Earthquake researchers head to Humboldt County to study aftershocks

In the days after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Northern California coast on Thursday, scientists scrambled to install sensors among the region's rugged mountains and river basins, hoping to learn more about a fault zone that poses one of the biggest threats to Mendocino and Humboldt counties. .

“We want to capture as many aftershocks as possible to get a better idea of ​​everything that's going on in the Mendocino fault off the coast,” where the ground has been torn apart, said Tim Clements, of the US Geological Survey's Earthquake Science Center at Moffett Field. .

In the sky, scientists scan the area via satellite to detect any landslides or broken roads. On the ground, they look for debris flows and landslides.

In the Bay Area, crews are measuring how the Humboldt earthquake caused small slips on faults in our area. They found that the Hayward Fault intruded to a fraction of an inch, according to Oakland-based data compiled by research geologist Austin Elliott of the USGS Earthquake Science Center.

The quake, which struck at 10:44 a.m. Thursday, was the largest in California since the 7.1-magnitude town of Ridgecrest in Kern County struck on July 5, 2019. The epicenter of this week's quake was under the Pacific Ocean, about 40 miles below sea level. . Historic Ferndale Coast.

In Humboldt County, residents are doing clean-up work after damage to businesses and some homes, but major public infrastructure in the area appears to have escaped widespread damage, according to the Eureka Times-Standard. Some stores are closed for repair and cleaning due to cracked windows, broken pipes, falling ceiling tiles and damaged inventory.

Jim Campbell Spickler is still in awe of the experience. He was sitting atop the tall redwood Christmas tree at the Sequoia Park Zoo, holding a star, when the quake struck.

“What are the chances of that?” Zoo director Campbell Spickler told the Times-Standard. “I was strapped in, “I put my foot on a branch, and I could feel the force of the earthquake through my feet on the tree.”

“With each wave of the earthquake, it felt like the tree would jump a little in a big cliff, as if something was hitting the tree, and it would resonate up the trunk,” he said.

This quake provided another major test for the West Coast ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system — and it was a huge success, warning an estimated 5 million residents between Salinas and Lincoln City, OR, with a loud alert and instructions to land, cover and rescue. He clings.

ShakeAlert was very accurate, initially reporting a 6.9-magnitude quake, said Robert Michael DeGroot of the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena. After more than a decade of development, the ShakeAlert system now has more than 1,500 earthquake sensors in California, Oregon and Washington, which provide information used to alert people at risk. When completed at the end of 2025, ShakeAlert will have more than 2,000 sensors that will contribute to improving ShakeAlert's performance.

“The system did exactly what it was supposed to do,” De Groot said.

An estimated 5 million people were alerted by at least one of ShakeAlert's alert delivery partners — FEMA's wireless emergency alert system, which is distributed as AMBER Alert; MyShake, developed by UC Berkeley, and Google's Android Earthquake Alert.

Clements said there is a one in 20 chance of a magnitude 6 earthquake occurring next week. Many of the region's communities are built on soft clay in river basins, which means they are vulnerable to aftershocks.

California Geological Survey engineering geologists John Oswald, right, and Spencer Watkins assess road damage after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez) Fault in Fault

Thursday's quake occurred along a turbulent zone where the Gorda and Pacific tectonic plates meet. It is called the Mendocino fault and is considered part of the Cascadia subduction zone that extends north along the coast. This region is known for frequent earthquake activity due to complex plate interactions.

The tsunami did not occur, as feared, because it was a “slip” fault where two of the Earth's tectonic plates slid past each other horizontally. This resulted in minimal vertical displacement of the seafloor. All faults in the Bay Area, such as the Mendocino Fault, are strike-slip faults.

The 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan that triggered a devastating tsunami in 2011, which washed away walls of water above the coast of Japan, was quite different. It happened in what is called a subduction zone where one of the Earth's tectonic plates slid under another.

On Thursday, USGS scientists were working in their offices in Moffett Park when they felt the Humboldt quake, then gathered for a meeting in the auditorium.

“There's a lot to do,” Clements said.

Some teams were heading to the coast to bury battery-powered sensors connected to cellular service, so data could flow back in real time.

“We want to capture as many aftershocks as possible,” Clements said. “We want to understand the characteristics of the shaking – and get a better indication of the earthquake and fault structure that occurs in the ocean.”

Other teams are deploying “decadal seismometers,” a different approach to measuring aftershocks. Although they are not connected to cellular service, these instruments are faster and easier to install than traditional seismometers; Several hundred can be installed in several days. This data, collected during subsequent visits, will be useful for future scientific analysis.

Field teams from the California Geological Survey reported that the most common ground damage observed was landslides and slope movement, causing some shoulders of the road to shift downhill. There were some rockslides on beach cliffs and bluffs. Soil liquefaction occurred on West Ferndale Beach, where strong shaking loosened sand deposits, causing settlement and ground cracks.

However, other teams are working in the Bay Area to study the slow and continuous motion response of distant faults, such as the Hayward, San Andreas, and Calaveras faults. They often adapt after a large earthquake, but the relationship between the two types of movements is still not well understood.

“With each earthquake, we can learn more about the underlying physics, and better predict and understand seismic hazard risks moving forward,” Clements said.

Originally Posted: December 6, 2024 at 4:51 PM PT

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