California hasn’t seen a catastrophic earthquake recently. But ‘quiet’ period won’t last

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A Big One earthquake is overdue in California
A ‘Big One’ earthquake is overdue in California

This week’s catastrophic earthquake in Turkey and Syria is just the latest warning of the potential risks for California and other seismically active areas.

Some California cities have retrofitted or demolished problem buildings following quakes in the 1980s and 1990s. But many buildings in the state have not endured the same kind of intense shaking experienced in Turkey and Syria.

The magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southeastern Turkey at 4:17 a.m. local time Monday on the East Anatolian fault. Aftershocks have rippled throughout the southeast part of the country and Syria. A powerful magnitude 7.5 aftershock on a different fault struck nine hours later, with an epicenter 60 miles to the northeast, producing another round of devastation.

The San Andreas fault is capable of similar activity.

“We’ve had 7.8 earthquakes in our historic past. We’ve had a great run without them, but it’s important to be prepared for these possibilities in the future,” said U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist Kate Scharer.

Two of those have occurred on the San Andreas: the 1906 earthquake that destroyed much of San Francisco and the 1857 quake that ruptured a length of the fault from Monterey County through Los Angeles County and into the Cajon Pass.

“There will be 7.8s in our future. Absolutely. We have the faults, we’ve seen it in the past, it will happen again,” said seismologist Lucy Jones, a research associate at Caltech. “The timing of them, as far as we can tell, is random. And there’s no way to say when it’s going to be happening. … Compared to the long-term average, we’ve been quiet for a while.”

The scale of the building collapses in Turkey and Syria, some captured on video, could be attributed to a number of factors. Some of the structures may have been built before the advent of modern building codes. The collapses could also be due to corruption in safety inspections or incompetence in design practices — issues that have come up in Mexico, Taiwan and New Zealand.

But structural engineers have said that a big quake in California would also be devastating, if not on the same scale. They have long warned about the risk of brittle, concrete buildings collapsing, as occurred during the 1971 Sylmar and 1994 Northridge quakes. When the concrete Veterans Administration Hospital in San Fernando pancaked in the 1971 earthquake, 49 people were killed.

Minimum construction requirements were strengthened in the years after the Sylmar quake, but those rules affected only new construction. More concrete buildings suffered significant damage in the 1994 Northridge quake.

David Cocke, president of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and a structural engineer with Gardena-based Structural Focus, said some of the collapsed buildings he has seen in news footage from Turkey appear to have been constructed from non-ductile concrete, in which inadequate steel reinforcing bars allow concrete to explode from columns when shaken.

Similar videos emerged after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in 2017 struck Mexico. One showed a building wobbling, followed by concrete falling out of a ground-floor column; the columns then flexed, and the upper floors crashed down, sinking into a cloud of dust.

A concrete school in Mexico City that collapsed in that quake killed 19 students and seven adults.

Videos and photos from Turkey and Syria show building of various eras — some old, some modern — collapsing. But they also show that many others survived the shaking. Experts say new buildings in Turkey — when properly built to local codes — are comparable to California’s standards.

Some of the collapses in Turkey occurred many hours after the predawn mainshock. The magnitude 7.5 aftershock occurred around 1:24 p.m.

Whether from one quake or two, “the longer the duration [of shaking], the better the chance a building is going to collapse,” Cocke said.

Scharer traveled to the site of a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in 2011 in eastern Turkey, which produced intense shaking under the city of Van; a subsequent, less-powerful quake caused additional damage.

“We often call them a doublet,” Scharer said. The initial signs of building weakness can be observed when big diagonal cracks, looking like the letter X, are visible in the building.

“So the building gets weakened by the first earthquake,” she said. “And then when you have a significant aftershock come through, then they actually collapsed. So it’s sort of a one-two punch.”

In California, a magnitude 7.8 quake would produce damage far more widespread than was caused by the tremblors of the past century. A U.S. Geological Survey simulation of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Southern California led researchers to determine that it was plausible such a quake could cause nearly 1,800 deaths and 50,000 injuries, and destroy major utilities carrying fuel, power and water. In Northern California, a simulation of a magnitude 7 earthquake on the Hayward fault east of San Francisco showed that there could be at least 800 deaths from the quake, plus hundreds more from fires afterward.

Either scenario would result in the deadliest earthquakes to hit California in more than 100 years. A magnitude 7.5 quake on the Puente Hills fault — which runs underneath highly populated areas of L.A. and Orange counties — could kill 3,000 to 18,000 people, according to the USGS and Southern California Earthquake Center.

Of the world’s active seismic zones, California and Turkey, along with New Zealand, are in a category of their own. These three areas have long, mature faults and are on land, as opposed to Japan, where the biggest faults are under the ocean.

In Turkey, the East Anatolian and North Anatolian faults are of a similar type to the San Andreas — relatively more likely to rupture in a single human’s lifetime than others.

The land beneath central Turkey is seismically active as it is squeezed between the Arabian plate, which is pushing northward, and Europe, said Ross Stein, a geophysics lecturer at Stanford University and chief executive of Temblor, which produces earthquake risk models. “And so it’s squeezed out to the west.”

The East Anatolian, like the San Andreas, is a strike-slip fault — one that runs vertically, and the ground moves sideways during the rupture.

“You get very strong shaking right along the fault, much stronger than you see even not too far away,” Jones said.

The fact that the epicenters of the two major Turkey quakes were 60 miles apart shows that follow-ups can occur at a distance from the mainshock.

“Lots of aftershocks are on other faults,” Jones said. [LATimes]

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26 Comments

  1. Balloons and ufo’s plus a helping of BS:

    Never have a seen such an effort to distract attention away from our corruptocrats. Stories are bordering on ridiculous and absurd too. Every few hours another heaping spoon of BS is fed to the public. ?

