Los Angeles Earthquake Blog

Solar Activity And Earthquakes

A solar flare. (Photo: NASA)

Greetings my readers, I'm back in Los Angeles for a few weeks before returning to Japan. Even though I'll be in Tokyo, I will continue to write about earthquake activity here in Los Angeles, as well as general emergency preparedness.

This year has brought us powerful earthquakes like those in New Zealand and in Japan. It's not unusual to have strong earthquakes every year, and countries like Japan and New Zealand sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire where frequent seismic activity occurs. But this year we've also had some very unusual seismic activity in the United States, very far from the ring of fire.

In Mineral, Virginia a 5.9 magnitude quake struck on August 23. The quake shook many parts of the East Coast including New York and Washington, DC -- all the way to Canada. It took everyone by surprise and it made headlines around the world. Though there are old faults beneath the area where the quake's epicenter was, no one really was expecting activity that strong.

This week we've had the unusual earthquakes in Oklahoma too. A 5.2 and 5.6 magnitude shook eastern Oklahoma, followed by a dozen of aftershocks. This unusually high seismic activity even has geologists from the USGS scratching their heads.

The Sun

I've been reading a lot about the link of earthquake activity and solar flares. This year, the sun has been quite active and it'll remain so until 2013. Some scientist insist that there is a correlation between earthquakes and powerful solar flares -- that when one of this flares explodes, an earthquake on Earth usually follows. Even Harvard is looking into this: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUSMIN33A..03J

Could powerful solar flares help predict earthquakes? My guess is no. An earthquake may indeed happen, but figuring out where is the problem.

Many believe that the sun's activity does have an effect on the Earth's electromagnetic field. According to a USGS page:

Electromagnetic variations have been observed after earthquakes for many years now, but What is less clear is whether or not there are detectable electro-magnetic precursors to earthquakes.

Can it be that the sun's influence on our planet's magnetism is the precursor? 

What we know for sure is that when the sun produces such strong flares, it can disturb communications on earth. Those satellites floating on the atmosphere are vulnerable to radiation and problems can happen. Some people would go as far as create doomsday scenerios of what would happen if a powerful solar flare explodes when facing the direction of Earth, but we really don't need mass hysteria.

Earthquakes influenced by the sun or not, it's important to know that Mother Nature can be unpredictable. Here in Southern California we don't know when a quake will hit, and most of us live our lives as if it will never happen. "Ignorance is bliss," right? But, living everyday ignoring the fact that there are dozens of active faults beneath us, is dangerous. 

If you haven't prepared your earthquake bag, stored water and food, and created an emergency plan for you and your family yet, get to it. Here is a good resource to get you started: ReadyLA.org

As always, I hope you enjoy this blog. It's reader supported, so please donate if you can. Until next time, please be and stay safe.

 

Unpreparedness in America: Who Will Help You?

 

No one can really say if we are living in a time of more news stories about natural disasters or if indeed we’re having more of them. The last decade was marked with hurricanes like Katrina and Rita and this decade started with major earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, New Zealand and Japan. In the US, tornado season started early this year and with quite a fury. What’s going on?

Global Warming?

In Japan, scientists see the culprit as global warming. At the earthquake memorial museum in Kobe where a major earthquake leveled the city in 1995, an exhibit plays a loop of video news footage of disasters that have struck different areas of the world since the 1980s. Hurricane Andrew is prominent and so are those California wildfires, volcano eruptions in places like the Philippines, etc. But most interestingly is a graph next to the huge plasma screen showing how the number of disasters has spiked since temperatures began to rise. The museum is funded by the Japanese government and no special interest seems to be behind the claim that weather is playing a role in all this.

Japan is well aware of its unfortunate geological position in the globe – sitting right where four major tectonic plates meet and making it the most earthquake–prone country in the world. This is why the government has spent a lot of money in educational programs to make its people aware of their place in the world. The government also continues to learn from past (and current) lessons and is working on improving emergency response time and investing more in preparedness. They know that more destruction from disasters will happen in the future, and they are constantly planning to minimize it.

