Archive: Quakes

"Left, Right & Center is one of KCRW’s most popular shows, on air and as a podcast..."

She remains at Caltech and will work more on the effects of climate change and global warming.

The Semidi segment of the subduction zone in the Aleutian Islands points right at us and is "too quiet."

USGS disputes the surprise claim that the La Habra area would endure a substantial quake in the next three years.

The deadliest and most destructive earthquake ever in North America will happen when the Cascadia subduction zone fully ruptures. If it does.

LA's favorite earthquake expert tweets her review of the latest impossible movie disaster to destroy Los Angeles.

Task Force 2 reunited with families Sunday at the base in Pacoima.

The 15-year-old, found with rescue dogs, says there are others near him in the debris of a collapsed hotel where he worked.

The urban search and rescue team has previously gone to Haiti, Japan, New Zealand and the Hurricane Katrina destruction zone.

And in California, the threat of a magnitude 8 quake, the Big One for us, has been raised by USGS.

Mayor Eric Garcetti and his advisor, seismologist Lucy Jones, unveiled an earthquake plan for Los Angeles that requires vulnerable pre-1980 apartments to retrofit within five years. Concrete buildings at risk get 25 years.

This news from the state geologist won't be good for the developers of the proposed Millennium Hollywood tower or their friends in City Hall.

If you want breaking news in the LA area at night, you might be better off not going to the LA Times website. They prefer quakebot copy to real news.

Turns out that almost everybody in the Napa and Vallejo areas got up when the quake hit at 3:20 a.m. and half of those stayed up the rest of the night. Based on data, not anecdote.

The quake centered near Napa and Vallejo woke up the entire Bay Area and a swath of Northern California at 3:20 this morning. At least 70 people have gone to hospitals with an assortment of injuries, and there is damage reported to highway bridges, gas and water pipes, and some buildings.

An earthquake of the variety that seismologists classify as "light" rumbled under the basin at 7:36, prompting a routine cautionary response from the LAFD and the usual suspects in LA media to do their over-excited thing on Twitter.

The LA Times has taken the state's January maps of the earthquake faults that pass under Hollywood and added an interesting visual.

Tsunami warnings were called for the upper west coast of South America, with warnings as far north as Mexico. But the tsunami threat has passed.

Definitions and frequently asked questions from USGS at your fingertips, plus some other advice.

The magnitude 5.1 earthquake at 9:09 p.m. was centered near the border of Los Angeles and Orange counties, 21 miles southeast of the downtown Los Angeles Civic Center. There was a 3.6 foreshock and two aftershocks in the same ballpark.

There was a 2.7 micro-quake under Long Beach on Monday. The Times auto-story generator breathlessly reported the quake was centered "347 miles from Phoenix." That's helpful, thanks.

The earthquake that woke up a lot of Los Angeles at 6:25 a.m. was located near Encino and measured 4.4. Now with video of the KTLA Morning News folks performing the Shocknek Maneuver.

The earthquake at 10:18 on Sunday evening had a preliminary magnitude of 6.9. Luckily, its epicenter was 50 miles west of Eureka beneath the Pacific Ocean, in the subduction zone between tectonic plates that regularly produces sizable quakes.

Since the deadly Sylmar earthquake in 1971 it has been recognized that the flood control dams in the San Gabriels were not built sufficiently strong to hold up if a severe regional quake hit while the dams retained a full load of water.

Patch sites have been citing USC as source of documents actually from UC Berkeley. The bigger question, though, is why does LA City Hall not already have all of this data and more on its own buildings?

I guess that at 4:31 on Friday morning, Channel 4's tweets will begin. They did this before during the anniversary of the LA riots.

The Daily News package includes a dramatic shot of what the newsroom in Woodland Hills looked like when staffers tried to get in. The paper's executive editor recalls the day.

Coming up on three years since the catastrophic Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, officials say flatly there is no threat to food or beachgoers. No matter what you might see on Facebook.

We're swinging into a week full of earthquake conversation and recollection in LA media. January 17 will be the 20th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake.

The California state geologist released revised earthquake fault maps today as required by state law — with possible big consequences for development in Hollywood and in the city of West Hollywood.

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 (since lowered to 7.1) struck about two hours ago off the east coast of Honshu. There is no Pacific-wide tsunami activity expected.

The good news about the latest new tsunami study, says Lucy Jones of USGS, is that three quarters of the California coastline is cliffs. The not so good news is that the remaining, low-lying coast is home to a lot of people and some of the most valuable land in the state.

