Southern California is no stranger to earthquakes.
U.S. Geological Survey placed California second on the top 10 list of earthquake-prone states in America.
The state has experienced earthquakes that have caused both mass destruction, like the one that struck Northridge in 1994 and caused $15 billion in damage, and minimal damage, such as the one that struck in late May, in Lennox.
“I remember getting off of work and being in the second floor of the parking structure at the South Bay Galleria when the earthquake at the end of the semester occurred,” Meg Panlaqui, sociology major said.”I thought it was a bomb at first but I saw all these cars bouncing up and down and the parking structure was swaying so I realized it was an earthquake.”
Panlaqui later found out that a screen inside the AMC Theatre fell from the wall, and that structural damage occurred to the building as well.
Not very many people were hurt during that earthquake, but it did bring more awareness to the damage that may be caused by the “big one” that is expected in the future.
“The big one can happen at any time,” geology professor Joseph Holliday said.
“One of them is overdue because we are expecting several big ones in California. We are expecting the southernmost San Andreas Fault to go because it hasn’t gone off since 1680.”
Holliday said to expect another earthquake caused by one of the local faults, the Elysium Park Fault, and that could kill as many people in Los Angeles as the major earthquake expected to occur in Riverside county.
In order to prepare for an earthquake, people should have a week-long supply of water and food for the whole family as well as for any pets because grocery stores may be closed, along with a first aid kit and a cell phone.
“Make sure you have duplicate supplies in your car because your car is with you probably almost the entire week,” Holliday said. “Also make sure you have walking shoes in your car in case you can’t drive home.”
If an earthquake happens while people are at home, he said to get next to a bed, couch, or something strong and to find shoes to wear afterwards in case any glass was broken.
Holliday said that people should turn off their gas if possible, if they smell mercaptan, which is a chemical added to the natural gas people use at home.
If an earthquake occurs while students are on campus, Holiday said no one should leave their classroom or building, because things that kill people are the things on the outside like bricks and glass.
“Everyone who died in the Whittier earthquake in 1987, which was a moderate quake, died while leaving a building and the 38 million Californians who stayed inside survived,” Holliday said.
He said that during the big earthquake, people should expect thousands of fatalities and major highway damage in either Riverside or L.A. depending on which fault the quake comes from. Holliday said that an earthquake from the San Andreas Fault would be caused by a plate boundary between two of the largest tectonic plates in the world.
Only 200 mile segments move at a time, but the plates have not moved since 1680, so they are expected to move sometime in the future and will cause the next major earthquake.
“If you understand what causes earthquakes, you’ll lose your fear of it. It’s not something monstrous or mysterious; it’s a known pr?ocess. We don’t know when it will occur but we know where so people have to prepare and pay attention,” Holliday said.