O terramoto de Northridge foi há trinta e dois anos...

   

The Northridge earthquake was a massive earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 04:31 Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, lasting for about 10–20 seconds. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6.7, but the ground acceleration was one of the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America, measuring 1.7 g (16.7 m/s²) with strong ground motion felt as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada, over 270 miles (435 km) from the epicenter. The death toll came to a total of 57 people, and there were over 8,700 injured. In addition, the earthquake caused an estimated $20 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

           

       
Epicenter

The earthquake struck in the San Fernando Valley about 20 miles (31 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles near the community of Northridge. The actual epicenter of the quake was in Reseda, near the intersection of Reseda Boulevard and Strathern Street. However, it took several days to pinpoint the epicenter with accuracy, and in the meantime the media had already dubbed it "The Northridge Earthquake." The name stuck, in part due to the extensive damage and loss of life in Northridge. The National Geophysical Data Center places the hypocenter's geographical coordinates at 34°12′47″N 118°32′13″W and a depth of 17 km (10.56 mi). Despite the area's proximity to the San Andreas Fault, the Northridge quake did not occur along this fault, but rather on the previously undiscovered Northridge blind thrust fault (also known as the Pico thrust fault).

    

Kaiser Permanente building in Granada Hills

   
Damage and fatalities

Damage occurred up to 85 miles (125 km) away, with the most damage in the west San Fernando Valley, and the cities of Santa Monica, Simi Valley and Santa Clarita. The number of fatalities is not certain, with sources estimating it at 60 or "over 60", to 72, where most estimates fall around 60. The "official" death toll was placed at 57. 33 people died immediately or within a few days from injuries sustained in the earthquake, and many died from indirect causes, such as stress-induced cardiac events. Some counts factor in related events such as a man's suicide possibly inspired by the loss of his business in the disaster.

More than 8,700 were injured including 1,600 that required hospitalization. The Northridge Meadows apartment complex was one of the well-known affected areas in which sixteen people were killed as a result of the building's collapse. The Northridge Fashion Center and California State University, Northridge also sustained very heavy damage—most notably, the collapse of parking structures. The earthquake also gained worldwide attention because of damage to the vast freeway network, which serves millions of commuters every day. The most notable of this damage was to the Santa Monica Freeway, Interstate 10, known as the busiest freeway in the United States, congesting nearby surface roads for three months while the freeway was repaired. Further north, Interstate 5 (the Golden State Freeway) and State Route 14 (the Antelope Valley Freeway) collapsed and had to be rebuilt. The Newhall Pass interchange of Interstate 5 and State Route 14 collapsed as it had 23 years earlier during the 1971 Sylmar earthquake even though it had been rebuilt with improved structural components.One life was lost in the Newhall Pass interchange collapse: LAPD motorcycle officer Clarence W. Dean fell 40 feet from the damaged connector from southbound 14 to southbound I-5 along with his motorcycle. Because of the early morning darkness, he was unaware that the elevated roadway beneath him had dropped, and was unable to stop in time to avoid the fall and died instantly. When the interchange was rebuilt again one year later, it was renamed the Clarence Wayne Dean Memorial Interchange in his honor.

Additional damage occurred about 50 miles (80 km) southeast in Anaheim as the scoreboard at Anaheim Stadium collapsed onto several hundred seats. The stadium was empty at the time. Although several commercial buildings also collapsed, loss of life was minimized because of the early morning hour of the quake, and because it occurred on a Federal holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day). Also, because of known seismic activity in California, area building codes dictate that buildings incorporate structural design intended to withstand earthquakes. However, the damage caused by the earthquake revealed that some structural specifications did not perform as well as expected. Because of this building codes were revised. Some structures were not red-tagged until months after the earthquake because damage was not immediately apparent.

The quake produced unusually strong ground accelerations in the range of 1.0 g. Damage was also caused by fire and landslides. The Northridge earthquake was notable for striking almost the same area as the M_W 6.6 San Fernando (Sylmar) Earthquake. Some estimates of total damage range as high as $25 billion.

