- 1989-10-18 00:04:15 (UTC)
- 37.036°N 121.880°W
- 17.2 km depth
Archive for the ‘Historical’ Category
The Grenfell Tower Fire of 2017: Who’s to blame?
Wednesday, October 30th, 2019“Some of the 72 people who died in the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 would have survived if firefighters and emergency operators had not told them to stay in their apartments, according to a government report to be released on Wednesday.
The 1,000-page report, which comes more than two years after the deadliest fire in recent British history, is harshly critical of the London Fire Brigade, calling it dangerously unprepared for such a tragedy, according to multiple British news organizations that gained access to the conclusions before their release.
The fire on June 14, 2017, began on the fourth floor of the 24-story building and spread rapidly upward because of flammable exterior cladding and insulation that had been added to the building the year before…….”
October 26, 2002: The 57-hour hostage crisis ends when Russian special forces surrounded and raided the theater and with the help of a narcotic gas killed all the Chechan terrorists and 120 hostages
Saturday, October 26th, 2019October 23, 1983: A suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel.
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWfgA9ulcMw
October 23, 1989: 23 people die in a series of explosions sparked by an ethylene leak at a Philipps Petroleum factory in Pasadena, Texas.
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019The Early Years of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS)
Monday, October 21st, 2019“……..In just 20 years, the SNS – now managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) – has grown to a $7 billion enterprise poised to respond to a variety of public health threats. These threats include anthrax, botulism, smallpox, plague, tularemia and viral hemorrhagic fevers, as well as emerging infectious diseases, pandemic influenza, natural disasters, and other chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents……..”
The so-called Loma Prieta earthquake hits the San Francisco Bay Area on October 17, 1989, killing 67 people, injuring 3,757 and causing more than $5 billion in damages.
Thursday, October 17th, 2019
M 6.9 – Loma Prieta, California Earthquake
Liquefaction, as evidenced by sand boils, lateral spreading, settling, and slumping, occurred as far as 110 kilometers from the epicenter. It caused severe damage to buildings in San Francisco’s Marina district as well as along the coastal areas of Oakland and Alameda in the east San Francisco Bay shore area. Liquefaction also contributed significantly to the property damage in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay areas, which lie near the epicentral zone. Structures damaged by liquefaction include buildings, bridges, highways, pipelines, port facilities, airport runways, and levees. Subsurface soil conditions, which amplified accelerations in the San Francisco Bay area, strongly influenced structural damage patterns and probably contributed to liquefaction problems in loose, sandy fills underlain by deep, cohesive soil deposits.
Engineered buildings, including those near the epicenter, performed well during the earthquake. Hospital buildings in the region sustained only minor system and cosmetic damage, and operational interruptions did not occur. Only five schools sustained severe damage, estimated at $81 million.
Most of the spectacular damage to buildings was sustained by unreinforced masonry buildings constructed of wood-frame roof and floor systems supported by unreinforced brick walls. These structures failed in areas near the epicenter as well as in areas far from the epicenter, at San Francisco and Monterey. The severe shaking near Santa Cruz caused heavy damage to the unreinforced masonry buildings in that area, particularly in the Santa Cruz Pacific Garden Mall, which consisted of several blocks of unreinforced masonry store buildings.
More than 80 of the 1,500 bridges in the area sustained minor damage, 10 required temporary supports, and 10 were closed owing to major structural damage. One or more spans collapsed on three bridges. The most severe damage occurred to older structures on poor ground, such as the Cypress Street Viaduct (41 deaths) and the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge (one death). Damage to the transportation system was estimated at $1.8 billion.
Most of the more than 1,000 landslides and rockfalls occurred in the epicentral zone in the Santa Cruz Mountains. One slide, on State Highway 17, disrupted traffic for about 1 month.
The earthquake produced a pattern of northwest-trending extensional fractures in the north end of the aftershock zone northwest of the epicenter, but through-going right-lateral surface faulting was not found above the rupture defined by the main shock and its aftershocks. Six feet of right-lateral strike-slip and 4 feet of reverse-slip was inferred from geodetic data. The only surface fracturing that might be attributed to primary tectonic faulting occurred along a trace of the San Andreas near Mount Madonna Road in the Corralitos area, where en echelon cracks showed 2 centimeters of right-lateral displacement.
Extensional fractures (maximum net displacement of 92 centimeters) were observed about 12 kilometers northwest of the epicenter, in the Summit Road-Skyland Ridge area, east of State Highway 17, whereas zones of compressional deformation were found along the northeast foot of the Santa Cruz Mountains between Blossom Hill and Palo Alto. In Los Altos and Los Gatos, ground deformation appeared to be associated closely with zones of heavy structural damage and broken underground utility lines.
Other towns in the area that also experienced severe property damage include Boulder Creek, Corralitos, Hollister, Moss Landing, and several smaller communities in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
This earthquake was felt over most of central California and in part of western Nevada. The rate of aftershock activity decreased rapidly with time, but the total number of aftershocks was less than that expected from a generic California earthquake of similar magnitude. Fifty-one aftershocks of magnitude 3.0 and larger occurred during the first day after the main shock, and 16 occurred during the second day. After 3 weeks, 87 magnitude 3.0 and larger aftershocks had occurred.
Abridged from Seismicity of the United States, 1568-1989 (Revised), by Carl W. Stover and Jerry L. Coffman, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1527, United States Government Printing Office, Washington: 1993.
October 16, 1996: A stampede of soccer fans before a World Cup qualifying match in Guatemala City kills 84 people and seriously injures more than 100.
Wednesday, October 16th, 2019
10/16/1991: one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history.
Wednesday, October 16th, 2019“George Jo Hennard drives his truck through a window in Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, and then opens fire on a lunch crowd of over 100 people, killing 23 and injuring 20 more. Hennard then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide……”
10/12/1918: The 1918 Moose Lake/Cloquet fire rages through Minnesota, killing hundreds of people and leaving thousands homeles
Saturday, October 12th, 201910/9/1963: “……The displaced water crashed over the dam and into the Piave River below. It stormed down the river and engulfed the town of Longarone. Within minutes the town had virtually vanished and nearly 2,000 people were dead. The tsunami-like wave then rushed down to San Martino, where it killed hundreds more……”
Wednesday, October 9th, 2019“…..The Vaiont Gorge was located in a section of the Alps known for instability. In 1963, the area experienced heavy rains—about 90 inches by October 9. At 10:41 p.m., the wet land could no longer hold and a massive landslide came crashing down from Mount Toc, causing a huge pile of dirt and rocks to plunge into the reservoir at about 70 miles per hour. The impact of the debris caused an immense wave of water to rise as high as 300 feet above the level of the dam……”