What made San Diego prepared for the earthquake? san diego earthquake today
Experts agree the strongest earthquake in decades struck Southern California Sunday.
With the severe magnitude of the 7.2 temblor, many are left wondering why there isn’t more damage in San Diego. Experts say it’s because the city was well-prepared.
There are three components that have created a resilient community,” said Ron Lane, San Diego County’s director of emergency services. A well-trained first responders system, a prepared citizenry and building codes that are made with earthquakes in mind. This was a good wake-up call for San Diego and I encourage San Diegans to think about what happened yesterday.”
San Diego State University geology professor and seismologist Kim Bak Olsen noted that geography played a major role in the relatively minor damage done in San Diego.
If the 7.2.-magnitude earthquake happened right on the fault in the San Diego area, we would have seen a lot of damage, no doubt about it,” Olsen said. It’s really a question of how far away buildings are from the fault.
UC San Diego professor of structural engineering Benson Shing cited modern construction standards as well.
It was the quality of construction in San Diego and really, it was luck,” he said.
Shing said that the Easter earthquake isn’t necessarily a wake-up call, but a reminder that buildings in the region built before the 1930s need to be properly retrofitted.
But Lane acknowledged that the buildings that need to retrofitted in San Diego are few and far between.
We have over 800,000 buildings in San Diego County and all but 1,200 are built to those standards and certainly that made a big difference,” he said. I think we saw in Haiti what would have happened if we didn’t have building codes — it’s a stark contrast.”
It was a different story south of the border, where Mexico has a mix of modern and outdated construction.
So far, the quake has claimed two lives in Mexico, one of which occurred when a house collapsed. At least 100 people were injured.
The twin border towns of Calexico, Calif., and Mexicali, Mexico, suffered damage to buildings and dealt with disruption to utilities.
Modern construction standards likely prevented widespread destruction in fast-growing Mexicali, which underwent a boom of new housing in the past two decades, said Jose Restrepo, Shing’s colleague at UCSD.
By contrast, there was no building code in Haiti, where the death toll exceeded 200,000 and more than 250,000 buildings were destroyed.
Though another earthquake didn’t immediately occur as some experts expected, Olsen said Southern Californians may have to prepare for another earthquake in the next decade.
There is a 30 to 40 percent chance a 7.5-magnitude or larger earthquake will happen,” he said. We know it’s going to happen, we just don’t know exactly when. Yesterday’s earthquake increased the chance of it happening.
The Seismological Institute of the Philippines reported today that an Earthquake of Magnitude 6.2 struck the west of Manila, Philippines.
Reports say that many buildings felt the shock of the Manila earthquake which forced all employees to run out of the buildings into the streets. As for now its no damage or casualties are reported.
The earthquake is reported to be about 10km under the sea.
The epicenter was located 86 miles (139 km) from the capital, Manila, Philippines. , and was about 72 kilometers (45 miles) deep.
The world has seen a number of earthquakes taking place ever since 2010 began – the most destructive being the Haiti earthquake in Jan 2010 and the Chile earthquake in Feb 2010.
Santiago- Chile again experienced a couple of earthquakes on March 11th this Thursday. The magnitude said is 7.2. The shocks scared the residents of Chile and caused a lot of damage.
On 11th march Chile experienced yet another earthquake shock. The shocks were so horrifying that the people screamed and ran out in the streets out of the buildings. The shock that came at 9:40 in the morning according to New York time had its impact for 25 minutes. The first aftershock that measures 7.2 on the Richter scale lasted for 45 seconds. Three less violent quakes followed within 25 minutes. The earthquake influenced and damaged many buildings and shook the hearts of people as well as the windows. But no immediate damage was reported because of this unpleasant incident.
The president, who at that time was swearing at the congressional building, immediately moved the residents of coastal areas. He ordered to move them to higher places as the navy told that the place might experience tsunami. This again could be very much fatal. But nothing like that happened and touched the coasts of Chile. This earthquake is second largest after the sad incident of Haiti which happened on 12th
The powerful earthquake that struck Turkey Monday is a tragic reminder the country lives in the shadow of devastating natural disaster. The 14 million people living in Istanbul are waiting for what is known there as, "The Big One."
A Turkish television program remembering the victims of the 1999 earthquake that struck just east of Istanbul. The temblor killed more than 17,000 people, and experts warn a powerful quake could strike central Istanbul at any time.
Professor Ahmet Ercan, head of Turkey's Geophysical Society, says he is expecting one centered 20 to 25 kilometers south of the city, estimated at 6.3 to 6.7 magnitude. But he says the destructive force of the earthquake could be felt to be around seven to eight magnitude in certain parts of the city, because of the geology. He says an earthquake there could also cause tsunamis.
Istanbul is no stranger to devastating quakes, being struck by 15 in the past 16 centuries. The last was in 1894. Istanbul city authorities are working hard to prepare for the next quake.
The city official responsible for housing, Hasan Atas, is devoting nearly all his time to purging the area of dangerous buildings, but he acknowledges he is facing an uphill battle.
He says in just three neighborhoods there are 600 dangerous buildings in imminent danger of collapsing, and another 3,000 that should be destroyed. He says every month a building collapses in Istanbul, especially when it is very wet or snowing. He says if there is an earthquake under those conditions it would be a catastrophe.
But it is not only old buildings that are at risk. On one of Istanbul numerous construction sites a new apartment block is being erected to meet the ever-growing demand for housing. For more than a decade about 500,000 people a year have moved to the city, generating a huge demand for cheap, quick housing.
t; />But as architect Ekim Kaptan explains that has lead to fatal corner cutting.
"In Turkey, all the building codes are very similar to any building codes in America and Europe. The problem is no one obeys these rules these days," said Kaptan. "There [has to be] a certain amount of iron percentage to concrete, [but] most of the time to cut down cost they do not use enough metal. Also they put [in] just enough cement to cut cost down. Most of these buildings are not done by engineers, most of them are illegal."
Speaking to people in the center of Istanbul, nearly everyone appears to be aware of the threat facing them.
PERSON 1: "Out of control, without any rules. They do not obey rules and then when there is an earthquake all of them, 'Ohhhhh so bad.' I am living in an apartment, four flats there are, and I am the fourth. For me I call myself 'Chancy' because it is top and there is nothing [to] destroy me, only the roof, but I am worrying about the rest." PERSON 2: "I hope [where] I am living is safe… All the architects, the people who build buildings, make really make big mistakes, so the buildings can collapse by themselves also."