Most casualties and damage occurred in multi-story wood frame buildings (e.g. the three-story Northridge Meadows apartment building). In particular, buildings with an unsteady first floor (such as those with parking areas on the bottom) performed poorly. Numerous fires were also caused by broken gas pipes due to houses shifting off foundations or unsecured water heaters falling over. In the San Fernando Valley, several underground gas and water mains were severed, resulting in some streets experiencing simultaneous fires and floods. As is common in earthquakes, unreinforced masonry buildings and houses on steep slopes suffered damage. However, school buildings (K-12), which are required to be reinforced against earthquakes, in general survived fairly well.

    

Collapse of the Golden State Freeway

    

 in Wikipédia

O sismo de Loma Prieta foi há trinta e seis anos...

  

O Sismo de Loma Prieta de 1989 ocorreu na região da área da baía de São Francisco, na Califórnia, Estados Unidos, no dia 17 de outubro de 1989, às 17.04, hora local (00.04 UTC no dia 18), e teve magnitude de 6,9 na escala de magnitude de momento (Mw). O epicentro foi a 16 km a nordeste de Santa Cruz, numa secção na falha de Santo André na montanha de Loma Prieta (que deu o nome ao sismo), localizada ao longo das Montanhas de Santa Cruz. Teve duração de 8 a 15 segundos e o hipocentro foi a uma profundidade de 19 km. Causou a morte de 63 pessoas e outras 3.757 ficaram feridas. O prejuízo total foi de cerca de 5,6 a 6 mil milhões de dólares.

O terramoto ficou mais conhecido por ser o primeiro sismo da era moderna com epicentro nos Estados Unidos a ser transmitido ao vivo, em rede nacional, por uma emissora de televisão no país, a American Broadcasting Company (ABC), devido ao jogo n.º 3 da World Series da Major League Baseball de 1989 que estava para ser iniciado no Candlestick Park, e por coincidência, tinha como finalistas as duas equipas da área da baía de São Francisco (região atingida pelo tremor de terra), os San Francisco Giants e os Oakland Athletics. 

 

  

 

in Wikipédia

O Sismo de Baja California foi há quinze anos

 

Magnitude	7.2  MW
Data	4 de abril de 2010
Zonas atingidas	México  Estados Unidos
Vítimas	2 mortos, mais de 200 feridos

O Sismo de Baja California de 2010 ocorreu no estado mexicano de Baja California a 4 de abril de 2010, às 22.40 (UTC). O hipocentro do sismo situou-se a 10 quilómetros de profundidade e o epicentro localizou-se nas coordenadas 32.1° N, 115.3° W, a 60 quilómetros a sudeste da capital do estado, Mexicali, perto da fronteira com os Estados Unidos da América, numa zona onde vivem 900 mil habitantes, e a cerca de 175 quilómetros a leste-sudeste de Tijuana, onde o sismo foi sentido por cerca de 40 segundos, fazendo tremer alguns prédios e provocando o corte de energia elétrica nalgumas áreas da cidade.

Inicialmente o Serviço Geológico dos Estados Unidos indicou a magnitude do sismo como sendo de 6,9, mas posteriormente modificou para 7,2 graus .

Este sismo foi o mais forte registado na região desde 1992, quando outro abalo atingiu uma magnitude de 7,3 na escala de Richter. 

 

in Wikipédia

O sismo de Northridge foi há trinta e um anos...

The Northridge earthquake was a massive earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 04:31 Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, lasting for about 10–20 seconds. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6.7, but the ground acceleration was one of the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America, measuring 1.7 g (16.7 m/s²) with strong ground motion felt as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada, over 270 miles (435 km) from the epicenter. The death toll came to a total of 57 people, and there were over 8,700 injured. In addition, the earthquake caused an estimated $20 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

        

   
Epicenter

The earthquake struck in the San Fernando Valley about 20 miles (31 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles near the community of Northridge. The actual epicenter of the quake was in Reseda, near the intersection of Reseda Boulevard and Strathern Street. However, it took several days to pinpoint the epicenter with accuracy, and in the meantime the media had already dubbed it "The Northridge Earthquake." The name stuck, in part due to the extensive damage and loss of life in Northridge. The National Geophysical Data Center places the hypocenter's geographical coordinates at 34°12′47″N 118°32′13″W and a depth of 17 km (10.56 mi). Despite the area's proximity to the San Andreas Fault, the Northridge quake did not occur along this fault, but rather on the previously undiscovered Northridge blind thrust fault (also known as the Pico thrust fault).

