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Earthquakes During The 1960s And 1970s: A Case Study

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To better prepare for earthquake hazards, scientists researched predicting earthquakes during the 1960s and 1970s. If timing and location were known, then a warning could be issued to evacuate the affected area. Predictors included changes in background radon gas emissions and animal behavior (Kerr, 2011). Those efforts showed inconclusive results and scientists turned to forecasting through probability statistics based on the Parkfield earthquake in 2004 (Kerr, 2011). For seismic events, forecasting assumes two things: 1) that stress and strain on a fault are constant; 2) what has occurred in the past will happen again. Looking at recurrence events in the documented past allows seismologists to calculate recurrence intervals of earthquakes. …show more content…

In 2012, Caltech and UC Berkeley along with USGS developed and earthquake early warning system called ShakeAlert for California and the West Coast of the United States. The goal is to warn the public of a large earthquake, usually a magnitude 3.0 and above, through a public alert system.
Seismic forecasting is not like weather forecasting where satellites and radar can “see” in advance of a storm. Seismologist are unable to “see” into the earth and observe pressure or strain accumulating in the crust. What they can do is make use of seismometers that passively record ground motion in the form of seismic waves. Improving software and telemetry from a network, seismologists on the West Coast of the United States are testing earthquake early warning. Earthquake early warning systems are the best tool that seismologists have to forewarn the public when an earthquake will arrive, but only after the fault has slipped. When a fault slips, two types of waves are generated, the primary wave and the secondary wave. The system detects the arrival of the p-wave first that carries less energy. It is the secondary wave that carries more energy and the “strong shaking” that causes the most damage. Depending on where the seismometers and earthquakes are located, an alert can give at least several seconds warning prior to the arrival of the s-wave. A forewarning of even a few seconds could give people time to drop, cover and hold on (PNSN

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The text asserts that there were no sweeping fires to blame, only the earthquake. This event led to the first major legislative initiative in California to recognize seismic issues: the Field Act of 1933. Steinberg contends that although this was a step in the right direction, seismic enlightenment was still difficult. The author notes that regardless of awareness, many built in areas vulnerable to harmful seismic activity (i.e. near fault lines). The author also states that California is not the only area prone to earthquakes and that typically the poor suffer more from these events wherever they happen.

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However, some strides are being made to better prepare for earthquakes and tsunamis. As of this year, the Pacific Northwest’s warning system for earthquakes is getting its first public test. The Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) was introduced during a workshop in February as a potential emergency planning and response system. Now it is going to be introduced to the public in preparations for any upcoming earthquakes. Similar systems are used around the globe and been proven to be extremely effective.

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However, peculiarities of the lithosphere of the city can scare the newcomer. The city of San Francisco is in a high seismic activity zone, as very close are faults the San - Andreas (along the San Francisco Peninsula) and Hayward (on the eastern side of the bay). Small tremors come here often enough, but twice throughout its history (1906 and 1989) the city suffered the earthquake damage. The territory of San Francisco is a difficult terrain, as it has about fifty hills.

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The Hayward Fault is such a concern because of fault plane is not locked, and the stress caused by the fault is making walls and sidewalks become offset. Because of the lack of large earthquake activity since 1868, the predictions that an earthquake will occur become more likely. The best thing for people to do is be prepared and alert in case of a large magnitude earthquake. Scientists should continue their close monitoring of the earthquake, so that proper notification or warnings can be given to the public. Scientists or people cannot prevent earthquakes, but advance preparation and safety measures can help make sure cities are not taken by surprise when the earthquake takes place.

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Using scientific tools to measure certain signs, like small shocks being sensed by today’s seismic sensors to indicate an earthquake.

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My hypothesis, “If we experiment with a slinky to test the speed of S and P waves then the speed of the S and P waves will not be accurate to motion of S and P waves in the real world earthquakes because of the friction from the slinky”, was correct. In an earthquake P waves travel through the earth faster, as P waves can travel through solid rock as well as liquids such as liquid magma underneath the earth’s surface. S waves only move through solid rock, which means that the energy from the fault takes longer to reach the surface of the earth. The data gathered proves that although in real world earthquakes, P waves move through the earth faster than S waves, because of the smooth surface of the slinky, the S waves were able to move across

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Classifying earthquakes was not an easy task, but thankfully, someone persevered long enough to develop a tool to do exactly that. Charles Richter, an expert seismologist, spent valuable hours creating a device which organizes earthquakes by their size. Charles Francis Richter was born on a farm in Hamilton, Ohio on April 26, 1900. His parents were divorced while he was young, so he grew up with his grandfather who moved the family to Los Angeles in 1909. While in Southern California, “Richter went to a preparatory school associated with the University of Southern California, where he spent his freshman year in college”

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Many people think that earthquakes are a bunch of shaking that causes damage, but it is more than that. Earthquakes are made up of P-waves and S-waves. P-waves and S-waves can be very different but also similar. P-waves are very different compared to S-waves. P-waves are also known as primary waves because they are the first waves that hit.

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Seismographs are an invention that has been used to detect the time and wave arrival times of seismic waves. Earthquakes often happen in similar locations. These seismographs, created after World War II, are able to detect Body waves and surface waves. When looking at a map of where earthquakes occur, the happen to happen around the same areas, almost creating boundaries. The lines earthquakes create make sense because of plate tectonics.

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The two main ways of detecting future eruptions is the amount of earthquakes and the magma. Hydrophones, Robotic Submersibles, Sonar, Seismic Analysis, are the technology that they use. The Seamount has erupted in 1998, 2011, and again in 2015. A caldera is a large crater that’s volcanic.

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The principles explain that the earthquakes come under the continuous and long active faults from past earthquakes that had associated style offsets in faults. The occurrence of the earthquake would come from a platform of a long-term accumulation of the elastic strain and its instant

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In 2007, Dr Christian Klose, from Columbia’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory presented a new theory that the earthquake was prompted by two hundred years of coalmining. Dr Klose theorised that because of coalmining, stress in the Earth’s crust started to change and over time this caused the tremor. Another Australian report pointed out other factors that may have contributed to the unfortunate natural disaster. It mentioned that minor tremors in the nearby Hunter Valley region prior to the Newcastle Earthquake might have created a fault line that led to the earthquake. Australian Geo-scientists disagree with Dr Klose’s theory and say that because the epicentre of the earthquake was too deep underground, it is not likely to the caused by extensive coalmining.

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One con of attempting to forecast earthquakes is if it is not correct at all. Another con of attempting to forecast earthquake is if nobody has any idea or knowledge about earthquakes. Another con is that no one will listen to just any information. Should governments restrict use of land susceptible to earthquake effects? Personally, I believe it would be practical not to build places like

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An earthquake is a serious manner in which no one should take lightly. This earthquake was notable for its incongruity: it was one of the most powerful to hit New York City in decades, and yet it caused little damage. The likelihood of an earthquake in the New York metropolitan area has been assessed as ‘‘moderate’’ (Tantala, 2008, p. 812). However, New York City has experienced already three earthquakes and what are going to be the odds for another earthquake happening soon.

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Animals usually do very strange things when there is going to be an earthquake. And that is how some people predict when an earthquake is going to strike. There are researchers and scientists in China that are trying to figure out how unusual animal behavior can be used to predict earthquakes. They have no doubt that animals can predict earthquakes because they have seen all kinds of evidence from animals all over China. The Chinese scientists have made surveys for strange animal behavior before an earthquake.

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