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We are hearing a lot about the damage, injuries and life lost in Haiti because of a major earthquake. I am sure many children have been made fearful by the news coverage. We need to give them information to take away their fear. I would advise parents to allow their children to participate in efforts to help the people of Haiti. When we are helping others we are less worried about our own well-being. Susan Berger has written a wonderful book about earthquakes so I asked her to share some of her knowledge with the rest of us.

SHARI: Susan, if I’m not mistaken you live in Southern California, a place known for some major earthquakes, have you ever been in an earthquake? Can tell us about it?

SUSAN: We are well known as Earthquake country. However the only quakes we need to worry about are the big quakes. That would be an earthquake measuring over 6.2 on the Richter scale. The lesser quakes are scary, but rarely do significant damage. A 5.5 to 6.1 is considered “Very Strong” according to the USGS chart. Any quake over 5.5 can cause your electricity to snap off and may cause damage to a building. .

Oddly enough I do not think Sacramento gets earthquakes. But the coastal cities certainly do. Northern California had a 6.5 two weeks ago. The last major quake in Los Angeles was in 1994. We are overdue for another one.

SHARI: I use to live in Southern California myself, but I was fortunate to be away when big quakes struck. I did experience some less intense quakes. I think the largest was a 3.6 in the San Fernando Valley in 1963. I recall waves in the swimming pool and light fixtures swinging back and forth, but I don’t think there was any damage. Earthquakes are not exclusive to California and Haiti. Where else do they occur?

SUSAN: Here is a map from FEMA showing earthquake probability in the United States. As you can see, activity is fairly wide spread. There are only four states which have not had an earthquake. However most of them are too small to be noticed. Humans rarely feel an earthquake lower than a 3.0

This is a map from FEMA showing Earthquake probabilities.

Here is a global map for Earthquake probability. As you can see, China, Japan and a great part of Europe are Marked in red as is the entire North and South American coast

SHARI: Are some places better equipped to deal with earthquakes than others? Why?

SUSAN: Yes. California, Alaska, Oregon and Japan know they will have earthquakes. They spent a lot of time and money preparing for earthquakes. The seismic building code is frequently updated.

Some parts of the world such as Haiti, and Italy, Czechoslovakia and Mexico rarely see devastating quakes. Many of the building structures are very old and no one thought of upgrading the structure to make them safe for earthquakes. In our own country there was an earthquake in New Madrid Missouri which was probably an 8. something in 1811. (Of course we were not measuring them at that time) This series of quakes caused the ground to shake for eight days and caused the Mississippi to run backward. There is a strong possibility that Missouri might have another large quake. I am not sure that buildings in that area have been retrofitted to with

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