WORST QUAKE EVER? PUENTE HILLS TEMBLOR COULD KILL 18,000, COST $252 BILLION.Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer The worst earthquake damage the nation has ever seen - with up to 18,000 fatalities and $252 billion in damage - could come from a magnitude 7.5 temblor that could occur on a fault under downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or , seismic researchers said Wednesday. A research team from the U.S. Geological Survey The term geological survey can be used to describe both the conduct of a survey for geological purposes and an institution holding geological information. A geological survey and University of Southern California's Earthquake Center said they could not determine when the Puente Hills Puente Hills is a chain of hills in an unincorporated area in eastern Los Angeles County, California. It lies to the south of the San Gabriel Valley and the Pomona Freeway (California State Route 60), to the east of the San Gabriel River Freeway (Interstate 605), to the north of fault might rupture but they warned when it did, its shaking would be far more severe than the 1994 Northridge Earthquake The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in the city of Los Angeles, California. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6. . A severe temblor on the Puente Hills fault, which was only identified in 1999, would tear across Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, leaving few communities untouched by its power, the researchers said. They urged Southern Californians to take personal responsibility to secure their homes, while calling on government and industry to prepare for a big one. ``It's a rather bad actor. We're concerned about it,'' said Thomas Jordan Thomas Jordan (September 30, 1819 – November 27, 1895) was a Confederate spy, and later a general in the CSA army during the American Civil War. A career soldier in the armies of three nations, he fought in numerous wars and rebellions in the United States, Mexico, and Cuba. , a co-author of the study and director of the Southern California Earthquake Center The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), headquartered at the University of Southern California, was founded in 1991 with a mission to:
Lucy Jones Dr. Lucy Jones has been a seismologist with the US Geological Survey and a Visiting Research Associate at the Seismological Laboratory of Caltech since 1983. She is currently serving as the Chief Scientist of the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project for Southern California, developing , the USGS USGS United States Geological Survey (US Department of the Interior) scientist in charge in Southern California, said residents need to stop thinking of quakes as random events and prepare for them as part of living here. ``These losses can be reduced. They can be reduced through personal choices we make, through governmental choices we make and through societal interest in what we're doing,'' said Jones, who also is chairwoman of the California Seismic Safety Commission. ``You need to take this information and apply it to your individual situation.'' Despite the massive devastation that could come from such a quake, researchers did not caution against building in downtown or elsewhere near the fault, saying the key is not to hide from such areas but to make structures safer. They said downtown's existing skyscrapers are some of the safest buildings in L.A. because they are newer and built with more sophisticated engineering than smaller ``mom-and-pop'' structures. Still, they said, new buildings can be made even more secure to withstand such a catastrophe. Farzad Naeim, a structural engineer and editor of ``Earthquake Spectra,'' the journal where the study appears, said that with modest investment, new structures could be made to remain totally operational in the event of a quake - as many hospitals now are being built. ``You can't live in California by avoiding faults,'' Jones said. Jordan said the study released Wednesday came from researchers heeding the imperative to ``know thy enemy.'' The Puente Hills fault, which stretches from west of downtown to the Puente Hills area in the San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of southern California. It lies to the east of the city of Los Angeles, to the north of the Puente Hills, to the south of the San Gabriel Mountains, and to the west of the Inland Empire. , has ruptured with massive 7.2 to 7.5-magnitude quakes on four different occasions in the past 11,000 years. Last week, researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. said the area between the fault and another fault to the north is being squeezed - land is actually moving 0.2 inch a year - and the strain will likely be relieved with an earthquake. The 1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake The Whittier Narrows earthquake struck the southern San Gabriel Valley and surrounding communities of southern California at 7:42 a.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) on October 1, 1987. The magnitude 5.9 earthquake was originally assigned a magnitude of 6. , a magnitude 6.0, occurred on this fault. Though still not as potentially powerful as the mighty San Andreas fault San Andreas fault, great fracture (see fault) of the earth's crust in California. It is the principal fault of an intricate network of faults extending more than 600 mi (965 km) from NW California to the Gulf of California. , the Puente Hills fault's location in the heart of L.A. could make it the nation's deadliest. ``It looks like it was the worst case seen in the U.S. It's hard to come up with a more significant earthquake,'' said Edward Field, the study's lead author. Field compared such a potential temblor with the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, which measured 6.9 magnitude and killed 6,348. The 1994 Northridge Earthquake resulted in 33 fatalities and $44 billion in losses. Researchers estimated the potential devastation by conducting various models based on earthquakes of 7.2 to 7.5 magnitude that occurred on 2 p.m. on a weekday. They said damage would be less if the quake happened at night when most people are home. They said the scenarios remain uncertain because of the differences in ground shaking and how the fault ruptures. Still, they estimate a quake on the Puente Hills fault would deliver most of its blow in an area south of downtown, near the junction of the 710-105 freeways, pushing south to the ports, researchers said. ``The energy will be directed southward, kind of the opposite of what happened in Northridge,'' said Robert Graves, a URS URS Yours URS Ultimate Roulette System URS Uniform Reporting System URS User Requirement(s) Specification URS Undergraduate Research Symposium URS Unified Registration Statement URS Undergraduate Research Scholars Corp. scientist who worked on the models. It would be expected to deliver its punch as far as Ventura County and San Bernardino. Depending on the size of the quake, it could result in 3,000 to 18,000 fatalities, and 56,000 to 268,000 injuries. It would also cause $82 billion to $252 billion in losses - excluding losses to transportation systems. Still, the researchers remind that the chances of being killed in such a quake are less than being struck by lightning. ``It's important to note this is a very rare event,'' Fields said. ``For the citizens of L.A., your odds of dying in an auto accident or of heart attack are much greater. Our message today for the citizens of L.A. is that we live in earthquake country and they should always be prepared.'' Lisa Mascaro, (818) 713-3761 lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): map Map: POTENTIAL EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE ZONE FROM PUENTE HILLS FAULT SOURCE: USGS and Southern California Earthquake Center Warren Huskey/Staff Artist |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion