Dear U. S. Geological Survey

Dear U. S. Geological Survey,

I am writing you today to ask your opinion on something. Within the past year, I've started to find myself becoming acutely paranoid about earthquake strikes. I was born and raised in Southern California so you think I'd be able to shrug this sort of thing off, but for whatever reason I find myself checking the USGS Southern California Fault Map on an almost constant basis... not that it's supposed to give me a heads-up or anything, but I like to think that maybe I'll spot a pattern or trend that I can use to my advantage.

San Diego, California is my home. While I can't recall ever having been hit with too major of an earthquake, I've got to say that the location of some of these fault lines have me a bit concerned. Please review the enclosed printout that I've sent with this letter.



Do you see this? Those squares of death are getting closer and closer to swallowing up my city. I remember back in April, I was at home drinking some traditional Easter beers on a Sunday when a rather big quake hit. At first, I thought it was a product of the buzz I had going on, but then I noticed my TV was about to fall over. I had to jump up and brace it while waiting for the shaking to die out. Actually, it was more of a rolling... like ocean waves.

Ever since then, I've felt on numerous occasions that we were experiencing an earthquake. Half the time, it's all in my head. I don't know why this happens. I think I'm experiencing psychological trauma.

What I'm wondering is... how are you guys and gals at predicting these things? Is there a time in the future when you think you'll be able to calculate when and where a quake will hit with any reliable bit of probability? How safe do you think San Diego is at the moment? And how much longer do you think I'll have to deal with these faux earthquakes that I think I experience?

Thank you for what your teams do. It's good work, and interesting to read.

Be safe,

Daniel