Darwin-L Message Log 5:121 (January 1994)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

Note: Additional publications on evolution and the historical sciences by the Darwin-L list owner are available on SSRN.

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<5:121>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu  Fri Jan 21 22:00:51 1994

Date: Fri, 21 Jan 1994 23:11:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: LACM suffers some earthquake damage (fwd from TAXACOM)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

The following message forwarded from TAXACOM describes the damage suffered
by the Los Angeles County Museum as a result of the recent earthquake.  Some
Darwin-L members may have visited LACM or used it collections, and I thought
they might be interested to hear how the museum and its staff are doing.

Bob O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)

-- Begin forwarded message -------------

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 1994 12:11:38 -0800
From: Robert Lavenberg <rlavenbe@BCF.USC.EDU>
Subject: Natural History Museum & Earthquake

Status of the collections and condition of the Natural History Museum of Los
Angeles County (LACM) as a result of the earthquake of January 17, 1994.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County suffered little collection
damage resulting from the earthquake, but the building sustained some damage
in the form of cracked walls throughout.

Damage to the building and offices was more prevalent on the upper floors
(third and fourth floors).  On the ground floor no collection damage occurred
in holdings for ichthyology, herpetology, polycheates, crustacea-echinoderms,
archeology-anthropology, or the molecular laboratory.  Most of these
collections are maintained in Spacesaver compactors, and these installations
served the collections well.  Many bottles were knocked down, but none broke
and none were thrown from the carriages.  The tectonic braces served the
carriages well.  Further, no damages occurred in any of the ground floor
offices.  The first floor serves for exhibits only, and no significant damages
occurred; some items in the various exhibits fell over or were displaced.
Little damage occurred.  Second floor serves exhibits, administrative offices,
and collections, no damages occurred in ornithology-mammalogy, but a few items
were broken in the archeology-anthropology storerooms.  Some building damage
was noted between the administrative offices complex as they attached to the
main building.  The third floor serves for offices, and the malacological,
some echinoderm, entomological, botanical, and some historical collections.
Little collection damage occurred, but many of the offices were trashed.  The
fourth floor serves for exhibition and paleontological offices;
paleontological collections are also stored on the fourth floor.  Although the
heavy paleontological cases moved 6-7 inches, no collection damage was noted;
however, the exhibits areas suffered moderate damage.  Some wall cabinets
ripped from the wall on both the third and fourth floors.  Again, some fourth
floor offices were trashed like those on the third floor.

The old 1913 domed-building apparently suffered little damage.  Data for the
earthquake follows.

The San Fernando Valley Earthquake of January 17, 1994 of magnitude 6.6. Data
prepared as of 7:30 am, January 17, 1994.

An earthquake struck the San Fernando Valley this morning at 4:30 am Pacific
Standard Time.  As of 7:00 am, 15 aftershocks of magnitude 3.0 or larger have
been recorded by the Southern California Seismographic Network.  The epicenter
is located at 34! 13' north, 118! 33' west at a depth of 14.6 kilometers.  The
surface wave magnitude from the National Earthquake Information Center is 6.6.
The local magnitude is 6.4.

The focal mechanism of the earthquake shows almost pure thrust (rake of 80!)
on a fault striking 15! west of north with a dip to the north of 30!.  The
location of the mainshock's epicenter is located several kilometers south of
the southern end of the rupture zone.  Most of the aftershocks are located to
the north of the mainshock around 10 kilometers depth.  At this point we have
two competing hypothesis.  If the mainshock is on the north dipping place
plane, it could be on the Elysian Park fold and thrust belt that produced the
Whittier Narrows earthquake (magnitude 5.9) in 1987.  The aftershocks are then
occurring because of sympathetic rerupturing of the 1971 zone.  The other
possibility is that the mainshock occurred on the south dipping plane that is
perhaps a backthrust of the main Elysian Park fault.

R. Lavenberg
Natural History Museum, Research and Collections, Section of Vertebrates
Voice 213 744-3446
FAX 213 748-4432
E-mail rlavenbe@usc.edu

-- End forwarded message ---------------

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