Prepare for ShakeOut Day: Join Millions in Earthquake Safety

Nearly every earth scientist would agree with these three statements: Earthquakes occur on faults, large earthquakes occur on large faults, and large earthquakes start on large faults. But in recent work, we find that when it comes to the largest continental earthquakes, that last statement is untrue. And reconciling why it’s untrue may resolve a longstanding riddle about rupture of these massive — but surprisingly weak and moveable — faults that lace the continents and have caused terrible human losses over the past century.
Read more

The five largest continental transform earthquakes since 2000 all originated on a branch of the main fault—and two researchers predict that the next great earthquake of this type will also get its start on a branch or splay fault.
Read more

More than 100 small earthquakes have been recorded since Saturday on the edge of the Hanford Reach National Monument, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.

The quakes were at the western edge of the monument’s McGee Ranch, the land used as a security perimeter around the nuclear reservation during the years it produced plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
Read More >>

The hand-carved domes and brick-laid arches had almost all been put back together when an earthquake shook Morocco so violently that they caved in on themselves and crashed to the earth.

After nearly 900 years, the Great Mosque of Tinmel lay in pieces — its minaret toppled, its prayer hall full of rubble, its outer walls knocked over.
Read More >>

On Masbate Island, in the central part of the Philippine archipelago, a story of seismic resilience and geological curiosity has unfolded over nearly two decades, as documented by a locally famous coconut tree. This island has been struck by two significant earthquakes, both stronger than magnitude 6.0, just 17 years apart. The earthquakes were generated by the Masbate segment of the Philippine Fault — one of the country’s most active tectonic features.
Read More

On paper, the deal makes sense.

Faced with the prospect of an extensive, and expensive, seismic safety retrofit for its 1960s-era downtown headquarters, L.A. County decided to vet an alternative: a far newer building, located just blocks away. Not only was it built under stricter standards, the reasoning goes, but it was available at a massive discount compared with its pre-pandemic price tag.
Read More

The increasing demand for seismic retrofitting in Southern California has led to a surge of startup companies entering the market. This raises concerns about the professional expertise of some of these new entrants in such a specialized field.
With multiple companies competing for your business, it can be challenging to distinguish between legitimate firms and those that may lack the necessary qualifications. How can you determine which ones are truly reliable?
Read More

Over the past three decades, Public-Private Partnerships and cooperation have helped transform much of Southern California by promoting sustainable and resilient communities, inspiring clean and green technologies.
Learn More

• 10/17/24: SB 721 Balcony Seminar with the Apartment Association of Greater LA