The Loma Prieta earthquake was unique because the type of seismic movement wasn’t typical of the San Andres Fault system. “The Loma Prieta earthquake ruptured the southernmost

40 km of the 1906 break, in comparable amounts of right-lateral strike slip and reverse slip motion. The average strike-slip displacement was 1.2 meters while the average reverse-slip displacement was 1.6 meters” (UC Berkeley 1). This type of motion is not typical of the San Andreas Fault and suggests that the earthquake occurred on a sub-parallel fault and not on the San Andreas itself. The potential for a damaging earthquake on the San Andreas Fault system in the Santa Cruz Mountains may still exist because the stress along this fault may not have been relieved during the Loma Prieta earthquake.

There are about 575,000 bridges in the United States, 60 percent were constructed before 1970 (Ghasemi 15). Before 1970 bridges were built for strength and not flexibility. Now engineers are working with a sense of urgency to retrofit the nation’s bridges against collapse since the Loma Prieta earthquake. The Loma Prieta earthquake was a wake up call to everyone. Since this earthquake occurred seismic codes have been rewritten to focus more on flexibility than on strength. Future bridges will be built with the Loma Prieta earthquake in mind.

Damage from th

Some topics in this essay:
Bay Bridge, Loma Prieta, Andreas Fault, World Series, loma prieta earthquake, prieta earthquake, loma prieta, San Andreas, Santa Cruz, Central California, Cruz Mountains, bay bridge, San Diego, UC Berkeley, san andreas, san andreas fault, andreas fault, santa cruz, earthquake occurred, abramson 1, retrofitting bay bridge, earthquake generated, typical san, santa cruz mountains, prieta earthquake loma,