Jacob Fuhrer |
In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, Aug. 24, senior McKenna Stack was jarred awake by intense shaking. Still groggy, Stack recalled being confused by what was happening.
“My first thought was ‘Oh my gosh, what’s going on?’” Stack said.
As the shock waves continued for about 30 seconds, a friend’s birthday present crashed to the ground and broke.
“Don’t freak out, don’t freak out,” Stack reminded herself. She realized she was experiencing a large earthquake, the result of tectonic plates – massive slabs of the Earth’s crust – shifting along a fault line.
Stack, an organizational communication major, is a resident of Half Moon Bay, California, about 70 miles south of Napa, where the magnitude 6.0 earthquake was most strongly felt. The Napa quake came just days after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck Peru.
This recent seismic activity has renewed speculation about the famed “big one” – a massive earthquake due in the Pacific Northwest region.
According to Robert Butler, an environmental science professor with a passion for geology, the two earthquakes weren’t connected. Still, Butler said, Portland and the surrounding area are not in the clear.
“We are within the time window when we can expect to have another one of these great earthquakes,” Butler said.
The occurrence of large earthquakes increase the likelihood of smaller earthquakes, he said, meaning California could witness more ground-shaking soon.
California is not the only area likely to experience a spike in seismic events. Butler says Oregon and Washington endure large, destructive quakes about every 500 years, and it’s been 314 years since the last one. The news is even worse for central Oregon and parts of northern California, which have enjoyed 300 years of peace in a region where large quakes strike about every 250 years.
Measures are being taken to protect Portland from destruction, including updated building codes. But according to Butler, it’s not enough. He says the city is far from prepared, and that it will take multiple decades before most buildings are retrofitted to withstand a large quake.
As far as UP is concerned, most buildings are in good shape, Butler says.
Waldschmidt Hall, the Clark Library, Shiley Hall and others have been updated in recent years to protect against earthquake damage. The future of some campus buildings, however, is more ominous. Howard Hall’s stone structure is not quake resilient, and Mehling Hall’s height and age could pose a problem, said Butler.
Vice President of Operations Jim Ravelli said that as campus buildings are renovated, they are brought up to earthquake-resilient standards. This process includes major structural upgrades, including adding shear walls and bracing to protect against shock waves. However, aside from the new Beauchamp Recreation & Wellness Center, the University has no plans to bring outdated buildings up to code this year.
On a state level, even if buildings survive, other critical issues exist. Butler estimates that a massive Oregon quake could cause tens of thousands of deaths, and hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. What’s more, power, water and transportation services across the state could be disabled for months or years.
“Take New Orleans, multiply it by 10, and spread it across the west coast,” said Butler when describing the possible damage and loss of life.
It will be some time before the Pacific Northwest is truly prepared for “the big one.” And for Portland, it’s a matter of when, not if.
Jacob Fuhrer is a reporter for The Beacon. You can reach him at fuhrer17@up.edu or on Twitter @jacobfuhrer.
