Submitted by john on Sun, 08/31/2014 - 17:05
Two interesting stories today, one in the Sacramento Bee newspaper, and the other on Reuters. The consumers quoted in the stories do not think insurance is worth the cost. The providers of insurance urge more people to sign up. What most people also don't realize is that no reimbursement for loss of contents will occur until after the deductilble on the structual damage is met.
Submitted by Steve on Fri, 08/29/2014 - 10:40
I’ve
blogged here many times about dam breaks, both real and hypothetical. Three of
the best known ones in America were the Johnstown Flood of 1889, the
Saint Francis Dam failure of 1928 and the Teton Dam collapse of 1976. Those
disasters released 16 million, 45 million and 330 million cubic meters of water
respectively.
Submitted by john on Tue, 08/26/2014 - 11:15
The
figure below from the Bill Ellsworth at the USGS is a depiction of the earthquake history of Northern California up
to about 1990. In the Bay Area, the last
earthquake of significance was the magnitude ~6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake of
October 17, 1989. Last sunday's magnitude 6 Napa
earthquake was in fact the strongest earthquake north of San Francisco and
south of Eureka since 1906.
Submitted by john on Sun, 08/24/2014 - 16:34
One of the questions we are often asked is whether one should buy earthquake insurance, or put the money into seismic retrofitting. While this is a question for the individual, we can show that retrofitting can save considerable money by reducing damage.
Submitted by john on Sun, 08/24/2014 - 11:07
If you want the mobile version of the earthquake forecast/home damage estimator on this web site, go to the Apple App Store and download the "Quakeworks" app by Open Hazards.
Submitted by john on Sun, 08/24/2014 - 09:18
Major earthquake this morning on the West Napa fault. Earthquake occurred at 3:20 am this morning. Here in Davis, it was felt by many. It is reported that there are at least 89 injuries in Napa, with widespread damage in the downtown area. The fault crossed at least one road in the area, and showed evidence of right-lateral slip. Many water mains broke, and there are reports of 50 gas line breaks and fires as a result.
Submitted by john on Wed, 08/06/2014 - 09:41
Below are updates on the figures from the last post on the Orkney, South Africa earthquake. As can be seen, the probability of an M>5 earthquake within the same 100 km circular region has decreased from 68.1% to 44.9%, which is consistent with the way the forecast algorithm works.
Submitted by john on Tue, 08/05/2014 - 19:58
The largest earthquake to strike South Africa in 40 years killed one man and injured 17 others today. Located near the town of Orkney, it was widely felt. Here we use the hazard viewer to review the forecast preceding the event. Note that the forecast was previously updated last night on August 4, so the data on the web site represent the pre-event probabilities.
In the image below, we show the location of the event together with the forecast contours. The earthquake occurred on top of the only prominent hotspot in South Africa.
Submitted by Steve on Fri, 08/01/2014 - 10:51
It is
said that “A bad day of fishing is
better than a good day of work”. I won’t
argue, but if you were trolling for trout at Chehalis Lake, British Columbia on
December 4, 2007, you’d have had a bad day. Chehalis Lake, 50 miles east of Vancouver is a lovely spot nestled in
the mountains. Prior to that date, it was
known mostly to fisher folk and 4 wheel drive enthusiasts.
Submitted by john on Fri, 07/18/2014 - 03:34
Information and updates on Super Typhoon Rammasun can be found here. Data on Open Hazards web viewer from GDACS. Super typhoon Rammasun making landfall in China. Typhoon Matmo heading for Taiwan.
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