Magnitude 6.0 earthquake rocks San Francisco area

[SS-18 ICBM]

California earthquake strikes San Francisco Bay area

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 has shaken northern California, reports the US Geological Survey.

The USGS said it struck at 03:20 local time (10:20 GMT) four miles (6km) north-west of American Canyon, at a depth of 6.7 miles.

At least 87 people have been injured in the Napa area, three of them seriously.

The site is 51 miles from Sacramento and about 30 miles north-east of San Francisco, where many Twitter users say the earthquake woke them up.

Officials in Napa said in a statement that the quake had destroyed four mobile homes and caused "approximately 50" gas main breaks and around 30 leaks from water mains.

Three historic buildings in the town had been hit and two commercial buildings "severely damaged", the statement went on.

More than 10,000 households were without power in Napa County, about six miles from the earthquake's epicentre, and the surrounding area, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company said.

An evacuation centre has been set up in a high school gym.

The California Highway Patrol in the San Francisco Bay Area tweeted that it was "checking over crossings and bridges for obvious signs of structural integrity", and asked residents to report any signs of problems.

Time to replace that aging infrastructure. No reports of deaths yet. Could have been way worse.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

California earthquake strikes San Francisco Bay area


Time to replace that aging infrastructure. No reports of deaths yet. Could have been way worse.

California actually doesn't have a whole lot of 'aging infrastructure' that can't handle a 6.0 quake. Fair bet the highway patrol isn't finding much damage to the highways. The 'historic building' designation generally translates as 'no way to retrofit this but it's too cool to tear down' so we wait for an earthquake to do it.

 

[Phrossack]

How did an earthquake destroy mobile homes? Broken gas lines starting a fire or something?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

How did an earthquake destroy mobile homes? Broken gas lines starting a fire or something?

Mobile homes sit on jacks.

Jacks are under hard points made for sitting on jacks.

Earthquake rattles mobile home off jacks.

Mobile home is sitting on ground with jacks sticking up through the floor.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Welp, my brother just moved to the Bay Area for college. I think he's okay, though, he's relatively far from the epicenter.

 

[bhsup]

Mobile homes sit on jacks.

We use cinder blocks here. Wonder if one is better than the other? Well, beyond the obvious advantage with cinder blocks of being able to use the spares for the Ford Fairlane.

 

[Traitorfish]

Gotta love Californians.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

We use cinder blocks here. Wonder if one is better than the other? Well, beyond the obvious advantage with cinder blocks of being able to use the spares for the Ford Fairlane.

Well 'jacks' is a pretty broad term, but technically 'pylons' would be better...and include the cinder blocks. Either way, the issue is that the mobile home has points on the bottom that are designed to have the pylons under them, and when the earthquake causes lateral motion the pylons end up under different points, with predictable effect.

As to better...cinder blocks are recognized as really bad building material in general in places with earthquakes. Anything in California built out of block could better be described as being built out of rebar. The block is counted for very little in terms of structural strength.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Gotta love Californians.

We Californians are weird.


Anyhow, if i remember correctly, Napa is one of the top wine producing regions in the US (or at least it's presented as such to tourists), so I wonder how this will affect the American wine industry.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

We Californians are weird.


Anyhow, if i remember correctly, Napa is one of the top wine producing regions in the US (or at least it's presented as such to tourists), so I wonder how this will affect the American wine industry.

I'm guessing minimal. Vineyards aren't likely to be damaged, and most northern California wineries are pretty modern facilities. California building standards for industrial buildings are based on shrugging off way stronger quakes than this. There will be a little damage and some clean-up, but nobody is going to be put out of business by this.

 

[KMRblue1027]

6.0 quakes are supposed to be common in California and the area is built to resist them so the damage is likely going to be around a low end tropical storm or 1 foot snow storm hitting the North East.

 

[Antilogic]

Gotta love Californians.

I assume this is the reason why Hygro hasn't posted yet.

From CBS News:

There have been dozens of reported injuries, at least two of them serious, including one child who was left in critical condition by falling debris.

One hospital in the Bay Area reports it has treated at least 87 patients so far injured by the quake.

No deaths reported, as far as I can tell. Hope it stays that way.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

6.0 quakes are supposed to be common in California and the area is built to resist them so the damage is likely going to be around a low end tropical storm or 1 foot snow storm hitting the North East.

More or less. While they are common enough overall, they aren't really common in any particular place...so there's a lot of complacency. A 6.0 won't do a lot of structural damage because building codes are what they are, but it will clearly differentiate between the store owners and home owners who are diligent about keeping their stuff solidly placed and those who aren't.

I am an aren't, myself. If a 6.0 hit here the house would likely be undamaged, but the contents would pretty much all be on the floor, potentially with me underneath them.

 

[Hygro]

I was in San Francisco and awake at the time of the quake on a roof overlooking the skyline sitting on a railing.

Didn't feel or see a thing.

 

[GenMarshall]

Not to long after that, there was one in Peru. Hmm, the Pacific plate must be real active today.

The most I've seen in my state are the small richter 2 quakes. Enough maybe to jiggle a glass of water or jello.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I'm guessing minimal. Vineyards aren't likely to be damaged, and most northern California wineries are pretty modern facilities. California building standards for industrial buildings are based on shrugging off way stronger quakes than this. There will be a little damage and some clean-up, but nobody is going to be put out of business by this.

Well, that doesn't seem too bad then. I'm not how good the infrastructure is in NorCal compared to SoCal, but I suppose it can't be worse.

The biggest earthquake I can remember was close to 6.0 (somewhere around 5.5 I think) here in SoCal, and while that was a little surprising it didn't seem to affect much.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Well, that doesn't seem too bad then. I'm not how good the infrastructure is in NorCal compared to SoCal, but I suppose it can't be worse.

The biggest earthquake I can remember was close to 6.0 (somewhere around 5.5 I think) here in SoCal, and while that was a little surprising it didn't seem to affect much.

It should be noted that earthquakes are measured on a log scale not a linear scale, so a 6.0 is actually three times stronger than a 5.5.

 

[cybrxkhan]

It should be noted that earthquakes are measured on a log scale not a linear scale, so a 6.0 is actually three times stronger than a 5.5.

Yeah, I'm aware of the scaling. But I think a 6.0 earthquake for California isn't that bad, relatively speaking, for lack of better wording, compared to regions that aren't as earthquake prone.


We're long due for a hugeass earthquake at any rate, so I've heard.

 

[illram]

I live on a 4th floor apartment building in SF near the beach and felt shaking for "a while." I say a while in scare quotes because I don't know how long it really was, but it was long enough for me and my wife to wake up and get out of bed and for me to contemplate our mortality while my apartment shook and creaked from side to side. Which for me is "a while."

My three year old slept peacefully through the whole thing which was not surprising. We were both left sort of standing outside her room wondering what the heck we could have really done if it had gotten worse.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I live on a 4th floor apartment building in SF near the beach and felt shaking for "a while." I say a while in scare quotes because I don't know how long it really was, but it was long enough for me and my wife to wake up and get out of bed and for me to contemplate our mortality while my apartment shook and creaked from side to side. Which for me is "a while."

My three year old slept peacefully through the whole thing which was not surprising. We were both left sort of standing outside her room wondering what the heck we could have really done if it had gotten worse.

If the building collapses the building collapses and that's the way it goes. The only useful thing to do is look for stuff that's potentially falling even if the building is coming through fine and dandy. Painting in a heavy frame comes off the wall and lands corner first on you or your loved ones, heavy bookcase that falls and pins someone, that sort of thing. And keep sniffing for gas.