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The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
January 16, 2006
Dear Mr. President,
Thank you for putting me on your committee. All the questions that you have
asked are answered in the report below.
From our recent studies, earthquakes are most likely to occur around coast lines. Some
examples are as followed. The West Coast of North and South America, the East Coast of
Europe and Asia, as well as Oceania. These are examples of broad areas, some of the
lesser sections are the Fijian region, Chillán area, Japanese region, and the Mid-Atlantic
ridge.
It is not completely impossible to find where earth quakes are most prone. We simply
study where most of the earth quakes occur. Take a place such as the San Francisco Bay
area of California. They are on a plate boundary. Lots of earthquakes are happening there.
These two plates are active.
We at the U.S.G.S. believe that there is a relationship between volcanoes and
earthquakes. However, we are still in the process of determining to what extent. It has
something to do with the lava and the plates.
And to answer your final question, earthquakes occur by the rubbing of tectonic
plates. One plate wants to go one way, while the other goes the other way. The vibrations
we feel in an earthquake are the plates shifting against each other. The severity of the
quake is determined by the amount of shift and the depth of the plate.
Again we at the U.S.G.S. thank you for your funding, and hope that we can count on
your continued support!
Sincerely, Hannah
The Lead Scientist at U.S.G.S.