anniversaries

A few more local stories related to the Hayward fault today.

An offset curb shows evidence of aseismic creep along the Hayward fault in Hayward, California. The offset is visible in the curb itself. The arrows were marked when the photo was taken to track further offset along the fault in the future. Photo by Dave Schumaker

This past week, we had a couple of notable, earthquake-related anniversaries. October 17th of course is known for the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which happened right before Game 3 of the World Series and ultimately caused up to $13 billion in damages and losses.

Andrew Alden talks about another earthquake-related anniversary which happened on this day, October 21, 1868. Prior to the famous 1906 San Francisco, Earthquake, this was known as the “big one” that happened in the Bay Area.

Interestingly enough, the Hayward fault has an average recurrence interval of 140 years. Today marks 140 years exactly.

Estimated shaking intensity from the 1868 Hayward fault earthquake.
Source: USGS

The Hayward fault is the primary fault that scientists and emergency officials are worried about in the Bay Area. The BBC has an article out today titled, “America’s Most Dangerous Fault” and talks about the Hayward fault, as well as direct evidence of the fault that you can see in Hayward, California.

The first Hayward City Hall in California has long been off-limits to occupants because its foundations sit right atop an earthquake fault and it’s gradually splitting in two.

“Look up at the stairwell,” says geologist Russ Graymer, as we peer through a window.

“There are huge cracks, several centimetres broad and many metres long - basically showing the evidence that this building is being torn in half.”

The Hayward Fault is one of a network of cracks in the Earth’s surface running through the San Francisco Bay Area. The San Andreas Fault is probably the best known, but right now the Hayward is the one everyone’s talking about.

The records show that the past five large earthquakes on this fault have occurred on average about 140 years apart, and the last was - you’ve guessed it - 140 years ago. Tuesday is the anniversary.

At 0755 on the morning of 21 October, 1868, the Hayward broke with a Magnitude 6.8 quake.

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“It’s the probability that the Hayward will generate a large earthquake in the next 30 years combined with the fact that it runs right through an urban area. These two facts taken together make it the most dangerous right now,” says Dr Graymer.

The comparison is often made with Kobe, Japan, which suffered a Magnitude 6.9 earthquake in 1995.

Kobe, like Hayward and Oakland, sits on the east side of a bay - Osaka Bay - and the Nojima Fault running through Kobe mirrors the Hayward in type (strike-slip) and in length.

More than 5,000 people died in the 1995 Kobe event.

View of damage inside the old Hayward City Hall Building, slowing being ripped apart by aseismic creep along the Hayward fault. Photo by Dave Schumaker.

See also this article from Wired today. It’s a dire situation.

Apologies, I’ve been away from computer access for the last few days. Let’s start the week off with some offbeat news.

Source: MIT Museum

A couple of anniversaries to cover this week. The first is the 50th anniversary of the Smoot, a non-standard unit devised by some of the nerds over at MIT.

What exactly is a “Smoot”?

As his fraternity brothers laid his 5-foot, 7-inch frame end-to-end to measure the Massachusetts Avenue bridge one night in October 1958, there was one distinct thought running through Oliver Smoot’s mind.
“It was pretty cold,” he said.

Smoot ‘62 evoked memories recently about the night his name became a unit of measurement as MIT prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the quirky hack. A series of events has been planned for the weekend of Oct. 4.

“Looking at the pictures, I think I had one sweater and I did have on gloves … but basically we all had on windbreakers and you get out in the middle of a bridge and it’s windy,” he said. “Even if the temperature isn’t that low, it’s cold out there.”

In 1958, as a freshman at MIT and Lambda Chi Alpha pledge, the fraternity pledgemaster hatched the idea to use the shortest — and most scientifically named pledge — to measure the bridge from Boston to Cambridge. Little did they know, however, that their activity would make its way into MIT, Boston and even Google lore.

They also underestimated how difficult getting up and down 364.4 times (plus or minus an ear) would be.

The second anniversary celebration to talk about is the 50th anniversary of NASA.

A brief history of NASA can be read here.

The successful launch of the Soviet Union’s first two satellites prompted U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Congress to put aside their differences and create a lasting national space policy and the institution tasked with carrying it out.

On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, officially establishing NASA.

Before its creation, the United States did not have a space program per se, according to Eilene Galloway, who helped draft the NASA charter and now serves as honorary director of the International Institute of Space Law. However, separate programs did exist within the U.S. military services, including the Navy’s Vanguard, the Air Force’s Man in Space Program, and the Army’s Jupiter and Juno programs, said Ted Spitzmiller, a space historian and author of “Astronautics: Book 1: Dawn of the Space Age.”

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NASA officially began operating Oct. 1, 1958, using the civilian National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics staff and research facilities as its backbone. Other space research facilities, such as the Army’s Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Ala., were integrated into the new space agency as well.

The act transferred authority for military space to the Defense Department, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to head military space research.

Also, Brian at Clastic Detritus celebrates his 2nd Blogiversary! Congratulations on two years of posting and here’s to many more!

And I’m going to sneak in one more anniversary — it’s the 50th anniversary of my Dodgers moving to LA from Brooklyn! What better way to celebrate it than potentially winning a World Series this year? ;)