the most newsworthy way in terms of

106
00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:34,600
Speaker 1: what the media has been covering lately. But as it

107
00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:37,320
Speaker 1: turns out, we set earth off earthquakes for all kinds

108
00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:40,479
Speaker 1: of different ways. You know, when we built the Hoover Dam.

109
00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:43,719
Speaker 1: In the decade that followed, UM, the filling of the

110
00:05:43,760 --> 00:05:47,120
Speaker 1: reservoir behind the dam set off something like ten thousand earthquakes.

111
00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:51,359
Speaker 1: We set them off. Your mining, building, tunnels, UM building,

112
00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:54,680
Speaker 1: even high rise buildings can set off earthquakes. UM. The U.

113
00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:56,760
Speaker 1: S Military set off quite a few earthquakes in the

114
00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:01,239
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties trying to inject um waste from our chemical

115
00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:05,039
Speaker 1: weapons program in Colorado. And so just understanding that that

116
00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:09,080
Speaker 1: through technology, through our activities, we have the ability to

117
00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:12,599
Speaker 1: really change the face of seismic hazard, and I think

118
00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:16,479
Speaker 1: recognizing that and recognizing the added um risks that that

119
00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:19,480
Speaker 1: poses UM and the fact that that not only you know,

120
00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:22,520
Speaker 1: can we change the weather, change the climate, we can

121
00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:26,200
Speaker 1: also change the very planet, and understanding the responsibility that

122
00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:30,200
Speaker 1: that comes with. You've interviewed a lot of people, engineers,

123
00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:34,800
Speaker 1: construction experts, scientists. What kind of things did you talk

124
00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:37,400
Speaker 1: with them about when you put the book Quake Land together,

125
00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:41,760
Speaker 1: and any stories pop up on your mind and they

126
00:06:41,760 --> 00:06:45,000
Speaker 1: are just absolutely heroic. The scientists who are doing this research.

127
00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,479
Speaker 1: It's it's incredibly frustrating research. Um. You know, some of

128
00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:51,520
Speaker 1: them have never even experienced an earthquake. You know, they

129
00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:53,440
Speaker 1: want to, but it's a kind of I've I have

130
00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,640
Speaker 1: felt just by being in the Midwest and living in

131
00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:00,520
Speaker 1: l A sometimes too. Uh some rumbles, little ones, but

132
00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:03,520
Speaker 1: you know, threes, three point four something like that, but

133
00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:05,720
Speaker 1: I've never felt a big one. But tell us about

134
00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:09,360
Speaker 1: these scientists and engineers. Yeah, you know, and they're doing

135
00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:12,600
Speaker 1: really great, really difficult work when you think about it,

136
00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:16,760
Speaker 1: you know, and an earthquake occurs say five miles underground

137
00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:20,360
Speaker 1: or some cases thirty miles underground. Um, and so it's

138
00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:22,640
Speaker 1: not like you can get down there and actually see

139
00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:24,880
Speaker 1: what's happening. You know. In a way, this is sort

140
00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:28,760
Speaker 1: of like, um, being an astrophysicist who's trying to talk

141
00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:32,040
Speaker 1: about dark matter, things that are so far beyond the

142
00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,600
Speaker 1: spectrum of our sensory perceptions that, um, you know, it's

143
00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:38,680
Speaker 1: really difficult. But they're doing really great work. Um. They

144
00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:42,840
Speaker 1: were incredibly selfless in terms of allowing me in their labs, um,

145
00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:45,680
Speaker 1: allowing me to you know, crawl around the turbines of

146
00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:47,920
Speaker 1: the Hoover Dam or in the subways in New York

147
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:50,240
Speaker 1: and and so it was a really great experience for me,

148
00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:53,520
Speaker 1: a sort of classic participatory journalism to get to spend

149
00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:55,960
Speaker 1: days with with these folks and and the kind of

150
00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,200
Speaker 1: see see what they do, see what they're doing is

151
00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:01,240
Speaker 1: try to save us, and frankly starts to see a

152
00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:03,600
Speaker 1: little bit of a window into how our planet works.

153
00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:08,440
Speaker 1: Are they concerned at all about a big one happening? Absolutely?

154
00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:10,320
Speaker 1: And and one of the things I really wanted to

155
00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:13,280
Speaker 1: stress in this book is I think we all have

156
00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:16,080
Speaker 1: a tendency to sort of feel like an earthquake is

157
00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:19,800
Speaker 1: a California problem. Um. And it is a California problem.

