Finally Succumbed To the Barn Door Fad

[dpb]

On 04/24/2017 9:05 AM, dpb wrote: ...

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Been _a_long_time_ since did any of the earthquake study work for the DOE facilities wherein had to do some reading-up, but iirc at least then the thinking was that because the San Andreas fault lies roughly 8-10 mi in depth, it's top potential is in the neighborhood of 8 on Richter scale. So, the upper-7's are getting close.

OTOH, Alaska 1964(?) was like 9.0-9.2 and the Chilean in early '60s was largest recorded at 9.5. Something like that, if it were to actually occur much of anywhere in the CA fault area would be truly devastating.

That's kinda' what most people envision in "the big one" for CA, but afaik, while there's inevitably going to be more major quakes, that magnitude isn't thought to be likely at all, fortunately.

The _real_ US disaster will be when the Yellowstone caldera goes "boom" again...

[Bob La Londe]

** There is no accounting for taste. Your taste or theirs.

That's certainly true. Although they took my first offer without countering. I guess I wasn't the only one who didn't share their tastes.

[OFWW]

Sylmar was way after 1906, Long beach I don't remember, I do remember the earthquake in Bakersfield. Less damage only because of less people and bldgs. Earth moved a full city block splitting the highway.

Never bothered equating this with Katrina, different problems, and mostly they were never prepared for this with a lot of older bldgs which did not meet current codes. Same kind of problem will plague the Midwest, east, etc. since their bldgs for the most part where never designed to be earthquake resistant.

None of it pretty.

[OFWW]

BOY HOWDY! That is supposed to effectively wipe out many states, totally.

[Scott Lurndal]

Sylmar was 1971. Long Beach was 1934. In both cases, building codes were changed immediately thereafter statewide.

[dpb]

On 04/28/2017 7:58 AM, Scott Lurndal wrote: ...

Which is all well and good for what has been built since; doesn't help the 100 yo infrastructure like the gas distribution system, etc., etc., ...

And, of course, we'll learn how effective the Code changes were, too...

[Scott Lurndal]

There's very little "100 yo" _anything_ in California.

We did learn that they were _very_ effective in 1987, 1989 and 1992.

Particularly bolting the frame to the foundation, which, IIRC, was proposed after 1934 (long beach).

[dpb]

...

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I suspect a fair amount of LA County (say) gas distribution is quite a lot older than you may think plus other metro areas have also been around for quite a while.

[dpb]

...

"The pipe that caused the destruction at UCLA was 93 years old (from

1921), but that's on the younger side of things; the LA Times says most pipes were installed around 1910"

I didn't find specifics on gas which is a key component in fire after EQ, but I'd be surprised if the same general time frame isn't quite common for the larger mains.