    

Kaiser Permanente building in Granada Hills

   
Damage and fatalities

Damage occurred up to 85 miles (125 km) away, with the most damage in the west San Fernando Valley, and the cities of Santa Monica, Simi Valley and Santa Clarita. The number of fatalities is not certain, with sources estimating it at 60 or "over 60", to 72, where most estimates fall around 60. The "official" death toll was placed at 57. 33 people died immediately or within a few days from injuries sustained in the earthquake, and many died from indirect causes, such as stress-induced cardiac events. Some counts factor in related events such as a man's suicide possibly inspired by the loss of his business in the disaster.

More than 8,700 were injured including 1,600 that required hospitalization. The Northridge Meadows apartment complex was one of the well-known affected areas in which sixteen people were killed as a result of the building's collapse. The Northridge Fashion Center and California State University, Northridge also sustained very heavy damage—most notably, the collapse of parking structures. The earthquake also gained worldwide attention because of damage to the vast freeway network, which serves millions of commuters every day. The most notable of this damage was to the Santa Monica Freeway, Interstate 10, known as the busiest freeway in the United States, congesting nearby surface roads for three months while the freeway was repaired. Further north, Interstate 5 (the Golden State Freeway) and State Route 14 (the Antelope Valley Freeway) collapsed and had to be rebuilt. The Newhall Pass interchange of Interstate 5 and State Route 14 collapsed as it had 23 years earlier during the 1971 Sylmar earthquake even though it had been rebuilt with improved structural components.One life was lost in the Newhall Pass interchange collapse: LAPD motorcycle officer Clarence W. Dean fell 40 feet from the damaged connector from southbound 14 to southbound I-5 along with his motorcycle. Because of the early morning darkness, he was unaware that the elevated roadway beneath him had dropped, and was unable to stop in time to avoid the fall and died instantly. When the interchange was rebuilt again one year later, it was renamed the Clarence Wayne Dean Memorial Interchange in his honor.

Additional damage occurred about 50 miles (80 km) southeast in Anaheim as the scoreboard at Anaheim Stadium collapsed onto several hundred seats. The stadium was empty at the time. Although several commercial buildings also collapsed, loss of life was minimized because of the early morning hour of the quake, and because it occurred on a Federal holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day). Also, because of known seismic activity in California, area building codes dictate that buildings incorporate structural design intended to withstand earthquakes. However, the damage caused by the earthquake revealed that some structural specifications did not perform as well as expected. Because of this building codes were revised. Some structures were not red-tagged until months after the earthquake because damage was not immediately apparent.

The quake produced unusually strong ground accelerations in the range of 1.0 g. Damage was also caused by fire and landslides. The Northridge earthquake was notable for striking almost the same area as the M_W 6.6 San Fernando (Sylmar) Earthquake. Some estimates of total damage range as high as $25 billion.

Most casualties and damage occurred in multi-story wood frame buildings (e.g. the three-story Northridge Meadows apartment building). In particular, buildings with an unsteady first floor (such as those with parking areas on the bottom) performed poorly. Numerous fires were also caused by broken gas pipes due to houses shifting off foundations or unsecured water heaters falling over. In the San Fernando Valley, several underground gas and water mains were severed, resulting in some streets experiencing simultaneous fires and floods. As is common in earthquakes, unreinforced masonry buildings and houses on steep slopes suffered damage. However, school buildings (K-12), which are required to be reinforced against earthquakes, in general survived fairly well.

    

Collapse of the Golden State Freeway

  

 

 in Wikipédia

O sismo de Loma Prieta foi há trinta e cinco anos...

