Recent Earthquakes
on apr. January 5, 2010, is Easter Sunday in San Diego and on the day you probably least expect, a 7.2 earthquake. The epicenter was recorded in Mexicali, Mexico. Since the quake hit, there were reports of about 19 aftershocks ranging from 3.5 to 5.1. The strong earthquake shook structures from Los Angeles to Tijuana, killing two people in Mexico, darkening metropolitan areas, forcing the total evacuation of hospitals and nursing facilities, as well as causing the closure of a California border area in the center of the city. People from San Diego, as well as from Los Angeles to Phoenix, AZ and Las Vegas, NV experienced the earthquake on different levels. This has been one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit Southern California in many decades. The earthquake had been felt more strongly throughout Mexicali.
On December 26, 2004, the giant forces that had been building deep within the Earth for more than 100 years were abruptly released, shaking the ground violently and unleashing a series of killer waves that traveled across the Indian Ocean to the speed of a jet plane. By the end of the day, more than 150,000 people were dead or missing and millions more had been left homeless in 11 countries, making it perhaps the most damaging tsunami in history. The epicenter of the magnitude 9.0 quake appeared to be under the Indian Ocean near the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, according to the USGS, which monitors earthquakes around the world. The violent movements of sections of the Earth’s crust, known as tectonic plates, displaced a massive amount of water, sending tremendous shock waves in all directions. The actual earthquake appeared to have been widely experienced in Sumatra, the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. According to the US Geological Survey, the magnitude of the earthquake was unfortunately greater than the Richter magnitude which appeared to be 9.0. Such a magnitude would make this earthquake the fourth largest in the world since 1900 and the largest since the Alaska earthquake in 1964.
On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 pm Pacific Time, millions of viewers around the world were settling in for Game 3 of the World Series. And surprisingly, instead, people watched their own televisions go black as tremors hit San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. Although the earthquake was centered in a rural section of the Santa Cruz hills 100 km to the south, significant damage occurred in the San Francisco Marine District from the Loma Prieta earthquake. Essentially, the most tragic result of the violent tremor appeared to be the collapse of some double-deck sections of Interstate 880. The ground movements caused the upper deck to sway, breaking the columns of the concrete structure along one section. one mile from the interstate. The top of the platform then collapsed onto the lower roadway, crushing the cars like aluminum cans. This earthquake, known as the Loma Prieta tremor after the point of origin, claimed 67 lives.
In mid-January 1994, less than five years after the Loma Prieta earthquake devastated parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, a major earthquake hit the Northridge area of Los Angeles. Although it was not the legendary “Big”, this moderate earthquake of magnitude 6.7 left 57 dead, more than 5,000 seriously injured and thousands of people without water or electricity. Damage exceeded $40 billion and appeared to be attributed to a previously undiscovered fault which itself ruptured eighteen kilometers (11 mi) below Northridge.
Seismic activity has forced more and more people to prepare for possibly the “Big One” that has been talked about for years. The idea seems to have been suggested recently that a major earthquake could hit California in the near future. Although there may be no real evidence of this happening, recent earthquake activity cannot be ignored.