Sunday morning at 3:20am, an earthquake rated 6.1 by the USGS — the strongest California has experienced in 25 years — struck at a depth of 6.7 miles (10.7km) in Northern California's Napa Valley. The governor declared a state of emergency for Napa county as it exhausted its resources fighting fires, searching for trapped survivors, and handling other aspects of the aftermath.
Around 120 people sustained minor or moderate injuries, and CNN reports at least 6 are in critical condition. Approximately 50 ruptured gas mains caused at least six fires, one of which destroyed several mobile homes with firefighters hindered by the loss of dozens of water mains to breaks.
Lorraine Balbi, 67, said she narrowly escaped the flames that engulfed her unit at the mobile park shortly after the earthquake hit at 3:20 a.m. ... She said she heard her neighbor screaming her name and looked out her front door to see flames climbing from her unit’s gas main. She grabbed her dog, her cellphone and cellphone charger. Minutes later, her home was destroyed. “The house is gone. The car is gone,” she said, her voice breaking. “Everything.”
On the brighter side, while over 25,000 homes in Napa and neighboring Sonoma Counties lost power and roads buckled up to two feet, it thankfully doesn't appear to have damaged any of the bridges or caused any deaths (yet). However, three of Napa's historic buildings were among the 21 that sustained severe damage, 20 cars were buried by a collapsed carport. Regional wineries were still assessing damages as of Sunday afternoon.
Wikipedia's "2014 Napa Earthquake" article is being updated live as more information is released.
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The BBC has an article about the new ESA satellite system called Sentinel (Part of the ESA's Copernicus Earth Observation program)
On August 24th, a Magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit Napa California. Researchers have been walking across Napa in recent days to try to record exactly where the deep rupture broke through to the surface. In places, this is very evident from buckled roads and fractured kerbstones. But there are significant segments of the fault failure that have no obvious surface expression, and for these portions scientists hope to gain useful insights from the new Sentinel interferogram.
This is important information for understanding future seismic hazards and guiding infrastructure planning.
Sentinel 1A uses radar interferometry to measure ground displacement from orbit. Launched earlier this summer, the new satellite has used before and after data to Map the ground movements caused by the NAPA earthquake.
COMET Director, Tim Wright, from University of Leeds said, "This successful demonstration of Sentinel-1A marks the beginning of a new era for our ability to map earthquakes from space".
Sentinel-1A passes over the same spot on the ground every 12 days. However, once its identical twin, Sentinel-1B, is launched in 2016, this will be cut to just six days, so that changes can be mapped even faster.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @01:34AM
It is far worse than that every day in Detroit, yet that is not (officially) called a disaster area. They will not be getting any aid. The cynical side of me believes it comes down to news sensationalism and demographics. Bad things happen to 25k predominantly white households and it is a national disaster on every news channel with call for aid and sympathy. 500k predominantly black households in just as bad of shape and it is business as usual.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by kaszz on Monday August 25 2014, @02:59AM
Probably two factors affect this: 1) Importance of people, usually how important they are for industry to function 2) Sudden impact enables the insurance policy (FEMA?) while slow decline is the responsibility of an individual.
Workers that are hard to replace ie educated and experienced tend to have larger impact than others. The amount of capital and power influence people have also matters but for other reasons. And if your country or community takes a downhill path, get out of there. Otoh.. if the people on this planet makes bad decisions then emigration is a bit harder..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @03:35AM
(Score: 4, Interesting) by martyb on Monday August 25 2014, @12:33PM
I suspect it's more than education. (I have no first-hand experience about Detroit, so I won't address that.) I had read and learned about earthquakes in school. Understood the concepts of plate tectonics. Saw news reports on television when there were quakes. Saw videos of things swaying around and crashing down.
I was on a business trip some 20 or so years ago. Heard a loud rumbling while I was in my hotel room. Felt a vibration that lasted about 20-30 seconds. Sounded like one of the maids was in a *hurry* to finish their shift and was running down the hall pushing their cart. Found out later it was a small quake (a 4.1 IIRC).
I was at a gathering with about 60 friends a couple years ago. Heard a loud roar. Sounded like a train was going along right nearby. And then felt the ground shake. Quite a bit. For a good 15 seconds or so. Solid ground. Something stable and unmoving was suddenly *moving*! (That one was rated about a 5.) Pardon the pun, but that one really shook me up. Changed, irrevocably, my concept of what I could count on. People were talking about it for weeks.
Decades of knowing something was suddenly thrown into doubt.
Intellectually, I know that these are rated on a logarithmic scale. So a quake rated as a 5 is 10 times more powerful than a 4. So, the one that just hit in California was at least 10 times more powerful than the last one I experienced. I can't imagine just how disturbing that would be and feel.
So, yes, there's the knowing of it, but that's a long ways from the experiencing of it, and that difference dramatically changed my view of the world and what I could depend upon.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 26 2014, @03:24AM
Thank you.
- The AC you replied to
(Score: 1, Troll) by Snotnose on Monday August 25 2014, @05:12AM
What happened (is happening) in Detroit took 40 years and was predictable. What happened this morning was unpredictable. Huge difference.