158
00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:24,280
Speaker 1: And you know, the greatest thing approaching certainty that we

159
00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:27,040
Speaker 1: have is that there will be, you know, a significant

160
00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:30,880
Speaker 1: earthquake in southern California, probably in our lifetimes. And scientists

161
00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:35,280
Speaker 1: are in pretty much close, you know, not total agreement, um,

162
00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:39,240
Speaker 1: that the chance of that is, you know, right, so

163
00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:41,520
Speaker 1: you know, those are odds you never see in science.

164
00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:45,000
Speaker 1: But but but that's not the only place where where

165
00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:47,400
Speaker 1: an earthquake is possible. And as I stoke in the book,

166
00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:50,319
Speaker 1: unless you live in Miami, you really are at a

167
00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:54,160
Speaker 1: potential risk for an earthquake. And this includes major metropolitan

168
00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:57,520
Speaker 1: centers like New York City, which is about forty years

169
00:08:57,559 --> 00:09:02,400
Speaker 1: overdue for an earthquake, the Pacific Northwest US, Memphis and St. Louis, Washington,

170
00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:05,040
Speaker 1: d C. You know, places that we don't necessarily equate

171
00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:09,040
Speaker 1: with earthquake possibilities. And as you mentioned earlier, you know

172
00:09:09,160 --> 00:09:12,400
Speaker 1: don't really have the building codes um in place, let

173
00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:15,559
Speaker 1: alone the sort of emergency management plans to manage that

174
00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:18,400
Speaker 1: if it, if it is going to occur. How important,

175
00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:22,320
Speaker 1: in your opinion, gravitational pulls from full moons and new

176
00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:26,080
Speaker 1: moons and things like that. You know, that's really interesting

177
00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,280
Speaker 1: and that's something that scientists have certainly been looking into. UM.

178
00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:32,640
Speaker 1: They're a little bit divided in terms of just how

179
00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:35,280
Speaker 1: powerful that is in terms of the ability to set

180
00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:39,200
Speaker 1: off earthquakes. UM. There is some evidence that that does occur. UM.

181
00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:41,840
Speaker 1: But the problem is is that because we don't know

182
00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,560
Speaker 1: where that next quake is going to happen, it's really

183
00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:48,160
Speaker 1: hard to get things like the monitoring stations and things

184
00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:50,640
Speaker 1: in place there. UM. And so right now there's a

185
00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:53,240
Speaker 1: lot of speculation, there's a lot of hypotheses about what

186
00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:56,640
Speaker 1: exactly causes them. Um. One thing we do know is

187
00:09:56,679 --> 00:09:59,960
Speaker 1: that water is intrinsically related to a lot of these quakes.

188
00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:03,840
Speaker 1: You'll see an earthquake happen in say Idaho and the

189
00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:07,520
Speaker 1: water table levels, the well levels will be affected in

190
00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:10,880
Speaker 1: places like Hawaii and Puerto Rico. UM. We know that

191
00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:14,600
Speaker 1: water extraction, UM, you know, or water injection can really

192
00:10:14,679 --> 00:10:17,320
Speaker 1: change that as well. And so fracking that in mind.

193
00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:21,520
Speaker 1: Fracking can do this too. Oh, absolutely absolutely, UM. And

194
00:10:21,559 --> 00:10:25,280
Speaker 1: that's something that we've seen, especially in places like Alberta. UM,

195
00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:28,280
Speaker 1: we've seen uh. And off the coast of California in

196
00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,720
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties nineteen forties, we saw oil extraction out

197
00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:34,320
Speaker 1: there causing earthquakes there as well too. So you know,

198
00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:38,000
Speaker 1: anytime we're changing the pressure inside the earth, whether you

199
00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:41,040
Speaker 1: know we're increasing or decreasing it through our activities, we

200
00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:45,040
Speaker 1: have the potential to have that pressure, you know, reach

201
00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:47,280
Speaker 1: a weak place of fault in the earth and set

202
00:10:47,280 --> 00:10:50,440
Speaker 1: off a quake. And Catherine, even though you said Florida

203
00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:53,839
Speaker 1: is somewhat immune from an earthquake, they of course get

204
00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:56,920
Speaker 1: hit by hurricanes. You can't get away from Mother Nature,

205
00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,320
Speaker 1: can you. You cannot you know, and even in though

206
00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:02,360
Speaker 1: you know, a hurricane and an earthquake, even though the

207
00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:05,120
Speaker 1: actual event looks very different what we've seen, if you

208
00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:07,040
Speaker 1: look at for in San Puerto Rico right now, in

209
00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:10,719
Speaker 1: Mexico right now, and frankly, we see that the effects

210
00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:14,760
Speaker 1: are very very similar. Absolutely devastation all the way. Listen

211
00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:17,679
Speaker 1: to more Coast to Coast a m. Every weeknight at

212
00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:20,319
Speaker 1: one a m. Eastern and go to Coast to Coast

213
00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:21,760
Speaker 1: am dot com for more