  

O Sismo de Loma Prieta de 1989 ocorreu na região da área da baía de São Francisco, na Califórnia, Estados Unidos, no dia 17 de outubro de 1989, às 17.04, hora local (00.04 UTC no dia 18), e teve magnitude de 6,9 na escala de magnitude de momento (Mw). O epicentro foi a 16 km a nordeste de Santa Cruz, numa secção na Falha de Santo André na montanha de Loma Prieta (que deu o nome ao sismo), localizada ao longo das Montanhas de Santa Cruz. Teve duração de 8 a 15 segundos e o hipocentro foi a uma profundidade de 19 km. Causou a morte de 63 pessoas e outras 3.757 ficaram feridas. O prejuízo total foi de cerca de 5,6 a 6 mil milhões de dólares.

O terramoto ficou mais conhecido por ser o primeiro sismo da era moderna com epicentro nos Estados Unidos a ser transmitido ao vivo, em rede nacional, por uma emissora de televisão no país, a American Broadcasting Company (ABC), devido ao jogo n.º 3 da World Series da Major League Baseball de 1989 que estava para ser iniciado no Candlestick Park, e por coincidência, tinha como finalistas as duas equipas da área da baía de São Francisco (região atingida pelo tremor de terra), os San Francisco Giants e os Oakland Athletics. 

 

  

 

in Wikipédia

Há uma secção da falha de Santo André pronta a fazer estragos...

Sismólogos suspeitam que terramoto na falha de San Andreas está iminente

 

Falha de San Andreas, na Califórnia

 

Um novo estudo conduzido por sismólogos italianos e norte-americanos sugere que uma parte da Falha de San Andreas, em Parkfield, na Califórnia, não está a dar sinais que sugiram que um terramoto vai ocorrer em breve - mas afirmam que há fatores que sugerem o contrário.

 

Apesar de haver “parâmetros atenuantes invulgares”, os sismólogos Luca Malagnini, do Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, em Itália, e Robert Nadeau e Tom Parsons, da Universidade da Califórnia, suspeitam que um terramoto na Falha de San Andreas pode estar iminente.

As suspeitas dos três sismólogos são apresentadas num artigo científico recentemente publicado na revista Frontiers in Earth Science.

A parte da Falha de San Andreas situada perto de Parkfield, na Califórnia, oferece aos cientistas que estudam os terramotos uma oportunidade única: a norte de Parkfield, duas grandes placas deslocam-se uma contra a outra a um ritmo constante. A sul de Parkfield, por outro lado, a falha está bloqueada.

Esta circunstância, explica o Phys, leva a que os terramotos ocorram com um padrão: aproximadamente a cada 22 anos, e permite aos investigadores recolher dados sísmicos antes, durante e depois de um terramoto.

Esses terramotos também têm quase sempre a mesma magnitude, cerca de 6 na Escala de Richter, ou ligeiramente superior.

O último terramoto que ocorreu no local foi em 2004, o que sugere que deverá ocorrer um terramoto nos próximos dois anos. Mas há um problema – a atividade sísmica relacionada com a falha não indica quaisquer sinais de um terramoto.

Normalmente, observam os autores do estudo, as ondas de baixa frequência atenuam-se antes de um terramoto, enquanto as ondas de alta frequência aumentam. Mas, neste momento, não há sinais de nenhum destes fenómenos.

Os investigadores salientam que o último terramoto que aconteceu na área ocorreu com um atraso com cerca de 14 anos de atraso.

Este atraso, no entanto, deveu-se essencialmente ao facto de outros sismos terem ocorrido suficientemente perto para aliviar a pressão sobre Parkfield - o que não é o caso desta vez.

Os três sismólogos acreditam que a pressão tectónica em zonas próximas da falha poder provocar brevemente um terramoto, mas com um epicentro algo deslocado.

Os investigadores não têm porém confiança absoluta nas suas leituras, pelo que optaram por não apresentar previsões formais. Em vez disso, sugerem que, como é sempre o caso com os terramotos, esperemos para ver o que acontece.

