Quote Originally Posted by ToomuchStuff View Post
I remember the discussion in History class, around the time Mount St. Helen's blew up. They said the NM fault was overdue, and the last big one it had, caused the river to flow backwards. Then they mentioned the fear that if the big one hit here, it could cause Yellowstone to erupt.
Never figured out if he was serious, or trying to get kids attention.
He was probably quite serious. Just as the guy who did a presentation at a risk management conference I attended 6 or 8 years ago in Portland was quite serious about the Cascadia subduction zone earthquake that will eventually hit the western half of Washington/Oregon. It's likely to be as destructive as the 1964 Alaska earthquake but in a MUCH more populous part of the world. But we don't know whether it will happen tomorrow or 200 years from now. Personally I started counting down the minutes until my plane was due to take off and return me to the safety of California.