The coast line along Tohoku that was hit by the March 11 tsunami following the 8.9 earthquake was not completely unprotected. In the past these same coasts had been hit by major tsunamis and the government took measures to protect its people from future tidal waves. People were asked to build their homes on higher ground and tall concrete walls were built along the shores to stop high waves from hitting the area, particularly in Iwate.

(Photo: A destroyed tsunami wall in Iwate Prefecture after the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Tohoku.)

Still, no one had predicted a tsunami like the one on March 11 – a monster tsunami that toppled concrete walls with waves as tall as 133 feet high. The end result was over 15,000 people dead, and 7,300 missing. But, the death toll would have been higher if the tsunami alert system had not worked as it did, helping to save thousands who moved to higher ground in a matter of minutes after the quake hit.

In America

Not all of the US has areas were natural disasters are likely to strike, but many cities and towns are vulnerable – rivers have flooded thousands of acres this year along the Mississippi, the Missouri River, and in North Dakota. Tornadoes have claimed over 500 lives and not in the traditional areas where they hit, like Kansas, but in unlikely places like Alabama. Fires are burning in the southwest in Arizona and New Mexico, right now threatening Los Alamos National Laboratory. Mother Nature has no boundaries.

FEMA has been quite busy this year providing assistance to survivors and businesses, but the time to take preparedness seriously is here. We can no longer be passive on how we see the weather or ignore the tectonic plates and faults that run beneath where we stand and where our homes are built. Our American cities, like New Orleans, have experienced the challenges that come when we expect the government to act quickly. As citizens, we must be proactive and not see storing water or food for emergencies as silly, but as important as picking up your kids from school.

The Cuts

Americans must also look at what cuts your local and federal governments are proposing. Cuts to emergency preparedness programs are not talked about as much, but they do happen. Preparedness and emergency response is not viewed or understood the way it should be by politicians. According to an article in the magazine Emergency Management, 33 cities did not receive funding for their emergency preparedness programs in 2011. Here is a portion of that article:

…although the regions may not feel the cuts immediately, the long-term impacts could be great. The UASI program — which began in 2003 with $100 million to strengthen regional preparedness in seven large metropolitan areas — was appropriated $662 million for fiscal ’11 to distribute among the designated 64 urban areas. The funding is about $170 million less than was available for fiscal year 2010, and has many UASI city representatives wondering how they will sustain their programs and capabilities long term.

Cuts are unavoidable in times of unbalanced budgets, but there are things that should be off the table, especially if public safety is a priority for politicians and anyone with legislative power. Emergency preparedness and other programs are investments in saving the lives of people in our communities and it’s something we all should be conscious of.

How prepared or unprepared for an emergency is your local government, do you know? And, how prepared are you?

First Person Account: How The Earthquake Was Felt In Tokyo

 

To my blog readers, I know this articles isn't about a quake in Los Angeles, but I wanted to share what I experienced yesterday in Tokyo. Cheers.

It’s been less than 24 hours since the 8.9 magnitude earthquake shook the Eastern coast of Japan. At 2:46 pm, local Japan time on Friday I was on the 7th floor of an office building in the busy district of Shibuya when the movement began. Since then, devastation closer to the epicenter plus aftershocks have kept most of us living in Tokyo on high alert.

The movement in Tokyo was slow at the beginning. I didn’t think much of it at first, but this seemed different than the quakes we are used to having — this time it wasn’t stopping, and worse, it was getting stronger. I rushed out of the office I was in and looked around as colleagues held the doors wondering why the quake wasn’t stopping.

The movement was back and forth and I couldn’t help wondering which walls would collapse first. After about a minute into the quake I rushed down the stairway. Many of the Japanese office tenants were making their way down as the shaking continued. Some walked very calmly. When we reached the first level and went outside the sidewalks were packed with people who had come to a standstill due to the quake. They were all looking up at the parade of buildings just moving back and forth. Most were calm, others were upset and holding on to one another.

I stood on the side of my building trying to reach relatives in the US to let them know I was OK, but the lines were already down. I used my iPhone to check the location of the quake via the USGS website and that’s when I first saw the big red square on the map, marking the epicenter — just off the coast of Sendai. "If the earthquake was felt so strong in Tokyo, how did the people 235 miles north of me, in Sendai, felt it?," I pondered.

