• The epicenter of the magnitude 6.6 disastrous earthquake was in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, at the northeastern edge of the Valley. All these buildings had been previously inspected with regard to the requirements of the Act, and many were reinforced or rebuilt at that time, but earthquake engineering experts recommended further immediate refurbishment or demolition after a separate evaluation was done after the February 1971 earthquake, and within a year and a half the district followed through with the direction with regard to about 100 structures. Upon revisiting the scene of his earlier mapping, Mr. Saul was able to recognize that movement had taken place on the Santa Susana thrust, in the Bee Canyon area. While lateral, transverse, and vertical motions were all observed, the largest individual component of movement was 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) of left lateral slip near the middle of the Sylmar segment. Peter Fischer, of Whittier College, had the foresight and was instrumental in making arrangements for Marine Corps support. osti.gov technical report: damage survey, san fernando earthquake of february 9, 1971. Huge collection, amazing choice, 100+ million high quality, affordable RF and RM images. The earthquake was not, or should not have been, unexpected. As a result, building of new structures for human occupancy across active fault lines was banned. The gray zones represent areas with unsafe wood-frame dwellings (the locations of which are shown by a diamond symbols). The southern California soil shook violently the morning of February 9, 1971. Other sites throughout the Los Angeles area had been instrumented as a result of local ordinances, and an extraordinary amount of strong motion data was recorded, more so than any other event up until that time. The frontal fault system at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains extends from the San Jacinto Fault Zone in the east to offshore Malibu in the west, and is defined primarily by moderate to shallow north-dipping faults, with a conservative vertical displacement estimated at 4,000–5,000 feet (1,200–1,500 m). Because of its consequences, the San Fernando earthquake was a major earthquake from the engineering point of view, even though it was only a moderate shock in seismological terms. The epicenter was located approximately 10 km northeast of LSFD at … Besides those credited as authors, virtually all staff members in the Los Angeles office participated in the study: Wilma Ashby, Pat Caldwell, George Cleveland, Bill Edgington, Jim Evans, Don Fife, Cathy Govaller, Cliff Gray, Ed Kiessling, and Paul Morton. 1971 San Fernando Earthquake Collapsed Freeway Overpasses Photo. The event was one in a series that affected Los Angeles county in the late 20th century. Although the Richter magnitude of the tremblor was 6.6, ranking it as moderate to large, but not great, it shook a wide, heavily populated area, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Though the reinforced concrete block structure was afflicted by the shock and uplift, the relatively good performance was in stark contrast to that of the Olive View and Veterans Hospital complexes. The origin of faulting was located five miles north of the San Fernando Valley. Seismologists call it the San Fernando earthquake.USGS 'Sylmar Quake' or 'Sylmar earthquake' is the name initially given to the event by local media outlets, because the worst damage … The greatest damage was in the San Fernando area, near the front of the San Gabriel Mountains, where three hospitals were badly damaged (one of them accounting for the greatest loss of lives). Had shaking of the endangered reservoirs continued for 2 seconds more, it has been estimated that there would have been no time to evacuate those below. 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