The Inland Tsunami
As a kid living in Sonoma County, I remember being frightened by the once-rampant rumor that the next big earthquake would split the state at the San Andreas Fault and everything west of that geologic line would sink into the Pacific Ocean. Our five acres in Penngrove would suddenly be beach-front property. More recently, the real tsunami that devastated Japan also swamped parts of coastal California, proving that we do live in a state prone to upheaval—geologic, oceanographic, and demographic too, if the folks at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) are to be believed.