No Picture
Geologic Hazards

Chile Earthquake Links – March 1, 2010

A few interesting links related to the Chile Earthquake. Over the next days and weeks, I will try to highlight interesting news and blog posts related to this event. Chile Earthquake: Soft ground bites the […]

Chile Earthquake 2010 - Destroyed appartment building
Geologic Hazards

Chile Earthquake 2010 – Magnitude 8.8

A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile on Saturday, centered about 200 miles southwest of the capital, Santiago and 70 miles north-northeast of Concepcion, one of the worst hit areas. According to the USGS event page, […]

Peacekeeping - MINUSTAH
Geologic Hazards

Haiti Earthquake

Peacekeeping - MINUSTAH The magnitude 7.0 earthquake in the impoverished nation of Haiti has clearly had devastating consequences. I don’t know what I can add in terms of useful information except perhaps to point interested readers to these additional sources of information. This is truly a heart-breaking situation. Click through for the links. (Photo by UNDP Global)

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No Picture
Geologic Hazards

Video: Alaskan Way Viaduct Earthquake Simulation

Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Project is a political lightning rod, but this amazing simulation video released by WSDOT underscores what COULD happen if a significant earthquake struck the Seattle Downtown Waterfront area.

This is a schematic design of a proposed Tsunami Evacuation Building (TEB). Photo courtesy of Yumei Wang, Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.
Press Releases

Tsunami evacuation buildings: another way to save lives in the Pacific Northwest

This is a schematic design of a proposed Tsunami Evacuation Building (TEB). Photo courtesy of Yumei Wang, Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. Boulder, CO, USA – Some time soon, a powerful earthquake will trigger a massive tsunami that will flood the Pacific Northwest, destroying homes and threatening the lives of tens of thousands of people, says Yumei Wang, a geotechnical engineer at the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries in Portland. [Editor] Click through for the rest of the press release. [/Editor]

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No Picture
Geologic Hazards

Mega Earthquake Could Strike Closer to Seattle

Preliminary results from a study related to the subduction of the Juan De Fuca Plate beneath the North American Plate off the coast of Washington and British Columbia indicate that the potential mega-thrust earthquake could […]

USGS Logo
Geologic Hazards

What Would a Large Earthquake Do to Downtown L.A.?

USGS LogoFrom the USGS Newsroom:

USGS scientist Ken Hudnut fills us in on how science created the theoretical magnitude 7.8 earthquake behind the Great Southern California ShakeOut—the largest earthquake preparedness drill in U.S. history, coming Nov. 13—and what such an earthquake would do to downtown Los Angeles.

Seems like they did it right wiith this study. They had multiple teams independenlty come up with the ground shaking model, then had different structural engineers who are experts in seismic design of large buildings review the tall buildings in the L.A. area for the design earthquake. They say that buildings would likely come down in the 7.8 magnitude event. Click through to watch the video interview from the USGS.

 

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Geoarchaeology

Tectonics and Ancient Civilizations

A new study published in the current issue of Geoarchaeology claims that earthquake-prone areas along the edges of tectonic plates were far more likely to give birth to great ancient civilizations than less dynamic landscapes. The author of the paper, Eric Force, a (U of A Wildcat!) says that 13 of 15 ancient civilizations sites aren’t the product of chance. Instead, ancient people appear to have chosen to settle close to a tectonic plate boundary. The exceptions were in ancient China and Egypt. [Image Adapted from Eric R. Force, Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 23 (2008)]

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