In “San Andreas” Dwayne Johnson has to deal with a massive catastrophe that almost completely destroys San Francisco. A spectacle. But: Would such a destruction be theoretically possible?
An earthquake causes the Hoover Dam to rupture. It causes the San Andreas Fault to drift apart and California to be rocked by an unprecedented earthquake. Much of San Francisco is destroyed. Then comes a second earthquake, measuring 9.6 on the Richter scale, the strongest ever. The San Andreas Fault breaks into a mighty gorge. This causes a megatsunami that simply shreds the Golden Gate Bridge into pieces and turns the US city into an island.
One such disaster is at the center of ” San Andreas ,” a 2015 film starring Dwayne Johnson . In the case of disaster strips like ” The Day After Tomorrow ” or of course the doomsday spectacle “2012”, only a few viewers should have high expectations of the reality content. But with “San Andreas” one has to ask: would such a swath of devastation be theoretically possible? Because: For decades, San Francisco has been considered an earthquake risk area due to its geographical location around the San Andreas Fault.
Seismologist subjects “San Andreas” to a fact check
Warner Bros. Entertainment
How likely is the level of destruction that “San Andreas” shows?
The seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones dug into the movie “San Andreas” and fact-checked (via Historyvshollywood.com ). And at least in part it confirms the rough scenario of the film. When asked if an earthquake in Nevada could lead to triggering an even stronger earthquake in San Francisco, she answered in the affirmative. The trigger pattern, as shown in the film, is absolutely plausible. The real San Andreas Fault can cause an earthquake to set off a chain reaction of other earthquakes around Nevada and California.
In fact, this has happened several times. In 1992, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the southern California area, causing a 5.7 magnitude quake in Nevada. When a violent 7.8 magnitude tremor devastated the city in 1906, it led to further 6 magnitude earthquakes in Oregon and Nevada. According to Jones, the various aftershocks that are addressed and discussed in the film are also a realistic consequence of an event of the magnitude that “San Andreas” depicts.
Dwayne Johnson embarrasses himself with statement about ‘San Andreas’
The earthquake in “San Andreas” has a magnitude of 9.6. In fact, that would make it the largest earthquake ever recorded in the real world. But the Chilean earthquake, which shook Chile on May 22, 1960, is close. At that time, a strength of 9.5 was measured. As is so often the case, it can be said that Hollywood has excessively exaggerated a real threat scenario (mutually triggering earthquakes near the San Andreas Fault) in order to turn it into humorous popcorn cinema. Only one sees things differently: Lead actor Dwayne Johnson.
On the US talk show “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”, Dwayne Johnson said during a promotional appearance for “San Andreas”: “We had the world’s best seismologists and seismic researchers watch over the script and challenged ourselves with the script so that they ended up saying, ‘Anything you shoot in the film could actually happen.'” The statement became an embarrassment for Johnson , because one of those experts who advised the film was USC professor Tomas Jordan – and who commented on the Johnson talk show statement, and stated that the filmmakers completely ignored much of his advice.
Source: tvspielfilm.de
