California may have been rocked by the most powerful earthquake in 20 years this Thursday, but most of the region is uniquely prepared for these situations, an expert says.
Brent Ward, an Earth Sciences professor at Simon Fraser University, said he was not surprised by the magnitude of the earthquake that hit near the town of Ridgecrest in California around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday.
It has been around 20 years since a “larger earthquake occurred” in the region, Ward conceded, but a 6.4 magnitude earthquake, while strong, is “not unusual.”
Officials, residents and scientists in California know to anticipate earthquakes because of the fault lines in the area.
“We cannot predict when an earthquake is going to occur, but we can have a very good idea of where they will be,” Ward said. “A lot of these areas have what we know are active faults, and so we know that these are areas that can have earthquakes.”
A fault is where two distinct sections of the earth’s crust press against each other, and can slide up, down, or past each other during an earthquake, causing the dramatic cracks in the ground or jutted spikes of pavement that we often see in the aftermath of a quake. California’s quake was a “strike-slip fault,” Ward said, meaning the plate tectonics were sliding past each other.
Despite the size of Thursday’s quake, no serious injuries have been reported. The earthquake was felt widely throughout the state, but apart from two house fires in Ridgecrest and reported structural issues with the hospital, there has been no serious damage to buildings either.
Ward cited California’s “stringent” building codes as an important factor.
“That is the key to earthquake preparedness, is to have the buildings survive the shaking,” Ward said. “The question is, what about the older buildings and houses? Some of those could have problems.”
A quake like this still causes ruptured gas lines and water main leaks, he pointed out.
“So the infrastructure also needs to be strengthened, but really, California is well ahead of many other jurisdictions, including Canada.”
Thursday’s earthquake was first judged the strongest in the area since a 1999 quake by seismologist Lucy Jones, with the California Institute of Technology.
Residents are still wary of aftershocks. Ward says they’re getting close to 100 aftershocks at this point, but although most have been too small to be strongly felt, there is a 10 per cent chance of a stronger aftershock that could cause further damage to buildings hurt by the initial quake.
