The San Francisco Public Utility Commission has a $4.6B program in place to try and make the water storage and supply system for the Bay Area ‘earthquake proof’ by 2015. It involves 86 separate projects, some already underway with others beginning in 2011. I’m not sure if the Claremont Tunnel Project is considered part of these projects, but it was designed to accommodate over 7-ft of horizontal offset on the Hayward Fault and not disrupt water flow in the tunnel. You can read about that project on GeoPrac. [Source: ENR via ASCE SmartBrief. Image: Sue Bednarz, Jacobs Associates, Inc. by way of Civil Engineering Magazine]
Related Articles
Second Issue of International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories [Official This Time]
The International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories has formally announced their second issue. Apparently when I posted about it previously, they had only two of the four papers.
This second issue contains four case histories that come with additional downloads. In particular, check out Dr. Edmund Medley’s Paper on the 2006 Hawaii Earthquakes. He has some neat photos including some in 3-D (more about his 3-D photos).
- Design Process of Deep Soil Mixed Walls for Excavation Support: Example of paper with digital data
- Effect of Dredging and Axial Load on a Berthing Structure
- Geological Engineering Reconnaissance of Damage Caused by the October 15, 2006 Hawaii Earthquakes: Example of an Online Database
- Lack of Maintenance Compromises Tunnel Structural Safety
San Francisco’s Embarcadero Seawall At Risk from Earthquakes, Sea-Level Rise
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)]