Tehachapi gains earthquake honor as San Francisco anniversary ends
Tehachapi gains earthquake honor as San Francisco anniversary ends
By: Bill Mead
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Posted by editor Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments Now that a century has passed since the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, Tehachapi now stands as host city of the strongest earthquake to hit California in the past 100 years. It’s not something most local residents will want to yell “whoopee” about.
The Tehachapi quake hit on July 21, 1952 with nearly as much intensity as the San Francisco earthquake. Comparisons, however, are as much art as science because the techniques of earthquake measurement had changed in the nearly 50 years between the two events. The Tehachapi quake may have rattled off 7.7 on the Richter Scale at its strongest point, although the most widely accepted figure is slightly lower.
Since the Richter Scale wasn’t invented until 1935, the intensity of the San Francisco earthquake has to be estimated. Most experts think it would have measured 8.0 if the Richter Scale had been around then. Whatever the actual numbers were in each case, it was a bad scene in both cities.
There has been a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on over the years in and near Kern County. Two of the four strongest earthquakes in California’s recorded history struck here: the ’52 Tehachapi quake, caused by a pipsqueak of a fault called White Wolf, and one in 1857 near Fort Tejon that resulted from shifts in the San Andreas Fault, the one responsible for the heralded San Francisco earthquake 50 years later.
The other quake that is among the worst that have taken place in the state virtually destroyed the tiny settlement of Lone Pine in 1877. That one occurred on the Owens Valley Fault which otherwise has been relatively quiet. Seismologists think the Lone Pine earthquake equaled the intensity of the San Francisco earthquake but the quake in Lone Pine killed a much larger proportion of the local population.
Other earthquakes in California since 1906 have generated more news coverage than the ’52 quake in Tehachapi but none of them reached the same magnitude or even came close. There was the 1933 earthquake in Long Beach, the Sylmar quake of 1971, Loma Prieta in 1989 and Northridge in 1994, to mention the most notorious, although none of these reached a magnitude of 7.0.
In between have been literally dozens of other California earthquakes which were either less intense or located in sparsely populated areas where damage was negligible.
It’s not like nature has it in for Kern County and California when it comes to earthquakes. Around the world there are, on average, about 50,000 quakes every year that are strong enough to be felt by most people in the vicinity. In addition, there are several hundred thousand lesser shakes annually that are detected only by seismic instruments.
We do not live on a stable planet, to say the least. It’s no wonder so much attention is paid to earthquakes, but it is surprising that in spite of all this study we still haven’t come close to predicting when or where they will occur, which would be one of the most important practical benefits that could come from seismic research.
Our own 1952 Tehachapi quake is a good example of the maddening unpredictability of earthquakes. Here we sit within an extreme danger zone created by two nearby major faults, San Andreas and Garlock, but what zapped our town was the White Wolf Fault which nobody knew existed and is so inconsequential that it can’t be traced for more than 34 miles. Compare that with the 700 miles of the San Andreas Fault.
Until the day White Wolf Fault shifted and made itself known, seismologists had no idea that a minor-league fault could do such major- league damage. New mini-faults like White Wolf are being discovered all the time in connection with construction planning. Who knows how many remain undiscovered? Even after we find them, there doesn’t seem to be a reliable way to predict their power if they should cut loose.
Lest we assume that nobody is trying to do something about earthquakes, seismic research is broad and unending, with the result that the study and measurement of earth fractures has amassed an enormous amount of data. Every minute of every day earth movements are being monitored, especially in seismically-active locales such as Parkfield on the San Andreas Fault near Paso Robles.
Incredibly sensitive instruments pick up the slightest tremors around the globe. All this creates a colorful history of what just happened but so far it doesn’t appear to shed any light on what might happen next.
New building standards that emerge after every major earthquake tend to reduce the degree of death and destruction that can be expected from the next earthquake, wherever it strikes. Public and private agencies throughout California keep improving the speed and effectiveness of their responses to earthquakes based on their experiences during the last one. That’s the good news.
On the pessimistic side, every year in California more people crowd into earthquake-prone areas. If the 1952 Tehachapi earthquake were to hit this year, the toll would almost certainly be far greater since the community now has six times the number of people and structures than were here a half-century ago.
For the ordinary citizen, perhaps the only meaningful way to minimize the consequences of a possible earthquake is to heed the classic Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared. If you’re not sure how to prepare, contact the Kern County Fire Department or visit any of dozens of websites that can give you worthwhile tips on coping with quakes. I found a bunch of good ones by googling “emergency preparedness.”
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