The Times newsroom just isn't the savviest place when it comes to using technology. For instance, a robot shovels headlines about trivial earthquakes onto the front web page without any reporter or editor deciding it is news. Often, it isn't.

The strongest earthquake to hit New Zealand's capital of Wellington in 150 years is raising seismic alarms, “but none of the locals are diving under desks or sheltering in doorways,” the New Zealand Herald says.

An earthquake measured at 4.7 rocked the area around Anza-Borrego State Park this morning, accompanied by a whole bunch of lesser magnitude quakes in the vicinity of Anza and Ocotillo Wells.

A new study offers evidence that the massive fault that defines the geography of California could snap along its entire length, unleashing a whomper of an earthquake that would hit north and south. Up to now, seismologists have assumed that a portion of the San Andreas in Central California where the Pacific and the North American plates creep past each other fairly smoothly would protect us.

An Italian court on Monday found six scientists and an official guilty of manslaughter for failing to properly warn residents about the risk of an impending earthquake that killed more than 300 people in 2009. "It's a sad day for science," said seismologist Susan Hough of USGS in Pasadena.

Anything that advances the science of seismology is news in Southern California, or should be. This week's lead entries in the journal Nature qualify.

Go back to bed. It's the lengthy, rocking, violent quakes that you have to worry about, not the puny 3.5 neighborhood shakers that are over in a few seconds.

The preliminary 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck at 8:42 this morning near the town of Liberia and was widely felt across Central America. Houses are down and highways blocked near the epicenter.

So far on Monday there have been just four earthquakes measuring magnitude 3 or higher in the Imperial Valley, and none larger than 3.8. That's a lot easier for residents to take than Sunday's swarm, which included two quakes over 5.0 and another late last night that came in at a 4.9.

Another in the periodic earthquake swarms that visit California's lowest-lying populated area has been bothering the Brawley area all day. With two more over 4.0 in the past hour, there have now been 11 quakes of magnitude 4 or more on Sunday and dozens of lesser strength. The two biggest measured 5.5 and 5.3, enough to cause scattered damage.
 
Sunday night: 7.4 quake off El Salvador with tsumani warning

Just a magnitude 3.7 earthquake but right under a pretty big population: a little north and east of LAX, and three miles south of Culver City. The shake map stays all blue though the measurement seems quite widespread.

Last year's California Watch series detailing failures in the way that the state ensures the seismic safety of public schools was singled out for a special prize at this weekend's national convention in Boston of the journalism group Investigative Reporters and Editors.

A magnitude 4.0 quake, which the USGS classifies as a "light earthquake," broke at 10:14 p.m. way out in the bight, 27 miles off Point Dume. Twitter has a way of magnifying these things — not the quake, just the human and news media reactions onshore — so you may hear about it even if you didn't feel it.

The great quake in Sumatra this morning has been followed by an earthquake in Mexico's Michoacán state.

The quake at 11:02 a.m. was centered 15 miles east of Ometepec in Guerrero, 100 miles from Oaxaca and 115 miles from Acapulco, the USGS instruments say.

David Ono goes to Japan to see how things stand a year later.

Vanessa Whang, the director of programs at the California Council for the Humanities in the Bay Area, contributes a reminiscence of the 1971 Sylmar earthquake on the Zocalo Public Square website.

Lucy Jones, the best-known seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena, has been holding the hands of Southern Californians (and science-challenged reporters) through earthquakes for a long time now. "I’m everybody’s mother," she says in a new Smithsonian piece by Amy Wallace.

The Jan. 17, 1994 earthquake went in the books as a magnitude 6.7 quake that woke up millions about 4:31 a.m. It was the largest earthquake to strike under the city of Los Angeles (beneath Reseda to be precise) since the record-keepers began writing things down.

The earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 struck in Guerrero state about 5:45 p.m. our time.

A byproduct of the geological research for Metro's Westside subway extension is that the northern end of the deadly Newport-Inglewood Fault is better understood by scientists.

Metro's experts panel of seismologists, geologists and engineers also says tunneling poses no threat to Beverly Hills High School.

A new study from the Center for Health Reporting at USC says flatly that when the Big One hits Southern California, "hospitals won't be ready."

UCLA student in Libya, a light quake, a professor selling meth, big waves and more.

People out here too like to recite endlessly what they felt, and even a mild, non-disaster earthquake can be an unsettling event.

Metro reporter Scott Gold will focus on stories about "the scientific and technological breakthroughs of the modern era" — and also earthquakes. The challenge of the beat will be to...

Northeastern Japan endured another 7.1 magnitude aftershock on Monday afternoon.

