5 Things Most People Don't Know About Earthquakes

LOS ANGELES, CA — When it comes to the “Big One” most people are afraid of being crushed by a collapsing building or buckling bridge, but according to the experts, the chances of dying in even a major earthquake are fairly slim. And so it’s the aftermath of a major quake that people should prepare for.

As a series of large quakes rattle windows and nerves up and down the state, experts are warning residents to get prepared and get real about what to expect in a big earthquake.

Up until the 7.1 magnitude Ridgecrest quake hit July 5, wide swathes of the state had been in an ‘earthquake drought,’ long overdue for the kind of large temblors seismologists expect to see every 10 to 20 years in a region such as Southern California. Since then thousands of small and medium-sized quakes have rattled the state. Here are five things Californians should know about the ‘Big One.’

1) Large quakes actually increase the likelihood that more quakes will hit.
Major quakes such as the Ridgecrest quake will trigger hundreds of aftershocks. Many will be large such as Wednesday’s 4.6 aftershock, and in the immediate aftermath of the quake, the region faces an increased chance of another quake of even larger magnitude. A July 4 magnitude 6.4 quake was reclassified as a foreshock when the even bigger magnitude 7.1 quake hit the next day. But can earthquakes such as the Searles Valley series or the Tuesday’s magnitude 4.3 earthquake in Blackhawk trigger larger quakes along more powerful fault lines? It’s possible.

When an earthquake hits, seismologists look to see which fault is responsible and whether its capable of triggering nearby larger faults. When a large earthquake hits, it actually increases the chance of more quakes nearby. The Ridgecrest quake didn’t initially raise concerns about triggering quakes along other faults because the region is so remote. However, the magnitude 7.1 quake and the hundreds of smaller ones that followed created cracks extending the fault toward two other faults capable of creating major temblors.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Ridgecrest aftershocks are creeping closer and closer to the Owens Valley and Garlock Faults. The Owens Valley Fault, in the Mammoth area, is responsible for one of the largest California quakes on record and the Garlock skirts the Mojave Desert and could produce a major quake felt from Ventura County to San Diego County.
“Those are places we would be more concerned,” U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist Morgan Page told the Los Angeles Times. “Little earthquakes are telling us where big earthquakes are more likely.”

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2) The chances of dying in a major quake are actually pretty slim.
You are far more likely to die in a car crash, be murdered or struck by lightning than you are to die in a quake. According to the US Geological Survey, the lifetime risk of dying in an earthquake is about 1 in 20,000. The USGS estimates that an 8.0 magnitude quake could kill more than 1,800 people. One of the largest quakes to hit a major metro area in California in recent decades was the 6.7 magnitude quake that struck in Northridge in 1994, killing 57 people.

So if the Big One isn’t likely to kill you, what should you be worried about?

3) The primary quake injuries stem from broken glass underfoot and falling objects overhead
While most quakes aren’t fatal, the bigger the quake, the greater your chance of injury. The Northridge quake caused 57 deaths, but another 50,000 people were injured. You can’t know when the Big One will hit, but you can be ready by keeping a spare pair of shoes next to your bed and bolting down wall hangings, televisions and tall furniture that could topple during a quake. In an 8.0 magnitude quake, the USGS estimates that 50,000 people would be injured.

4) A major earthquake could mean displacement and financial devastation for hundreds of thousands of California families.

According to the California Earthquake Authority, only about 13 percent of Californians who have residential insurance also have earthquake insurance. The rate is slightly higher for residents in areas such as Los Angeles and Orange County and slightly lower for people in the Inland Empire. If a major quake hit, hundreds of thousands of people could find their homes destroyed or uninhabitable, and most won’t have the insurance nor the savings to rebuild. According to the USGS, 400,000 could be displaced in a magnitude 7.0 quake on the Bay Area’s Hayward fault and about 250,000 could be forced to leave their homes in a major quake along the San Andreas fault. The Northridge quake caused more than $20 billion in property damage and left parts of Northridge a ghost town.

5) So what would the Big One actually be like?

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, an 8.0 magnitude quake could kill more than 1,800 people, injure 50,000 more, displace hundreds of thousands and cause hundreds of billions in damage.

In a major quake, the shaking could last for as much as three minutes, burst gas lines would burn down homes and businesses, residents could wait days for first responders to reach them, and a break to the Los Angeles Aqueduct could take months to repair, leaving much of Southern California without access to safe running water, warns seismologist Lucy Jones. As if that weren’t bad enough, residents in many communities such as coastal North Orange County, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Francisco live in liquefaction zones, where intense shaking could cause the soil to act like quicksand. Major liquefaction can cause trees to sink into the soil, buildings to collapse and roads to buckle as once solid ground turns to flowing mud. The 7.5 Indonesian quake of 2018, triggered catastrophic liquefaction that wiped out whole communities. Satellite images and footage from the ground captured the devastation caused by liquefaction.

Preparing for the Big One can seem overwhelming. That is why the experts advise residents put together an earthquake preparedness to-do list and tackle manageable projects each week, increasing your family’s odds of surviving and recovering from the Big One.

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