Subduction under Alaska & Aleutian Islands -8 cm/yr of plate convergence -1964 Alaska Earthquake MW=9.

9.2 -Most dangerous faults in US, subduction thrust; volcanoes, tsunamis. -East coast passive margin ; West coast active margin Past 30 Ma saw major changes & development of San Andreas Fault From 80 to 30 Ma Farallon plate subducted under west coast. Juan de Fuca & Cocos plates are remnants of Farallon plate Three little plates subducting offshore Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia; Juan de Fuca Plate, Gorda Plate, Explorer Plate Spreading ridge splitting Gulf of California; Separating Baja from N. America; Oblique because ridges are combined with transform faults Cocos Plate subducting to the south Oregon-Washington: M9 every 1000 years, last in 1700; subduction zone The highest concentration of earthquakes is near the big faults; San Andreas, Cape Mendocino San Andreas fault zone is strike-slip; Right-lateral slip - LA moving northwest 3.5 cm/yr Big Bend causes N-S compression in So. Cal. Alquist-Priolo Act (1972) A structure for human occupancy cannot be placed over the trace of an active fault and must be set back from the fault (generally 50 feet) Faults under LA are hard to find: mostly not strike-slip, surface reworked by civilization Definite lower limit to seismicity that varies from 5-25 km: set by temperature and composition of rock (mostly temperature); shallowest under the Salton Sea (where it is the hottest) -------------------------- Mendocino Triple Junction 1812 Wrightwood: San Andreas, 7.5, destroyed San Juan Capistrano 130 km away 1857 Fort Tejon : uprooted trees 20km away, destroyed buildings, 1-3 min shaking, 7.9, epicenter unknown, 360km rupture length, 9m slip in Carrizo plain, 6m in Palmdale 1872 Owens Valley: 7.7, devastated Lone Pine, 10% of residents died (30), 160km scarp, 7m horizontal slip, 1m vertical 1906 San Francisco: Largest recorded in CA, 7.9, 430km rupture, 15km deep, 5m slip, Maximum intensity based on damage was IX 1933 Long Beach: 6.3, near downtown, led to key improvements in zoning, Field act of 1933: Authorize Cal. State Dept. of Works to review and approve building plans, and supervise construction 1952 Kern County: 7.5, largest EQ since 1906, Intensity XI, main shock was felt over most of California and in parts of western Arizona and western Nevada 1971 San Fernando: 6.7, damaged the Lower Van Norman Dam 1989 Loma Prieta (Santa Cruz Mtns): 6.9, 18km deep, on San Andreas, soft soil (strong shaking) 1992 Landers/Big Bear: 7.3, largest since 1952, 70km right-lateral strike-slip rupture, 20 second duration, slip 6m, in Mojave Desert. 1994 Northridge: Thrust fault, 6.7, 20x20km, 1-2m slip, blind fault, hypocenter 18km deep, rupture did not reach surface. 1999 Hector Mine: 7.1, Eastern CA shear zone, triggered by Landers,

 2004 Parkfield: 6.0, ruptured on SAF, propagated from S to N ------------------------- Typical wind-driven waves in the ocean have short wavelengths (a few ms) while tsunamis have wavelengths of many km Sometimes tsunamis arrives as a bore a wall of churning water In thrust fault generated tsunamis, the ocean on the hanging wall (landward side) comes in first, but on the footwall (ocean) side, the sea will go out first Chile 1960, 9.5, largest recorded EQ, 2000 killed, caused Tsunami, Turkey like California; big strike-slip quakes; sequence in 1940s showed alarming series of events marching along Anatolian Fault Factors that made Tsunami worse: destruction of coral reefs which would have reflected some of the incoming energy, removal of natural sand dunes for improved beach access, destruction of the coastal mangrove forests, which impede the tsunami runup -------------------------- Alquist-Priolo act zone shall ordinarily be one-quarter mile or less in width, except in circumstances which may require the State Geologist to designate a wider zone. physical definition depends on development of the fault system; plate boundary width ~200 km, width of San Andreas fault zone is ~1-2 km Hazards: Soft soils - stronger shaking; wet soils - liquefaction potential, landslide potential; cliffs and ridges - stronger shaking, landslide potential Seismic waves grow in amplitude when they pass from rock into softer material Seismic wave energy Wave velocity x density x amplitude2 Landfills: Often poorly compacted material; Organic material often decays producing voids and weak spots prone to settlement. Expect: strong shaking in earthquake, ground can settle substantially Ground Settlement: Soil grains rearrange to denser packing; Often uneven leading to different vertical motion in different parts of the building, placing large stress on the building to hold itself together Liquefaction: compaction of water-saturated soil during intense shaking allows water to flow upward and the soil loses its shear strength and flows, becoming liquefied into a kind of quicksand Cliffs and Ridges: Greater shaking; As waves reach surface, they are reflected back from cliff face and cause further amplification of shaking. Energy trapped within peak of the ridge Generally, it is better to be on hard rock in mountains than on a soft basin, despite some amplification from cliffs and ridges Soft soils - stronger shaking, settlement Wet soils - liquefaction potential, landslide potential Cliffs and ridges - stronger shaking, landslide potential Building materials: Wood and steel preferred over concrete and brick because: Light, which lessens weight that walls must support ; Flexible, so it can deflect without cracking or breaking; But too much flexibility is a disadvantage, making bracing necessary throwing trash in concrete mold leads to holes in concrete, weak spots Using salt water for mixing cement Increasing sand/cement ratio to cut down cost

Residential: Woodframe (best), Unreinforced brick, stone or adobe, Concrete block, Reinforced brick (bad). Commercial: Steel Frame (best), concrete frame, concrete shear-wall (good), concrete tilt-up (bad) Lateral bracing: Purpose is not to increase vertical load buildings walls and columns can bear; Goal to provide control which allows vertical supports to remain stable and intact: supporting weight of building during lateral shaking so building will not fail Reduced lateral shearing results in less damage to building structure and contents Diagonal bracing - a single diagonal or two crossed diagonals (x-bracing) of steel attached at angle across frame of building. Plywood better than wood. Shear-wall - solid, continuous walls of plywood or concrete Frame action - connected frames of steel or steel-reinforced concrete. Connected frame resists lateral forces by flexing. Not recommended for pure reinforced-concrete buildings because concrete doesnt flex Soft Story: Definition: A soft story is a floor (usually at ground level) with many large openings which reduce shear strength of walls The stiffer, shorter, and lighter a building is, the higher its natural frequency Lighter: higher wavespeed, higher frequency. Heavier: slower wavespeed, lower frequency General rule of thumb is that a buildings frequency is about 10 Hz divided by number of floors Matching frequencies = big amplitude. When a building is shaken with its natural frequency, it resonates, and the amplitude of shaking can be quite large. So low frequency surface waves do most of the damage to tall buildings, while smaller buildings are damaged by high frequency S-waves.