Felizmente, “esperar para ver o que acontece” não é neste caso um grande problema. Ao contrário da densamente povoada região de São Francisco, a cidade inquieta que está sempre à espera do “Big One”, quase ninguém vive em Parkfield.

in ZAP

 

O Sismo de Baja California foi há catorze anos

 

Magnitude	7.2  MW
Data	4 de abril de 2010
Zonas atingidas	México  Estados Unidos
Vítimas	2 mortos, mais de 200 feridos

O Sismo de Baja California de 2010 ocorreu no estado mexicano de Baja California a 4 de abril de 2010, às 22.40 (UTC). O hipocentro do sismo situou-se a 10 quilómetros de profundidade e o epicentro localizou-se nas coordenadas 32.1° N, 115.3° W, a 60 quilómetros a sudeste da capital do estado, Mexicali, perto da fronteira com os Estados Unidos da América, numa zona onde vivem 900 mil habitantes, e a cerca de 175 quilómetros a leste-sudeste de Tijuana, onde o sismo foi sentido por cerca de 40 segundos, fazendo tremer alguns prédios e provocando o corte de energia elétrica nalgumas áreas da cidade.

Inicialmente o Serviço Geológico dos Estados Unidos indicou a magnitude do sismo como sendo de 6,9, mas posteriormente modificou para 7,2 graus .

Este sismo foi o mais forte registado na região desde 1992, quando outro abalo atingiu uma magnitude de 7,3 na escala de Richter. 

 

in Wikipédia

O sismo de Northridge foi há trinta anos...

The Northridge earthquake was a massive earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 04:31 Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, lasting for about 10–20 seconds. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6.7, but the ground acceleration was one of the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America, measuring 1.7 g (16.7 m/s²) with strong ground motion felt as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada, over 270 miles (435 km) from the epicenter. The death toll came to a total of 57 people, and there were over 8,700 injured. In addition, the earthquake caused an estimated $20 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

        

   
Epicenter

The earthquake struck in the San Fernando Valley about 20 miles (31 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles near the community of Northridge. The actual epicenter of the quake was in Reseda, near the intersection of Reseda Boulevard and Strathern Street. However, it took several days to pinpoint the epicenter with accuracy, and in the meantime the media had already dubbed it "The Northridge Earthquake." The name stuck, in part due to the extensive damage and loss of life in Northridge. The National Geophysical Data Center places the hypocenter's geographical coordinates at 34°12′47″N 118°32′13″W and a depth of 17 km (10.56 mi). Despite the area's proximity to the San Andreas Fault, the Northridge quake did not occur along this fault, but rather on the previously undiscovered Northridge blind thrust fault (also known as the Pico thrust fault).

    

Kaiser Permanente building in Granada Hills

   
Damage and fatalities

Damage occurred up to 85 miles (125 km) away, with the most damage in the west San Fernando Valley, and the cities of Santa Monica, Simi Valley and Santa Clarita. The number of fatalities is not certain, with sources estimating it at 60 or "over 60", to 72, where most estimates fall around 60. The "official" death toll was placed at 57. 33 people died immediately or within a few days from injuries sustained in the earthquake, and many died from indirect causes, such as stress-induced cardiac events. Some counts factor in related events such as a man's suicide possibly inspired by the loss of his business in the disaster.

More than 8,700 were injured including 1,600 that required hospitalization. The Northridge Meadows apartment complex was one of the well-known affected areas in which sixteen people were killed as a result of the building's collapse. The Northridge Fashion Center and California State University, Northridge also sustained very heavy damage—most notably, the collapse of parking structures. The earthquake also gained worldwide attention because of damage to the vast freeway network, which serves millions of commuters every day. The most notable of this damage was to the Santa Monica Freeway, Interstate 10, known as the busiest freeway in the United States, congesting nearby surface roads for three months while the freeway was repaired. Further north, Interstate 5 (the Golden State Freeway) and State Route 14 (the Antelope Valley Freeway) collapsed and had to be rebuilt. The Newhall Pass interchange of Interstate 5 and State Route 14 collapsed as it had 23 years earlier during the 1971 Sylmar earthquake even though it had been rebuilt with improved structural components.One life was lost in the Newhall Pass interchange collapse: LAPD motorcycle officer Clarence W. Dean fell 40 feet from the damaged connector from southbound 14 to southbound I-5 along with his motorcycle. Because of the early morning darkness, he was unaware that the elevated roadway beneath him had dropped, and was unable to stop in time to avoid the fall and died instantly. When the interchange was rebuilt again one year later, it was renamed the Clarence Wayne Dean Memorial Interchange in his honor.

