Earthquake Essay

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In the early morning hours on January 17th, 1994 a very violent tremble took place across Los Angeles, California area that left fifty-seven people dead, more than 7,000 injured, more than 20,000 homeless and left over 40,000 buildings damaged. Around 4:30 a.m. a horrific 6.7 magnitude earthquake, that tested building codes and earthquake-resistant construction, shook Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, and Orange Counties with the most intense damage occurring in Sherman Oaks and Northridge. The earthquake caused several bridges and overpasses to collapse closing sections of the Santa Monica Freeway, Simi Valley Freeway, Golden State Freeway, and the Antelope Valley Freeway. There were also several fire outbreaks throughout the San Fernando Valley, Malibu, and Venice area because of underground gas lines that had been ruptured during the earthquake that caused additional damage. The 6.7 magnitude earthquake was felt throughout most of southern California and as far away as Utah and Mexico with a max acceleration of 1.0g in several different areas and the highest at Tarzana with a recorded value of 1.8g. The earthquake also deformed over 1500 square miles of the Earth’s crust, forcing the surface upward in a dome shape. The Susana Mountains sustained the most soil deformation with an uplift of around 15cm causing numerous rockslides, blocking many roadways. Soil liquefaction was observed in the Simi Valley area and other parts of the Los Angeles Basin. After all the term oil ended the preliminary cost estimate of damage was between 15 and 20 billion U.S. dollars. Today, Geologists remain to search for thrust faults throughout the southern California area by using a 3 dimensional modeling system to view folds and upli... ... middle of paper ... ... although we may never be able to understand exactly what soil failures can occur when a natural disasters take place, as time goes on and testing instruments and materials advance we will hopefully have a better understanding of what we can do to avoid soil failures and come up with a better and more sufficient method of improving the soils structure and strength permanently. While researching the information for this report I feel I have a much better understanding for construction geo-technics and foundations especially regarding the deformation, liquefaction and pile information related to this specific event. I hope to carry the information I have learned from this event into the construction field and apply them towards an authentic project that’s taking place and know that the information, regarding soils, I have given input on will be precise and accurate.

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