The Puente Hills earthquake fault poses a serious threat to the Southeast Los Angeles County area

Earthquake Threat – Southeast Los Angeles County is facing serious danger from the Puente Hills Thrust Fault that runs directly under the area as shown in this illustration from NASA. Owners of older buildings should be assessed for earthquake risk to protect their investments and for their tenants, according to Optimum Seismic, Inc.

Written by Ali Sahabi, Co-Founder, Optimum Seismic, Inc.

People in Southeast Los Angeles County fear the nearby Puente Hills earthquake fault more than they do the more famous but distant San Andreas fault.

Experts point out that the Puente Hills Fault could kill more people and cause more damage in the Los Angeles area than the San Andreas area further afield because it lies beneath skyscrapers, bridges, freeways, old industrial buildings, and neighborhoods with vulnerable multi-family housing. Its location gives it the ability to cause intense shaking that would likely be felt over a large area, about 25 by 15 miles.

The Puente Hills Fault, capable of causing “the costliest disaster in US history,” could cause up to 18,000 deaths, 735,000 to lose their homes, and up to 100,000 tons of debris to be generated. Total economic losses could reach $252 billion.

The USGS made a similar forecast, stating that the destructive power of Point Hills is five times that of San Andreas. A magnitude 7.5 earthquake on the nearby Puente Hills fault would cause the same devastation as an 8.0 on San Andreas farther away though an 8.0 would release 16 times more energy than a 7.5.

Giant wakes up?

First discovered in 1999, the Puente Hills Fault stretches about 25 miles across the Los Angeles Basin, from downtown Los Angeles, through southeast Los Angeles County, creating a criss-cross pattern under cities like Southgate, Downey, Norwalk, and sprawling surrounding communities. . in Orange and San Bernardino counties.

It was the magnitude 6.0 Whittier Narrows earthquake in October 1987 that led to his discovery. This was followed by earthquakes in Chino Hills (2008), Pico Rivera (2010), and La Habra (2014).

A team of scientists from Harvard University and UCLA released a report in 2017 showing the accelerating slip rates along this fault.

“This increase in rate means that the magnitudes and/or frequency of earthquakes over this fault sector has increased over time,” the report concluded. “This challenges the characteristic earthquake model and presents an evolving and possibly increasing seismic risk to the capital, Los Angeles.

Storming earthquake risk

Puente Hills is a thrust earthquake, tending to rupture with one side of the fault being pushed up and over the lower side. It shares this quality with other nearby faults that triggered the Sylmar, Whittier Narrows, and Northridge earthquakes.

Defensive earthquakes create accumulating stress that causes the Earth’s crust to bend in areas where the fault is closed. Seismologists believe that these areas are most prone to future earthquakes.

The force behind these earthquakes reflects the massive amount of energy needed to move two tectonic plates toward each other at a rate of about an inch every three years.

These places of turbulence may seem easy to spot, but the truth is that many of these high-pressure areas are located deep in the Earth’s surface and cannot be seen or detected – until they erupt. Seismologists call these “blind thrust faults.”

liquefied

These faults also present an additional risk because they are located along the Los Angeles Basin, where local soil conditions are prone to liquefaction — a phenomenon that causes the Earth to move like Jell-O when it shakes.

When it occurs under vulnerable buildings and other structures, the results can be catastrophic.

The Los Angeles Times reports that this is what happened during the 1994 Northridge earthquake on Balboa Avenue in the Granada Hills, where a gas main ruptured due to lateral diffusion and caught fire.

Liquefaction also contributed to the devastation of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake – when soil and debris used to fill a lake to build the Marina District subsided, cracked and caused a horizontal slide of the Earth’s surface.

The Atlantic magazine, in 2019, described the effects of liquefaction as horrific: “Videos of its occurrence look like found-found documentaries of the second coming. Buildings seem to simply vanish, the earth explodes, and once immovable structures slide into the quagmire.”

Monstrous earthquakes are inevitable in California, but they don’t have to be disasters. It is important to be prepared in advance to mitigate their effects.

Older commercial, industrial, and multi-family buildings in Southeast Los Angeles County may be at serious risk in large earthquakes. Optimum Seismic offers free advice to help building owners understand the risks they face and the steps they can take to save lives, protect assets and livelihoods.

About the author

Recently named to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ transition team, Ali Sahabi was previously the recipient of the California Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award for his sustainable approach to community development and environmental restoration at the 543-acre mixed-use Dos Lagos development in Corona, California. Sahabi is a licensed general engineering contractor who is an expert in building resilience and sustainability. He is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Optimum Seismic, Inc. , which has completed more than 3,500 structural retrofit and adaptive reuse projects for multi-family residential, commercial and industrial buildings throughout California. He is also the President of the development company Optimum Group LLC.

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