Acrylic Tanks

[Delphinus]

Interesting point about quakes and acrylic. I was in L.A. in '99 when there was a 7.2 quake ... I was at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific the next day. The Arco display tank (modeled after some location in Palau), some 400,000 gallons, is acrylic somewhere in the order of, if memory serves, 12" to 16" thick. I don't remember, suffice it to say ... very thick. (But very clear, too.) Anyways, suffice it to say the public aquarium was just fine. 7.2 .. that's no small tremor, although luckily the epicentre was about 60 miles in the middle of nowhere, but to me it was still one HECK of a jolt at 2 in the morning. (On the 11th floor of the hotel, there several metres of travel in the building swaying!!! I will never forget the sound the building made .... man alive.) Anyways I was totally impressed.