Here are some easy and affordable ways to prepare for an earthquake:
Can Earthquakes Be Predicted?
We get tornado warnings, hurricane warnings, snow storm warnings, but no earthquake warnings. It’s difficult to prepare for something when we don’t know when it is coming. We only know that eventually, an earthquake will happen. Why is this? And is this changing? Can earthquakes be predicted?
Are Buildings in SF on Rollers? Base Isolation in San Francisco
For California, another large earthquake is inevitable. In 1906, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck San Francisco and destroyed 28,000 structures, over 80% of the city’s buildings at the time. The magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 is estimated to have caused anywhere from $6-10 billion in property damages around the Bay Area. But these days there’s technology to help buildings resist earthquakes. One the most robust ways for a building to resist earthquake damage is base isolation. As a follow-up to the detailed New York Times article about base isolation, we take a deep dive into base isolation in San Francisco.
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Did that Earthquake Wake You Up?
Whoa, was that an earthquake last night? Did you check out Nextdoor or Twitter to see if others also woke up? It’s actually good news when earthquakes hit at night instead of during the day. Night earthquakes mean fewer injuries and fewer fatalities. Let’s look into why this is the case.
1906 San Francisco Earthquake: Lessons from History
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed 28,000 buildings. It left over half the population homeless and claimed the lives of 3,000 people. What did we learn from the earthquake, and what changes did we implement after the earthquake? Have we done enough to prepare for the next big earthquake? In this article, we review discoveries related to geology, earthquake-induced fires, building performance, and the recovery process.
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