The Los Angeles Times recently offered a full-scale investigation into what would happen to California in the wake of a devastating earthquake.
The deep dive came in response to the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. The earthquake killed 185 people.
- “The city offers an urgent lesson to California, whose major cities — situated along seismic faults — face similar threats,” according to The Los Angeles Times.
- “New Zealand and California have similar seismic safety standards, their skylines built in the 19th century with collapse-prone brick and in the 20th century with brittle concrete.”
- “Each also sits on the edge of a huge tectonic plate boundary. Neighborhoods are built on top of soft sediment that magnifies the shaking, and seismic regulations for older buildings in many areas are inadequate to resist collapse from intense shaking.”
Yes, but: Recovery might not be the same in both places:
- “Recovery from a huge quake in Southern California or the San Francisco Bay Area would be many times more challenging than in Christchurch, given the state’s huge population, housing shortage and sprawling infrastructure.”
Example: A magnitude 7 earthquake on the Hayward fault in the San Francisco Bay Area could lead to 800 deaths, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.
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Read: Christchurch, New Zealand, shattered by a 2011 earthquake, offers an urgent lesson for California. (Los Angeles Times)