Additional damage occurred about 50 miles (80 km) southeast in Anaheim as the scoreboard at Anaheim Stadium collapsed onto several hundred seats. The stadium was empty at the time. Although several commercial buildings also collapsed, loss of life was minimized because of the early morning hour of the quake, and because it occurred on a Federal holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day). Also, because of known seismic activity in California, area building codes dictate that buildings incorporate structural design intended to withstand earthquakes. However, the damage caused by the earthquake revealed that some structural specifications did not perform as well as expected. Because of this building codes were revised. Some structures were not red-tagged until months after the earthquake because damage was not immediately apparent.

The quake produced unusually strong ground accelerations in the range of 1.0 g. Damage was also caused by fire and landslides. The Northridge earthquake was notable for striking almost the same area as the M_W 6.6 San Fernando (Sylmar) Earthquake. Some estimates of total damage range as high as $25 billion.

Most casualties and damage occurred in multi-story wood frame buildings (e.g. the three-story Northridge Meadows apartment building). In particular, buildings with an unsteady first floor (such as those with parking areas on the bottom) performed poorly. Numerous fires were also caused by broken gas pipes due to houses shifting off foundations or unsecured water heaters falling over. In the San Fernando Valley, several underground gas and water mains were severed, resulting in some streets experiencing simultaneous fires and floods. As is common in earthquakes, unreinforced masonry buildings and houses on steep slopes suffered damage. However, school buildings (K-12), which are required to be reinforced against earthquakes, in general survived fairly well.

    

Collapse of the Golden State Freeway

  

 

 in Wikipédia

O sismo de Loma Prieta foi há trinta e quatro anos...

  

O Sismo de Loma Prieta de 1989 ocorreu na região da área da baía de São Francisco, na Califórnia, Estados Unidos, no dia 17 de outubro de 1989, às 17.04, hora local (00.04 UTC no dia 18), e teve magnitude de 6,9 na escala de magnitude de momento (Mw). O epicentro foi a 16 km a nordeste de Santa Cruz, numa secção na Falha de Santo André na montanha de Loma Prieta (que deu o nome ao sismo), localizada ao longo das Montanhas de Santa Cruz. Teve duração de 8 a 15 segundos e o hipocentro foi a uma profundidade de 19 km. Causou a morte de 63 pessoas e outras 3.757 ficaram feridas. O prejuízo total foi de cerca de 5,6 a 6 mil milhões de dólares.

O terramoto ficou mais conhecido por ser o primeiro sismo da era moderna com epicentro nos Estados Unidos a ser transmitido ao vivo, em rede nacional, por uma emissora de televisão no país, a American Broadcasting Company (ABC), devido ao jogo n.º 3 da World Series da Major League Baseball de 1989 que estava para ser iniciado no Candlestick Park, e por coincidência, tinha como finalistas as duas equipas da área da baía de São Francisco (região atingida pelo tremor de terra), os San Francisco Giants e os Oakland Athletics. 

 

  

 

in Wikipédia

O Sismo de Baja California foi há treze anos

 

Magnitude	7.2  MW
Data	4 de abril de 2010
Zonas atingidas	México  Estados Unidos
Vítimas	2 mortos, mais de 200 feridos

O Sismo de Baja California de 2010 ocorreu no estado mexicano de Baja California em 4 de abril de 2010, às 22h40min (UTC). O hipocentro do sismo situou-se a 10 quilómetros de profundidade e o epicentro localizou-se nas coordenadas 32.1° N, 115.3° W, a 60 quilómetros a sudeste da capital do estado, Mexicali, perto da fronteira com os Estados Unidos da América, numa zona onde vivem 900 mil habitantes, e a cerca de 175 quilómetros a leste-sudeste de Tijuana, onde o sismo foi sentido por cerca de 40 segundos, fazendo tremer alguns prédios e provocando o corte de energia elétrica nalgumas áreas da cidade.