Corrupt politicians + greedy labor unions + short sighted car makers != unpredictable earthquake.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Monday August 25 2014, @06:08AM
The earthquake also was predicted a long time ago. More of them are expected.
That it happened on August 24, 2014, that was unpredictable [relatively].
That the San Francisco area has a major fault line running through it is a well known fact, and that they will repeatedly suffer large earthquakes on a semi-regular basis, WAS/IS WAY MORE predictable than Corrupt politicians + greedy labor unions + short sighted car makers.
One of these things was definitely going to happen, while the other just had a 99.9% likelihood of happening.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Monday August 25 2014, @06:33AM
I agree, the earthquake had a 99.9% likelihood of happening. What's your point?
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 3, Funny) by davester666 on Monday August 25 2014, @07:01AM
Why can't we store politicians in any voids left by earthquakes?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday August 25 2014, @12:29PM
No, it wasn't. Not in the way that would support your point, were it true.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by mendax on Monday August 25 2014, @04:34AM
I see earthquakes as God's way of reminding us every so often just who is boss. It's good to be reminded of that so that we don't take ourselves too seriously.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by f4r on Monday August 25 2014, @05:54AM
God must be a real dick then, because he killed 185 people [wikipedia.org] in my city back in 2011. Yeah, thanks god, great to see you're "all-loving" and whatnot.
Do not use as directed.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Monday August 25 2014, @07:25AM
An ex-colleague from Christchurch said that his father's building company thrived after the 2011 earthquake. It led him to develop the theory that California's frequent earthquakes encourage an economic trickledown effect. I'd say that areas prone to earthquakes also encourage a temperament of novelty and neophilia.
1702845791×2
(Score: 0, Redundant) by f4r on Monday August 25 2014, @07:38AM
This is very true, there was a positive economic effect (hell my job now is a result of the quakes). Still, I'd rather people, ya'know, not die for it. By your logic, god sounds like a hitman; "Yeah those people died but look at all the money!". Your god is now an even bigger dick.
Do not use as directed.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday August 25 2014, @09:00AM
encourage a temperament of novelty and neophilia.
I am very sorry, but I read this as "a temperament of novelty and necrophilia", which now that I think about it, is a very different thing. But after the Ought Six and resulting destruction of San Fran, one has to wonder, as stated in "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues", are these caucasian types just crazy? Rebuild? And rebuild with nat gas without quick detach and shut-off values? Ah, Kalifornia, As the Gubernator used to say!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @06:03AM
So, in the future, when ALL our infrastructures are so good at being earthquake proof, then we can take ourselves seriously?
Not trying to troll, but I seriously have difficulty understanding how religious can attribute anything and everything, including random events, to their own God's will, without concluding that such God cannot have any conscious will at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @10:38PM
I personally believe that the Earthquakes aren't caused by God. A God that cares about all Life would not create disasters that kill people at random. All natural disasters and other evil things that occur on this planet are due to one entity. Satan. Satan may not directly cause each and every evil act or natural disaster, but they occur due to his existence. They also occur due to the choice that the two first humans made. Assuming you believe in the Bible, you must accept the entire thing as truth. Anything less is hypocrisy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @08:20AM
Earthquakes are good for another reason. If we didn't live on an active planet, erosion would eventually wear down all the mountains, and even the continents. We'd be water-world. If you have earthquakes, you often have mountains. Mountains catch rain and snow, so you have water and beautiful scenery. You also may have volcanoes and/or volcanic soil from ancient eruptions. Volcanic soil drains well and is fertile. It's good farmland.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @06:01AM
The Landers quake was magnitude 7.3 in 1992, which is only 22 years ago. I don't remember what other large quakes have occurred since then.
(Score: 1) by OffTheWallSoccer on Monday August 25 2014, @07:40AM
6.1 is the strongest California quake in 25 years?
Loma Prieta quake in October 1989 was 6.9.
Northridge quake in January 1994 was 6.7.
And those are just the bigger ones that I remember.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @01:46PM
That is an affect of watching 'news'. They use hyperbole all the time. You pick your numbers to sound as bad as possible.
X is the worst in 20 years. Where if you looked at 23 years something is bigger. So you frame the story to be worse by picking different timeframes. So you do not pick 25 years you pick 20. 20 still sounds big. But not big enough that someone can call you out on your lie of omission.
Not to say X is not bad. But 'news' agencies want to get as many eyeballs on the story as possible. Framing the story in hyperbole is a good way to draw in viewers. It works on me and I am well aware of the technique.
News agencies love natural disasters. You will not believe how unprepared agency XYZ was find out after the break.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 25 2014, @01:15PM
When that earthquake hit. Needless to say we got out of there ASAP once it calmed down. Shook a lot of plaster off the ceiling too, which was what woke me up.
When they showed it on the news later it had created couple feet wide trenches over where the fault line was I believe.
(Score: 5, Funny) by rts008 on Monday August 25 2014, @01:46PM
California is a state of emergency.
There, that's better....;-)