We had another massive aftershock that was so strong we didn’t know if that was it. People didn’t know if to run or stay put, again we all looked around where we were standing and it struck me that if the glass began to fall down from the buildings around us, we could get badly injured. I walked down the block to the intersection of Meiji Street and Miyamasuzaka hoping to not be too close to tall buildings, but it made no difference — Tokyo is an ocean of tall buildings, some taller than others, but it’s almost impossible to not be beneath their shadows.

The people at Shibuya Station were paralyzed; I knew right away that those trains weren’t going anywhere. In case of an earthquake the trains and metro in Tokyo shut down and if I was going to get home all I could do was start walking. As I made my 5-mile walk from Shibuya to Jiyugaoka, I kept refreshing the news pages on my phone and trying to keep informed. Large pockets of Japanese people huddled around each other along sidewalks, looking at TV news on their cell phones.

There was no visible damage in Tokyo itself that I could see. It wasn't until later that I found out that a parking structure had collapsed in Machida and that other minor damage had taken place in the city. The real disaster had occurred in the Tohoku region.

When I got home I saw the live TV images of the tsunami waves swallowing anything on their path. All the Japanese TV channels were showing news of what had happened. There were tsunami advisories in Chinese, Portuguese, and English urging caution and for those living closer to the coast to move to higher ground.

We experienced many tremors and aftershocks throughout the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. Some of the aftershocks were 7.0 in magnitude at their epicenters. In Tokyo, these quakes felt less strong, but they were big enough to break dishes, mirrors, and cause other minor damage in my home.

My best estimate right now to a final death toll is between 1,000 to 3,000 dead, specially in the Sendai region. So far, the authorities have the toll at 200, with scores of people missing.

The shaking still continues as I write this first person account and we may have many more aftershocks well into April. So far this hasn’t been the earthquake Tokyo has been expecting for the past 25 years, that quake — the Tokai Earthquake — would devastate Shizuoka, Yokohama and Tokyo and it’s still 75 years overdue.

Looting After A Disaster - Is It Ever "OK"?

(New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina)

 

We all saw the headlines after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010: the deaths, the destruction and then, the looting. Images from CNN and other news networks trickled in to show desperate Haitians looking for food, water, and other things in the rubble. Then, mobs began to break into buildings which provoked US Forces to protect private property like banks and other establishments. So, how bad is looting? Is it ever "OK" to loot?

During the 1992 Los Angeles riots in South Central looting occurred on a mass scale. Dozens of stores were broken into and people carried away TVs, stereos, and anything worth taking. The chaos created by angry protests and the fires gave an opportunity to people to take advantage of the situation and engage in looting. No earthquake had taken place or any other natural disaster -- it was all civil unrest that had gotten out of hand. 

When I was in New Orleans, just four days after Hurricane Katrina had swept the region, I drove near by Canal Street just outside of the French Quarter. Store after store had been broken into by looters: Tiffany's and other expensive stores had their windows broken and everything inside the store stolen. There was office furniture all over the streets and sidewalks from ransacked buildings and shops. A few brand-new Corvettes were abandoned in lanes and alleys, apparently the cars had run out of gasoline; they had been taken from a dealership after the storm.

Immediately after Katrina hit, the police was overwhelmed by the chaos created by the flooding, the evacuation procedures, etc. At night New Orleans became a war zone where fire was exchanged between mobs and a weakened police force. The National Guard had to be brought in to help police and try to establish order. A curfew was put in place to keep the streets clear; any unauthorized person wondering around past curfew was immediately arrested.

Looting In History

Looting has been part of history for centuries, perhaps since the beginning of time. Vandals looted Rome in 455; crusaders looted Constantinople in 1204, and the list goes on. Shortly after the US intervened in Iraq, looters there stole ancient sculptures and art from the museums. It was chaos on the streets while US Forces were busy taking down Saddam Hussein's government. Still today, almost 6 years later, many of those precious pieces of art have not been recovered and perhaps never will be.

