Replying to a message of Richard Webb to Bob Ackley:

 BA>> Of some interest is that the last time I crossed the San Mateo
 BA>> Bridge (30 or so years
 BA>> ago) I noted that the roadway was about ten feet above the rooftops
 BA>> of Foster City (a development built entirely on crud dredged up from
 BA>> the bottom of the bay and piled on top of what had been mud flats -
 BA>> that sort of fill turns to mud and jelly during earthquakes, not the
 BA>> sort of thing one wants to build anything on). 

For those unfamiliar with the term 'mud flats' it simply refers to a shoreline
of dirt that is saturdated (mud) at low tide and submerged at high tide.  Usually
the area is several hundred yards between the low and high tide marks.

 RW> YEp, and bet those houses sold for high dollars too.  WOnder if it
 RW> still survives.  IF so I bet they can't rebuild anymore there, at
 RW> least if the authorities are smart.

If the authorities were smart they'd never have allowed to development to be
built in the first place.

A couple of decades ago a very high rent development was built on the (shale)
hills overlooking Oakland and a good part of the SF Bay area.  The winter of
1962-63 had *much* more rain than is usual for the area and most of that
development slid down the hill into other people's back yards.  'Solid shale'
is an oxymoron.

That was the year that the main highway between Alameda and Contra Costa
counties (runs through the Caldecott Tunnel under the East Bay hills) was under
construction east of the tunnel.  They'd clear cut the hillsides on both sides
preparatory to widening the highway.  The hills on both sides slid onto the highway,
and the earth movers and bulldozers needed to clean up the mess were underneath
17 feet of mud.  Traffic was detoured for months...

--- FleetStreet 1.19+