The Great California ShakeOut

The Great California ShakeOut is a statewide earthquake drill spanning all 58 California counties. There are 8.2 million participants and counting!

Most residents of the Central Valley are familiar with the occasional “roll” of a Bay Area earthquake. Few know that there are actually earthquake-producing faults that underlie the valley sediments below them. These faults have been deeply buried by sediments deposited by flooding rivers since they last ruptured. Included in this group is a buried fault that in 1892 produced a strong (estimated M6.6) earthquake centered in the Vacaville-Winters area, where significant damage occurred. Other poorly defined faults in the Central Valley include the Midland, Sweitzer, Dunigan Hills, and Willows faults, along with what’s generally referred to as the San Joaquin fault zone, which is made up of numerous buried faults extending along the western margin of the Great Valley. Because we cannot yet clearly define the locations of most faults buried beneath the valley floor, it is impossible to calculate what ground motions are likely to be produced if they were to rupture. However, we do know that the shaking can be significantly damaging as indicated by the 1892 Vacaville-Winters earthquake and the 1983 Coalinga earthquake (M6.5).

Join Barrish Pelham & Associates, Inc. as we participate in The Great California ShakeOut on October 20th at 10:20 a.m.!

For more information and to sign your firm up follow the link provided here:  http://www.shakeout.org/