Inicialmente o Serviço Geológico dos Estados Unidos indicou a magnitude do sismo como sendo de 6,9, mas posteriormente modificou para 7,2 graus .

Este sismo foi o mais forte registado na região desde 1992, quando outro abalo atingiu uma magnitude de 7,3 na escala de Richter. 

 

in Wikipédia

O sismo de Northridge foi há 29 anos...

     

The Northridge earthquake was a massive earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 04:31 Pacific Standard Time in Reseda, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, lasting for about 10–20 seconds. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6.7, but the ground acceleration was one of the highest ever instrumentally recorded in an urban area in North America, measuring 1.7 g (16.7 m/s²) with strong ground motion felt as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada, over 270 miles (435 km) from the epicenter. The death toll came to a total of 57 people, and there were over 8,700 injured. In addition, the earthquake caused an estimated $20 billion in damage, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.

        

   
Epicenter

The earthquake struck in the San Fernando Valley about 20 miles (31 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles near the community of Northridge. The actual epicenter of the quake was in Reseda, near the intersection of Reseda Boulevard and Strathern Street. However, it took several days to pinpoint the epicenter with accuracy, and in the meantime the media had already dubbed it "The Northridge Earthquake." The name stuck, in part due to the extensive damage and loss of life in Northridge. The National Geophysical Data Center places the hypocenter's geographical coordinates at 34°12′47″N 118°32′13″W and a depth of 17 km (10.56 mi). Despite the area's proximity to the San Andreas Fault, the Northridge quake did not occur along this fault, but rather on the previously undiscovered Northridge blind thrust fault (also known as the Pico thrust fault).

   

   
Damage and fatalities

Damage occurred up to 85 miles (125 km) away, with the most damage in the west San Fernando Valley, and the cities of Santa Monica, Simi Valley and Santa Clarita. The number of fatalities is not certain, with sources estimating it at 60 or "over 60", to 72, where most estimates fall around 60. The "official" death toll was placed at 57. 33 people died immediately or within a few days from injuries sustained in the earthquake, and many died from indirect causes, such as stress-induced cardiac events. Some counts factor in related events such as a man's suicide possibly inspired by the loss of his business in the disaster.

More than 8,700 were injured including 1,600 that required hospitalization. The Northridge Meadows apartment complex was one of the well-known affected areas in which sixteen people were killed as a result of the building's collapse. The Northridge Fashion Center and California State University, Northridge also sustained very heavy damage—most notably, the collapse of parking structures. The earthquake also gained worldwide attention because of damage to the vast freeway network, which serves millions of commuters every day. The most notable of this damage was to the Santa Monica Freeway, Interstate 10, known as the busiest freeway in the United States, congesting nearby surface roads for three months while the freeway was repaired. Further north, Interstate 5 (the Golden State Freeway) and State Route 14 (the Antelope Valley Freeway) collapsed and had to be rebuilt. The Newhall Pass interchange of Interstate 5 and State Route 14 collapsed as it had 23 years earlier during the 1971 Sylmar earthquake even though it had been rebuilt with improved structural components.One life was lost in the Newhall Pass interchange collapse: LAPD motorcycle officer Clarence W. Dean fell 40 feet from the damaged connector from southbound 14 to southbound I-5 along with his motorcycle. Because of the early morning darkness, he was unaware that the elevated roadway beneath him had dropped, and was unable to stop in time to avoid the fall and died instantly. When the interchange was rebuilt again one year later, it was renamed the Clarence Wayne Dean Memorial Interchange in his honor.

