Latest Loma Prieta earthquake Stories

With a series of computer-controlled earthquakes, simulating some of the most devastating in recent memory, Berkeley engineers Wednesday showed off new technology designed to keep bridges not just from collapsing in a catastrophic temblor but open to traffic. A 30-foot scale-model bridge, set up on the shake table (earthquake simulator) at the Richmond Field Station, was the star of the show, put on by Berkeley's Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER).In a series of simulated...

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- With the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta Northern California Earthquake happening this month, earthquake engineers and authors Peter Yanev and Andrew Thompson have completely updated and expanded the best-selling 1974 book Peace of Mind in Earthquake Country: How To Save Your Home, Business, and Life. This all new edition--available in bookstores now--features new information and photos, and distills the essentials everyone needs to know about...

Four days after a devastating earthquake hit central China, rescuers had freed a nurse from the debris of a clinic in Beichuan county. The rescue brings to light the issue of just how long people can survive trapped under loads of rubble.  In Turkey, a nurse survived eight days in the wreckage of a hospital ruined by a 1992 earthquake. In Mexico, a newborn infant was rescued after being trapped for more than a week in the rubble of Mexico City's 1985 quake. Now, in China, rescuers...

OAKLAND, California - San Francisco Bay area residents faced nightmarish commutes Monday after one of the region's most traveled sections of freeway melted and collapsed following a fiery crash. An elevated section of highway that carries motorists from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge to a number of freeways was destroyed early Sunday after heat from an overturned gasoline truck caused part of one overpass to crumple onto another. "I've never seen anything like it," said Officer Trent...

By Leonard Anderson and Jim Christie SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An earthquake on the San Andreas fault as large as the one that destroyed San Francisco a century ago could kill thousands and cause $150 billion in damage, scientists said on Monday on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the city's 1906 quake. Areas near the shorelines of San Francisco Bay, especially landfill, are particularly vulnerable. A repeat of the 7.9-magnitude 1906 quake on the San Andreas fault could kill...

By Leonard Anderson and Jim Christie SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An earthquake on the San Andreas fault as large as the one that destroyed San Francisco a century ago could kill thousands and cause $150 billion in damage, scientists said on Monday on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the city's 1906 quake. Areas near the shorelines of San Francisco Bay, especially landfill, are particularly vulnerable. A repeat of the 7.9-magnitude 1906 quake on the San Andreas fault could kill...

SAN FRANCISCO -- If an earthquake like the one that devastated the city in 1906 struck today, the toll would be staggering: tens of thousands of buildings damaged and hundreds of people dead, according to a new study.The report released Monday calculated that a repeat of that 7.9-magnitude temblor would cause 1,800 to 3,400 deaths, damage more than 90,000 buildings, displace as many as 250,000 households and result in $150 billion in damage."We already witnessed the effect of the...