Disasters in the Movies
When I think of disasters in the movie, I recall movies from my jr. high years such as Volcano, High Impact, Dante's Peak, and many others. Utilizing natural disasters gives an automatic dramatic effect and if you are not aware of the different effects of natural disasters or the cause of them, can create a sense of surprise and sometimes fear because we are afraid of what might happen if that natural disaster was to happen where we lived.
San Andreas is a movie that came out in 2015 that covered (no surprise here) The San Andreas Fault. This fault line stretches across the state of California. Sanandreasfault.org notes that the San Andreas Fault line runs more than 800 miles long, beginning in northern California and running south in the border of California and Mexico.
Geology.com teaches us that, "The San Adreas Fault is a sliding boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate." This is important as it puts California on two major tectonic plates. The San Andreas Fault line is considered a transform fault and can be visible in some areas and then hidden where there is more of a population such as Los Angeles.
In the movie San Anreas, it tells the story of a rescue-chopper pilot Ray Gaines played by Dwayne Johson has to get from southern California to northern California to save his daughter and ex-wife from the effects of the San Andreas fault line breaking due to a major earth quake.
San Andreas shows the "effects" of the San Andreas fault line breaking such as huge sink holes in parts of California and major waves in near San Francisco that takes out the Golden Gate Bridge. Ray has to find his daughter and try to save her before the flooding from the earthquake shakes wipes out California. This movie definitely has a lot of action and gets your heart racing as you watch the different disasters that happen due to the San Andreas fault line. If you don't understand earthquakes and fault lines, this could be very believeable.
Some of the myths that have been associated with the San Andreas fault line is that if it breaks, parts of California would slide into the ocean. According to geology.com, this is not true nor could that happen, but the movie definitely get's your heart racing when they portray how California is affected by this fault line.
The film did a great job with utilizing the fault line to carry the story through, but as far as the dramatic effects that were enhanced to show the destruction, I felt were very exaggerated. In some cases this is a good thing as it can create a sense of urgency to prepare if you lived in the areas that could be affected. It's always good to prepare and as we've learned throughout the year, we should always be prepared.