Officials ready for earthquakes

Running along Pacific Coast Highway approximately 2,000 feet from CSULB is the Cherry Hills segment of the Newport-Inglewood fault line. The fault line extends from Culver City in the north to Newport Beach in the south, measuring 75 kilometers in length. The possibility also exists that it might extend as far as San Diego in the south.

"If it connects with the Rose Canyon fault line in San Diego that would greatly increase the potential size of an earthquake," said CSULB geology professor Tom Kelty. "At that length, the magnitude of an earthquake might reach 7.5."

The last action on the fault was the 1933 Long Beach earthquake that reached 6.3 on the Richter scale and killed 150 people. Scientists are still trying to determine the likelihood of an earthquake, called the recurrence interval, but Kelty said it would be higher than the rate of once every 150 years for the San Andreas Fault.

Since they are not connected, an earthquake on the San Andreas would not trigger an earthquake along the Newport-Inglewood line.

"If the San Andreas moved, it would only relieve stress on other fault lines in the region and vice versa," Kelty said.

In order to limit damage caused by earthquakes, California passed the Alquist-Priolo Act in 1972 to create zones around fault lines on which homes and buildings cannot be built. No portion of either CSULB or Veteran's Affairs Hospital sits above the zone around the Newport-Inglewood line.

Campus officials have taken steps to ensure student safety before and after a potential earthquake.

Every building in the CSU system, both existing and planned, is reviewed by an advisory panel which includes engineers and seismologists, said Scott Charmack, associate vice president for Physical Planning and Facilities Management.

"Every building in the system is prioritized by need before any work can be done," Charmack said. "Three years ago the Macintosh Building was reinforced and currently the Fine Arts buildings are being renovated. Other buildings that are not as badly in need and will be renovated in the future include Engineering 2 and Liberal Arts 2, 3 and 4."

To further ensure safety, the code that the CSU advisory board uses is more stringent than the normal California Building Code, Charmack said.

"One thing people need to understand is that the codes are designed to limit human injury, not to keep a building functional after a quake," Charmack said. "To have buildings that would be functional after a 9.0 quake would be great, but they would also be extremely expensive."

CSULB also conducts two evacuation drills a year to prepare the campus for any form of emergency, said Richard Johnson, associate director of Environmental Health and Safety at Safety and Risk Management.

"The building marshals are trained in the orderly evacuation of the entire campus population to designated centers," Johnson said. "We also have a fully trained and staffed environmental response team that can quickly respond to any site on campus and assess a situation."

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