Additional damage occurred about 50 miles (80 km) southeast in Anaheim as the scoreboard at Anaheim Stadium collapsed onto several hundred seats. The stadium was empty at the time. Although several commercial buildings also collapsed, loss of life was minimized because of the early morning hour of the quake, and because it occurred on a Federal holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day). Also, because of known seismic activity in California, area building codes dictate that buildings incorporate structural design intended to withstand earthquakes. However, the damage caused by the earthquake revealed that some structural specifications did not perform as well as expected. Because of this building codes were revised. Some structures were not red-tagged until months after the earthquake because damage was not immediately apparent.

The quake produced unusually strong ground accelerations in the range of 1.0 g. Damage was also caused by fire and landslides. The Northridge earthquake was notable for striking almost the same area as the M_W 6.6 San Fernando (Sylmar) Earthquake. Some estimates of total damage range as high as $25 billion.

Most casualties and damage occurred in multi-story wood frame buildings (e.g. the three-story Northridge Meadows apartment building). In particular, buildings with an unsteady first floor (such as those with parking areas on the bottom) performed poorly. Numerous fires were also caused by broken gas pipes due to houses shifting off foundations or unsecured water heaters falling over. In the San Fernando Valley, several underground gas and water mains were severed, resulting in some streets experiencing simultaneous fires and floods. As is common in earthquakes, unreinforced masonry buildings and houses on steep slopes suffered damage. However, school buildings (K-12), which are required to be reinforced against earthquakes, in general survived fairly well.

    

  
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O sismo de Loma Prieta foi há trinta e três anos...

  

O Sismo de Loma Prieta de 1989 ocorreu na região da área da baía de São Francisco, na Califórnia, Estados Unidos, no dia 17 de outubro de 1989, às 17.04, hora local (00.04 UTC no dia 18), e teve magnitude de 6,9 na escala de magnitude de momento (Mw). O epicentro foi a 16 km a nordeste de Santa Cruz, numa secção na Falha de Santo André na montanha de Loma Prieta (que deu o nome ao sismo), localizada ao longo das Montanhas de Santa Cruz. Teve duração de 8 a 15 segundos e o hipocentro foi a uma profundidade de 19 km. Causou a morte de 63 pessoas e outras 3.757 ficaram feridas. O prejuízo total foi de cerca de 5,6 a 6 mil milhões de dólares.

O terramoto ficou mais conhecido por ser o primeiro sismo da era moderna com epicentro nos Estados Unidos a ser transmitido ao vivo, em rede nacional, por uma emissora de televisão no país, a American Broadcasting Company (ABC), devido ao jogo n.º 3 da World Series da Major League Baseball de 1989 que estava para ser iniciado no Candlestick Park, e por coincidência, tinha como finalistas as duas equipas da área da baía de São Francisco (região atingida pelo tremor de terra), os San Francisco Giants e os Oakland Athletics. 

 

  

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Há doze anos ocorreu o Sismo de Baja California

 

Magnitude	7.2  MW
Data	4 de abril de 2010
Zonas atingidas	México  Estados Unidos
Vítimas	2 mortos, mais de 200 feridos

O Sismo de Baja California de 2010 ocorreu no estado mexicano de Baja California em 4 de abril de 2010, às 22h40min (UTC). O hipocentro do sismo situou-se a 10 quilómetros de profundidade e o epicentro localizou-se nas coordenadas 32.1° N, 115.3° W, a 60 quilómetros a sudeste da capital do estado, Mexicali, perto da fronteira com os Estados Unidos da América, numa zona onde vivem 900 mil habitantes, e a cerca de 175 quilómetros a leste-sudeste de Tijuana, onde o sismo foi sentido por cerca de 40 segundos, fazendo tremer alguns prédios e provocando o corte de energia elétrica nalgumas áreas da cidade.

Inicialmente o Serviço Geológico dos Estados Unidos indicou a magnitude do sismo como sendo de 6,9, mas posteriormente modificou para 7,2 graus .

Este sismo foi o mais forte registado na região desde 1992, quando outro abalo atingiu uma magnitude de 7,3 na escala de Richter. 

 

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