Today marks the 85th anniversary of the M6.4 Long Beach earthquake. This earthquake was significant to Southern California.

This deadly quake occurred at 17:54 P.M. PST, about 5 km (3.1 miles) south of Huntington Beach.

The Science:

-The source of this quake was on the Newport-Inglewood fault zone.
-These system of faults are right-lateral strike-slip faulting(Figure 1).
-The epicenter was offshore with a depth of 10km (6.2 miles).

 

 

The bad stuff:

-Approximately 120 deaths
– $50 million in damage to buildings

What did we learn:

Several school buildings collapsed. It was particularly fortunate that this quake ruptured late afternoon when school children had headed home. Losses could have been worse. We learned to consider what else we can do to improve likelihoods of surviving a quake of that magnitude, relearning how to improve a buildings endurance to quakes, and improving building codes. The Field Act was passed which designated authority, as well as responsibility for the approval and supervision of all construction designs of public schools to the State Division of Architecture. Were it not for this act, the subsequent quakes in the last 85 years would have taken down our schools and potentially young lives with as well.
Large earthquakes are unavoidable in SoCal, but we can work hard together to reduce the subsequent damage. Educating ourselves on quake preparedness, safety, and even post quake protocol is paramount to our survival.

 

 

 

Thank you all for reading.

 

Written by: Bryan Castillo

Editor: John Micha Rincon