  2. Redchinesey are about to shoot down one of their balloons over redchineseyville. Then they can blame America. False flaggots.

  3. BREAKING NEWS: Pentagon shoots down ‘high-altitude’ unidentified object over Alaska just week after fighter jets downed Chinese spy balloon

    The Pentagon shot down an unknown object flying in U.S. airspace off the coast of Alaska on Friday on orders from President Joe Biden, the White House said
    ‘The object was flying at 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,’ he said
    Kirby said the military successfully shot down the object over the U.S.’s territorial waters, which are currently frozen WW3 DEFCON 1 soon!

    • Off topoc:
      Mo,
      Do you ever eat dates? My friend sent me the Khudry dates. I have tried 5 other variety, but those Khudry are the best. We always ate Medjool dates when we were young kids. However, I decided to try a variety pack last buy. Anyways, Khudry are my new favorites.

  4. Actually the Cascadia fault subduction zone opened up around1700.There was a strong earthquake in the same area around1810 1811.
    The New Madrid earthquake happened not long after.The New Madrid is believed to be a paleo triple junction.Enough shaking could rupture the surrounding faults including but not limited to the Saint Lawrence Seaway fault the east TN fault.Wabash and others.They have also determined that the Appalachian linear magnetic anomaly
    was indicative of major ancient fracturing.Its a strike slip like the San Andreas.Also just as big.Two differences its covered by the Craton and last but not least it’s far deeper and steeper.

    • Also the rock structure east of the Mississippi is very solid. So EQs are transmitted much further. That’s why church bells rang in Boston when the NM happened in 1812. But this time, the NM triggers the west coast. Already seeing evidence, the Seaway Fault is moving. Just a few days ago the quake in Buffalo, NY. Plus other reported shakings.

    • The complete name is the New York Alabama linear magnetic array anomaly.Also one of the major faults is known as the Brevard fault.

  5. The disaster after the earthquake: How conditions in Turkey can cost more lives
    A lack of water and sanitation, as well as the frigid temperatures, could continue to cost lives in the regions devastated by the earthquake. Lessons learned from HAARP Quake in double quakes…
    Part of WW3 prelude it was tested HAARP accuracy?
    https://www.jpost.com/international/article-731131

  6. The gas and water lines will rupture, and fires will roast all the sun-tanned klowns. Seaside homes will sink from soil liquifaction. Gonna be a disaster. Anybody with brains should leave.

  7. The Faults are loaded and ready to go without any further shaking in CAL since 15000 faults line are stressed out and soon we will witness it due is over due … How ever Russian Pesidion missile can produce radio active with 300 Meter Tsunami and see movie right at your door?
    During the movie, Lexi breaks the window with her mobile phone, and Brad does a good job of resealing the window. Too good a job in fact. In turns out that Lexi let in a bit of the bacteria but since the house was sealed well making the house very warm, the bacteria used the house as a breeding ground and Brad became a “lethal carrier” of a new strain of virus that has no cure.The irony is, the virus released by the bombs attacks in large quantities. Lexi survives because she spent most her time outside and Brad is killed (via gassing) in his house as there is no cure for him. Had Brad not sealed up the house and allowed for some air to get in, he may have survived. Amazon or Tubi free or 2.99?

  8. Yes, the “quiet period” willend when the MSM tries to remind everyone in CA about the “Big One.” They did the same thing in Mexico City… and had an earthquake the next day. Thought takes form in action. It’s called SPELL CASTING. Instead, imagine the cabal being arrested, or a big green field with Winnie the Poo characters running everywhere.

    • Dr Bingham has a point here often overlooked. Some high black magick rituals are powerful. They can manifest serious things. Based upon blood, sex, and sacrifices. Seasons, Planetary influences, time of day, etc…

      Christians pray and there is power in prayer. As above, so below. We are in a spiritual battle very much so.

  9. New Madrid is supposed to trigger the California quakes. My understanding of the New Madrid is everything east of the Mississippi gets pretty torn up. West to the Rockies very little impact. The West Coast is triggered almost immediately and gets much destruction. The New Madrid creates a tear in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is the edge of the North American Plate. Ocean water rushes in and rebounds and sends a tidal wave to Europe. Most of Western Europe gets inundated. This is expected at any moment, which is why all the surveillance that has been going on. And some kind of preps going on in San Diego with all the Military activity there.

    • Everything EAST of the Rockies actually.
      The Madrid will affect from the Rockies to Newfoundland, from Hudson Bay to Cuba. That big enuf fer ya?!?
      AND the number of deaths will end up in the MILLIONS. Every pipeline, bridge, etc within 150 miles from the center will be destroyed. Hell in 1812 the Boston Commons Church bell rand during the quake…1027 MILES away from the quake.
      Think New York and those tall ass buildings AND New York City was built on Manhattan Island which is just a mud island made by the rivers. Think liquification and TALL buildings…the movie ‘Earthquake’ with Charleston Heston gives you a LITTLE idea what will happen…and St Louis, Chicago, Indie, Louisville KY etc etc etc will all be destroyed.

      • No on the Rockies part. NM will have little impact there. That’s why the Billionaire preppers choose their retreats in that region. Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, etc. I know of several and I know the property manager of one.

  10. “The San Andreas fault is capable of similar activity.’
    THE MADRID HAS THE SAME POWER but IT COVERS AN AREA FROM THE ROCKIES TO NEWFOUNDLAND, HUDSON BAY TO BUBA.
    That WILL BE DEVESTATING.

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