Author Simon Winchester has written some nice books, including about earthquakes and other geological phenomena, but quake scientists say he's a little shaky in his latest stab at seismology. After...

The folks at Southern California Public Radio made a nice video with Tony Tsukui, one of the Japanese businessmen and women who were here when the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan.

The nuclear power generating station near San Luis Obispo on the central California coast was allowed to open without an emergency plan for earthquakes — and still doesn't have one, the HuffPost says.

Release from the office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says "no immediate threat to the United States" from radiation in Japan.

L.A. Creek Freak posted this video of Friday's tsunami wave rolling uphill in Ballona Creek.

Danger of nuclear disaster reaches a new level in Japan, "threatening to overshadow even the massive damage and loss of life spawned by a devastating earthquake and tsunami."

As if the March 11 quake off Japan's northeast coast needed any more historic cred, the USGS recalculated it upward in magnitude.

This clip catches the start of Friday's tsunami flooding into the streets of Kesennuma, in Miyagi Prefecture, and watches up close for six astounding, frightening minutes.

The Rafu Shimpo website has, of course, gone heavily into disaster relief and communication mode.

Japan is probably the most prepared country in the world, but the spreading misery and risk of nuclear disaster shows that you can't prepare adequately for an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami.

The blogger behind the site called With Malice — "the half-crazed ramblings of a Laker fanatic in Japan" — has posted his reactions to news coverage and the local reality of the quake and tsunami.

L.A. County Fire's urban search and rescue team boarded buses last night for LAX.

Sped-up video of the tsunami surge entering and leaving Crescent City's harbor on Friday morning, leaving extensive damage behind.

These are always a mix of awesome and frightening.

Crescent City, near the Oregon border, appears to have suffered significant damage to its harbor.

Tsunami coming ashore at Natori in Miyagi prefecture. From Kyodo News Service at New York Times. Wave inundating Sendai airport on closed-circuit video....

TV reports are showing not much happening along the Southern California coast as the hour passes for the arrival of tsunami surges.

NOAA has put up a tsunami advisory for us and a higher tsunami warning for north of Point Concepcion.

Updated monitoring of media reports on the Japan earthquake, which the USGS is calling a magnitude 8.9 event. Number aftershocks over 6.0 have occurred.

A volunteer at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History has made a fantastic discovery: perhaps the only color photographs of the devastation in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's search and rescue team are at LAX right about now boarding a flight for New Zealand.

Video: Never underestimate how loud an earthquake can be as it pummels your home.

Coming up on the air at 6:44 p.m., a often-forgotten corner of the city — the far northeast Valley — and two historical milestones there.

Sixty-five people died in the 6.6 magnitude Sylmar earthquake 40 years ago today. We have pictures.

On the 17th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake, it seems like a good time to point out the new research that says a theoretical Pacific-spawned superstorm is now believed likely to do much more damage in California than a major earthquake on the San Andreas Fault.

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.9 struck this morning toward the southern end of the Gulf of California, about 85 miles from La Paz.

A detailed and long-awaited study of the fault found that earthquakes along the fault were more numerous than previously believed, adding to evidence that we are overdue for a very, very large and potentially catastrophic event.

Centered down below Palm Springs like the recent swarm, but certainly felt in Los Angeles. 4:53 was the official time. * Downgrade: Originally a 5.9, within 15 minutes of the...

Tonight's earthquake at 9:26 p.m. struck near Ocotillo, in the same region of the Imperial Valley near the U.S.-Mexico border where the quakes have been a-swarming for months.

David Willis, a BBC News correspondent in Los Angeles, entertained the home folks today with a dispatch on Southern California's recent spate of earthquakes.

There's been a 4.6 aftershock this hour in the desert 16 miles southeast of Ocotillo, Calif., making at least ten earthquakes of magnitude 4 or higher today mdash;including a pair of 5.1's. It's all playing out as expected after Sunday's 7.2, Lucy Jones of USGS explains.

That was a long quake. Gentle but very noticeable rolling here on the Westside, but too long in duration to be a small quake. Details as they're posted by USGS.

An early morning quake, Villaraigosa raises DWP bills a whole bunch, the Whitman-Poizner debate and Jamie McCourt as a candidate for mayor — and president

Tsunami surges killed hundreds and devastated ports and towns along the Chilean coast in the first hours after Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake. Check out the animation.

Lauren Williams and Aneya Fernando moved from Los Angeles to Santiago last month and have been blogging about the quake and its aftermath.

The death toll in Chile has reached at least 214 by some reports.

