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What would happen if a Japan-like earthquake hits Silicon Valley?

4 points by sashthebash ↗ HN
I thought about this some years ago and the recent earthquake in Japan brought it up again.

What would happen if such an earthquake would hit Silicon Valley? Many data centers seem to be out of the Valley for this reason, but what about all the offices of tech companies and the homes of their employees?

How hard would this hit the tech industry?

5 comments

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dmfdmf
I think one major thing is that SV is not exposed to giant tsunamis. Does anyone know for sure if the narrow entrance to the bay would prevent the kind of devastation caused by a tsunami? Could a tsunami be generated inside the bay? It seems to me that a lot of the damage in Japan (including the nuke plants) was from the tsunami not the earthquake itself.
[dead] tonybordonaro
I have been thinking about the same sort of things ...I know that Ca has not experienced this yet ....and lets pray it doesnt ...and for the Japanese people who are going through incredible tough times/
solipsist
HN traffic would drop suddenly...
coryl
The cool thing about building on the internet, is that you can build from anywhere!