The Ridgecrest earthquakes didn’t cause any notable damage in the Greater Los Angeles area. But the shaking did spur hundreds of thousands to ask that eternal question in earthquake country: How safe is my building?
A Times analysis found more than 1,000
older concrete buildings in Los Angeles and hundreds more throughout the county may be at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake. Despite their sturdy appearance, some of the buildings are vulnerable to the sideways movement of a major earthquake because they don’t have enough steel reinforced bars to hold columns in place. University of California researchers estimate that about 75 of the nearly 1,500 buildings on the list could collapse in a large earthquake, exposing thousands to injury or death.and undergo extensive testing to gauge its vulnerability; some may be safe, some may turn out not to be concrete.
A separate group of scientists used public records, maps and street surveys to compile a list of nearly 1,500 concrete buildings constructed before 1976 in Los Angeles.Parts of California — including Los Angeles County — are crisscrossed with faults. Living above or adjacent to faults also increases the chance of damage in a quake.Shaking from an earthquake can cause land to behave like quicksand, causing the ground to fail.
Liquefaction also can cause something called “lateral spreading,” in which the ground can slide down gentle slopes or toward the bank of a river while on top of a buried layer that acts like a liquid.
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