The opportunity to take goods during times of chaos and unrest is one many people can't resist -- some do it for survival when the search is for food and water, but others do it for their own gain. Perhaps we should look at looting from a cultural standpoint. Take for example the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, where there were no reports of looting. Mind you, the Kobe earthquake or the "Great Hanshin" earthquake, as it is also known, was a destructive 6.8 magnitude quake that brought the Japanese economy to a halt. The destruction was severe and over 6,400 people lost their lives. Firefighters and police were overwhelmed by the number of fires that erupted and by rescue efforts. The Japanese military arrived 3 days later to assist first responders, but looting didn't occur. 

So why didn't the survivors of the Kobe earthquake not indulge in the act of looting when there was ample opportunity to do it? Maybe because taking things that are not yours isn't really part of the Japanese culture. Japan is perhaps the only country in the world today where if you lose a wallet full of money on the train, it will be returned to you with exactly every penny you had in it before you lost it. Since I've been living in Tokyo, I keep hearing story after story of people who lose expensive cell phones, wallets, etc., and get those objects back within days. Such honesty is often unheard of in the US. 

Trusting The Government

About 300,000 Japanese were homeless following the Kobe quake and they waited patiently in lines for food and water distributions. Also, convenience stores opened on the same day the quake hit, so people were not completely cut off from supplies. The government response to the Kobe quake was very slow and there was lots of criticism from the international community and from the Japanese people about it, but things would have been much worse if survivors had engaged in theft and further destruction of property. 

The faith that the Japanese people placed in their government to help them after the quake is also what may have kept them from looting. Critics have often complained of how protective the Japanese government can be of its people -- often accusing it of being "controlling." But this "protective" projection of the government paid off after the Kobe earthquake; the Japanese didn't at all doubt that help would eventually come, and it did. 

This assurance that the government will guarantee that you will have what you need after a major natural disaster doesn't exists in many countries. Looting will most likely occur in places where the people are at odds with their government or where the government is corrupted. During the event of a natural disaster or civil unrest, the act of looting closely resembles an act of rebellion from the people against the powers or system in place -- a power which has suddenly succumbed to Mother Nature or has been overwhelmed by other forces.I'm not a sociologist, but this is my own journalistic theory. 

Thus, during the Los Angeles Riots in 1992, the mostly African American population showed their anger at the verdict of the Rodney King case and rebelled against what they perceived as an oppressive and unjust system by engaging in destruction of private property and looting. In Haiti, we all know about the government corruption that has plagued that country for decades, so the desperation for survival after a major quake forced people to fend for themselves by looting for anything that they could consume, use, trade, or sell.

The looting during Hurricane Katrina is a combination of what happened in the LA Riots and what we saw later in Haiti. Take poor people who have suffered racism and discrimination for decades, plus a government they don't fully believe in and add a major hurricane, what do you get?

Many parts of the world will continue to be affected by natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and civil unrest. So, the questions raised in this article are: how can well-intentioned governments help assure communities that they will respond quickly and efficiently to disasters in order to avoid looting? What work needs to be done first to gain the confidence and trust of these communities?

Unfortunately, in the past decade with Hurricane Katrina in the US and the quake in Haiti, government agencies have failed to project an image of efficiency when responding to major disasters. Communities are still not really sure if their emergency agencies will come through for them after the slow response and lack of advance planning and preparation that these agencies showed in New Orleans and Haiti. Our survival instincts in emergencies can be overpowering and worse if we feel like no one is there to help us. There is much work to be done to convince people that they can trust in their government during chaotic times, not only would this work help to facilitate saving lives, but also in minimizing property losses. 

 

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Emergency Preparedness in Japan

(Photo by Dolores M. Bernal -- a sign outside an elementary school in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo)

Greetings to all my blog readers. I have spent the last 3 months living in Tokyo working and learning about emergency preparedness here. There are way more earthquakes in this earthquake-prone country than when I was living in Los Angeles -- yesterday we had a 6.6 magnitude quake off the coast of Japan and the shaking was felt 300 miles away to where I live.

Over the next few months I will be posting information about what the Japanese do to keep prepared and how they handle emergency situations. I will not be writing as much about quakes in Los Angeles unless they are over 6 in magnitude, I can post information from Japan about them since I keep a close eye on the USGS website for quakes in the US and the world. 

