Word: thrust
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...dither are a natural outgrowth of the feline, even feminine, nature of many of his heroes (and most of his villains). But his raddled face, Einstein coiffure and teetery walk are new and, surprisingly from this most mannered of actors, feel free of mannerism. The verbal cut and thrust between them is the finest now on Broadway -- elegantly bloodless and as ferocious as a slaughterhouse...
...similar process goes on along smaller cracks in the crust outside the main fault line. But while the earth slides horizontally along the San Andreas, many of the other fissures, including the one under Northridge, are called thrust faults because they cause the ground to move vertically. Given enough time, they help form mountains and valleys...
Surprisingly, the hazards of thrust faults were largely overlooked until 1983, when a fierce temblor hit the small central California town of Coalinga. The culprit turned out to be a deeply buried fault (four to 10 miles down) that no one had known about. Its only sign on the surface had been a fold, or buckling, in the earth's crust. Many scientists had thought such folds were harmless, formed by an imperceptibly gradual lifting of the ground. But when Ross Stein, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and geologist Robert Yeats of Oregon State University examined the seismic...
Around the same time, other researchers began examining maps drawn up by petroleum geologists. Thrust faults, and the folds they form, are excellent traps for gas and oil, and many such subterranean spots have been found in the Los Angeles region. But were these structures still active? In recent years, nature has provided an unequivocal answer. Since 1987, when the Whittier Narrows earthquake caused eight deaths and $350 million in property damage, about half a dozen quakes of significant size have rattled along thrust faults beneath greater Los Angeles. All this activity, many scientists speculate, may . be a symptom that...
...tremors had only a mild impact on the San Andreas itself. The bad news is that they increased subterranean stresses closer by. Caltech geologist Kerry Sieh, for one, is worried that the violent release of energy may have adversely affected the Elysian Park system, a deeply buried network of thrust faults directly under Los Angeles. Parts of this system have lain dormant, Sieh says, "since before Abraham." But he cannot predict when the faults might awaken...