The big one - waspreporter

<WRWeb 15.1 glossary>
The big one
***
pages 16-17
A million buildings will collapse or be compromised in the
earthquake.
Covertly, earthquakes also present us with problems of
time.
Solid ground starts behaving like a liquid, to the detriment of
anything on top of it.
The tsunami killed more than 18,000 people, and
devastated northeast Japan.
He is one of the world’s leading experts on a little-known
fault line.
Then the shaking begins, causing the electrical grid to fail.
They are experienced by humans only as a sudden jolt.
Sooner or later, North America will rebound like a spring.
This is an event that seismologists call a full-margin rupture.
The Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami killed
more than 18,000 people.
Four to six minutes after the dogs start barking, the shaking
will subside.
The San Andreas is perpetually rumoured to be on the verge
of unleashing ‘the big one’.
That time span is long enough for us to unwittingly build an
entire civilization on top of our continent’s worst fault line.
For another few minutes, the region, upended, will continue
to fall apart on its own.
It is wedged tight against the surface of the other plate.
We are a young species, with an average individual
allotment of threescore years and ten.
This breeds a kind of indifference to those planetary gears,
which turn more slowly than our own.
Houses that are not bolted to their foundations will slide off –
or they will stay put, obeying inertia.
Just north of it lies another fault line, known as the Cascadia
subduction zone.
We are a young species, with an average individual
allotment of threescore years and ten.
The craton is an ancient unbudgeable mass at the centre of
the continent.
to
compromise
covertly
in gevaar brengen
detriment (to
the – of)
to devastate
(tot) schade (aan)
fault line
breuklijn
grid
jolt
to rebound
rupture
subsequent
netwerk
schok
terugveren
scheur
(daarop)volgend
to subside
afnemen
to unleash
ontketenen
unwittingly
onwetend, onbewust
to upend
op zijn kop zetten
to wedge
alloment
klemmen
i.e. (leef)tijd
gear
raderwerk
inertia
(wet van de) traagheid
subduction
trogvorming
threescore
years and ten
unbudgeable
70 jaar
stiekem
verwoesten
onbeweegbaar