I hope you all have a nice holiday season. Remember to store plenty of water and to keep those batteries fresh.

Stay safe,

Dolores

5.4 Magnitude Quake Shakes Southern California on July 7

A 5.4 magnitude quake shook Southern California on July 7, 2010. The quake was south west of Palm Springs on the Coyote Creek fault at 4:53 pm (PST).

Two aftershocks followed the quake, a 3.6 magnitude and a 3.3 magnitude at  4:56 pm.

The earthquake was slightly felt in Los Angeles, CA. There are no reports of damages or injuries.

More details here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/ci10736069.html

5.9 Earthquake Shakes Southern California

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake shook Southern California on Monday night at 9:26 pm, PST.

The quake was located near the Laguna Salada fault, 5 miles southeast of Ocotillo, California — a very deserted part of the state. The jolt was felt stronger in San Diego, 86 west of the epicenter, and also in El Centro, CA some 36 miles east of Ocotillo. The earthquake was also felt in Los Angeles.

Smaller earthquakes have shook the same general area, including a 4.1 magnitude earthquake that was felt at 9:36 pm.

No damages or injuries have been reported as of 9:55 pm, PST.

Since late May, smaller earthquakes have shook the Southern California region. A 4.4 earthquake startled Riverside residents over the weekend.

On April 4, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook near Mexicali, in Baja California — 60 miles south from tonight’s earthquake.

For the USGS' details of the 5.9 earthquake click here. For the latest news on this quake, visit The News Junkie Post.

Earthquake In Mexico Also Shakes Los Angeles

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake shook Baja California, Mexico at 3:40 pm (Pacific Time). The quake was about 281 miles south of Los Angeles, where it was also felt. Shaking in Los Angeles lasted for about 30 seconds. The quake was also felt strongly in Phoenix and Yuma, Arizona.

According to the USGS, the earthquake's epicenter was near Guadalupe Victoria in Baja California, about 15 miles from the US-Mexico border. The area has been getting hit with smaller quakes over recent months.

The earthquake was 32.2 miles deep and it took place in a not so populated area. No damage has been reported on the US side of the border. Two strong aftershocks followed the main quake, including a 5.1 magnitude a mile away from Imperial, CA. 

Article On The LA Times Highlights The Need For SoCal To Be Better Prepared

The LA Times published a good article today titled, "Quakes in Chile and Haiti raise concerns about Southland preparedness." The article talks about the fact that even though the state of California has been expecting the "Big One," people are still not doing enough to prepare.

The recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile (by the way I was down in Haiti for 3 weeks after the earthquake reporting for the NewsJunkiePost.com) have once again raised questions and concerns about how prepare we actually are.

The article also mentions that most people think that the government will be there to rescue them or provide food and water after a catastrophe -- such myth must end. We, Californians, should know better. The examples of the lack or a slow government response after a natural disaster are clear: no aid will reach you for a while. We saw this after Hurricane Katrina, we are seeing this in Haiti and now in Chile. It's time that you take earthquake preparedness seriously!

Read this blog, buy the stuff you need and get it over with. Be ready for the unexpected.

Earthquake Activity At Salton Sea Is Back

Three small earthquakes shook the area of the Salton Sea on Thursday, January 14. A 3.4 magnitude quake ocurred at 6:12 pm, and another one of the same magnitude hit just 20 seconds later. A minute later a 3.5 magnitude quake hit at 6:13 pm.

The earthquakes happened just South and East of the Salton Sea in an area called Obsidian Butte -- some 250 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, CA.

The Salton Sea is where Seismologists have predicted the "Big One" will originate from. The area is of great interest to the USGS. Last year a similar trend of small quakes shook the area between January and March prompting concerns that the "Big One" was probably around the corner.

To see the map go here: http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/FaultMaps/116-34.htm

6.5 Quake hits Northern California

A 6.5 quake shook northern California at 4:27 pm on Saturday. The Russ
fault is what the USGS is looking at as the source of the quake.

Eureka, CA felt the brunt of the quake but it was also felt in San Francisco.

There are reports of power outages and destroyed property, but no deaths.