Modeling by NOAA of the tsunami action expected across the Pacific from the 8.8 earthquake in Chile. The ocean is normally blue on these maps. Small world, as they say....

More than 140 people have been killed by a major earthquake that struck before dawn, centered in the Pacific 60 miles offshore from the port city of Concepcion. A tsunami could hit Hawaii at 11:05 island time.

No damage has been reported and no tsunami action is forecast.

Reporter Andrew Mollenbeck of KNX 1070 flew into Haiti from Guantanamo Bay and is embedded now with the U.S. Navy ship USS Bataan. In Wednesday's report he described a water...

Video from KABC7 of last night's story.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department urban search and rescue team in Port-Au-Prince pulled another woman from the earthquake rubble. In this one, you can hear the crowd applauding and chanting "U.S.A!"

TiGeorges Laguerre, the Haitian restaurateur in Echo Park who Jenny Burman visited with earlier today, talks about the earthquake devastation tonight on "Which Way, L.A.?" with Warren Olney.

Jenny Burman at Chicken Corner went over to TiGeorges' Chicken, the Echo Park restaurant that is becoming a center for the local Haitian community.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department's urban search and rescue team, veterans of Katrina and the South Asia tsunami, is poised to head for Haiti.

That was a 4.1 preliminary magnitude shaker at 3:49 p.m., also centered under the Hawthorne area like the bigger one on Sunday. No damage reports to speak of, so far....

Earliest magnitude is 5.0, centered in the Inglewood-Hawthorne area. The number may change, of course. There have also been at least two measurable aftershocks, a 3.1 and 2.5. USGS, SoCal...

That thing that rolled through at 6:11 p.m. was a 4.4 preliminary magnitude quake located 4 miles NE of Leo Carrillo State Beach. SCEDC...

No one who lives in Southern California has yet experienced a "great earthquake" on the San Andreas fault like the ones that recur through history at regular intervals, UC Irvine...

A quake initially assigned a 3.4 magnitude struck at 7:42 p.m. It was centered a mile off Marina Del Rey and felt like a quick jolt in this corner of...

As SoCal earthquakes go, this one was moderate but probably felt like more if you are near San Bernardino. The epicenter is initially thought to be right under the Inland...

Yeah, me neither. But the Great SoCal Shakeout just got started so millions of our fellow Californians are role-playing the disaster, Metro trains are slowing down and, this being the...

Larry Mantle was twelve minutes into a segment with the blogger behind "Stuff White People Like" when this morning's earthquake hit. He rolled with the flow then switched into anchor...

Initial USGS map centers it south of Pomona at 5.8 magnitude. (Expect that to change in the coming hours and days.) Here are the geographic coordinates for the epicenter: 3...

Caltech has come up with a program that will put video depictions of the up-and-down ground movement produced by Southern California earthquakes on the web 45 minutes after they occur....

One hundred years ago this morning, California's most destructive earthquake—and worst natural disaster—devastated San Francisco. The 7.9 magnitude quake on the San Andreas fault ruptured the ground for three hundred...

It was thiry-five years ago today that the bedrock buckled beneath the San Gabriel Mountains, unleashing what became the Sylmar earthquake. In all that time, people still can't agree on...

A study reported today in Nature suggests it may be possible to give several seconds' warning before a major earthquake hits based on the P waves sent out when an...

That wave that rolled across the Westside at 1:18 pm. was a quake centered four miles west-northwest of Santa Monica. Preliminary magnitude: 3.1. It was short and jolting here, over...

The Southern California Earthquake Data Center has detected eight minor quakes of magnitude 3.1 or higher so far this afternoon in the Wheeler Ridge area near the Grapevine on the...

That gentle but noticeable 8:41 a.m. earthquake was actually decent sized, a 5.6 (preliminary (downgraded to 5.2) magnitude ground shudder centered below the desert six miles east-southeast of Anza, Calif....

I wonder if Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has ever ridden an earthquake—or watched when the third game of the 1989 World Series was halted for several weeks by a quake...

I'm reading The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith by David L. Ulin, which must be the prettiest, most thought-provoking writing about...

From SpaceDaily, via Boing Boing (which got it from somebody else): Russian-born University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) professor Vladimir Keilis-Borok says he can foresee major quakes by tracking...

David L. Ulin has a new book coming in July on earthquake prediction -- and the op-ed in today's L.A. Times to prove it. Where were you on Jan. 17,...

It's like the famous counter-intuitive (for some people) stat that your chances of being being killed in a car crash are much higher than in a plane -- you stay...