Baja California Earthquake Clearinghouse

Report from Baja California Governor

admin — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:18:23 +0000

The Baja California governor has released his third annual government report. His report contains some information on the earthquake that affected the state. Please click the link below to be directed to the latest official report from the Governor of Baja California.

http://www.bajacalifornia.gob.mx/portal/gobierno/3Informe/3informe.jsp

The second part, ‘Seguridad y Justicia Integral’, contains a section is about the earthquake providing some statistics and economic damage estimates. You may find this starting on page 15.

EERI Reconnaissance Report NOW AVAILABLE

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:37:56 +0000

The final report on the El Mayor Cucapah earthquake, combining observations from a number of authors and teams that were in the field, is now available by clicking on the title here:

The El Mayor Cucapah, Baja California Earthquake Reconnaissance Report (16.8 MB)

Report on Nonstructural Damage by UCSD team now available

admin — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:04:24 +0000

View report here (PDF)

Hwy. 2 Overcrossing, Intermediate Bent Damage

Majid Sarraf — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 06:44:34 +0000

Observations from UCSD Team: El Centro, Calexico & UABC (Mexicali) Area

tara — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:39:55 +0000

Brief Report – EERI Clearinghouse – UCSD Team
Tara Hutchinson, Matthew Hoehler, Arnold Gastelum, Derrick Watkins and Richard Wood
4/12/2010

Three days following the event, on April 7, 2010, a team of five from the San Diego area visited the
affected areas of El Centro, Calexico, and Mexicali. This initial survey immediately after the event was
intended to largely focus on nonstructural damage. Team members included Tara Hutchinson, Arnold
Gastelum, Derrick Watkins, and Richard Wood of the University of California, San Diego, and Matthew
Hoehler of Hilti Corporation. In addition to driving through affected areas, four detailed site surveys were
documented, namely (1) El Centro Regional Medical Center and Medical Plaza (N32.7804°,
W115.5685°; 1415 Ross Avenue, El Centro, CA 92243), (2) Calexico Water Treatment Plant (N32.6703°,
W115.5050°; 545 Pierce Avenue, Calexico, CA 92231), (3) Downtown Calexico (N32.6674°,
W115.4946°), and (4) Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Mexicali (UABC; N32.6320°,
W115.4444°). Select images from each of these sites are provided below. Additional reporting will follow
in the near future. Note that all images within this report were taken on April 7, 2010 unless otherwise
noted.

Click here to view images and report (PDF)

Bridge damage: Observations from Majid Sarraf

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:09:32 +0000

Preliminary report from CA Seismic Safety Commission team

Turner — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:07:48 +0000

A team of Commissioner Gary McGavin, Bob Anderson, Dave King, and Fred Turner visited Imperial County with a focus on Calexico and El Centro and to a lesser extent Brawley and south of Seeley on Wed 4/7 and Thursday 4/8. Their preconnaissance map is a Google mymap requiring an email address that has a Google account and can be seen by pressing the “signin” hyperlink at the top right of this page linked below:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=103090510510346260472.00048384c853bcd11ffb7

If you have trouble getting in, send Fred and email at FredTurnerSE@gmail.com This map will be updated with a few notes and more points from the field visit and possibly more links in a few days.

In addition, Fred posted a few images on the EERI map site. If others can visit the following locations that would be helpful:

El Centro Water Treatment Plant – damage to tank roofs reported.

El Centro Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Holtville Water Treatment Plant – damage to tank roofs reported.

The cluster of open front/potential soft story apartment complexes arrayed around the alleys off Cottonwood Circle south of Ocotillo Drive, north of I8, and west of S. Imperial Ave. Only one appears to be severely damaged.

A more systematic survey of downtown to identify those URM’s previously retrofitted, fully (5 out of 49 as of 2006) or partially (20 out of 49 as of 2006). Thanks, Fred

Pre-event Imagery from the USGS

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:50:01 +0000

The following links take you to public FTP sites maintained by the USGS where various types of pre-event imagery can be downloaded. (Note: these files and folders are very large).

BASELINE PRE-EVENT

http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/disaster/BL_MX_200802_mexicali_mx_6in/
- added Aerial 98 images

http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/disaster/BL_MX_200802_mexicali_mx_6in/shapefiles/index/
- published shapefiles

MEXICO Earthquake

http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/disaster/201004_Earthquake_Mexico/data/

Photos compiled by California Seismic Safety Commission from internet sources

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:50:58 +0000

Download photos here (PDF)

Sierra El Mayor Earthquake of April 4, 2010, Baja California

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:15:49 +0000

The epicenter of the M 7.2 Sierra El Mayor earthquake is located in Baja California, approximately 28 miles south of the Mexico-USA border (see acommpanying annotated Google map. Note: since posting of this image, the epicenter has been relocated 11 miles to the northwest). Surface fault rupture and other ground failure investigations are underway by a collaborative team comprised of representatives from the U.S. Geological Survey, California Geological Survey, Southern California Earthquake Center, and other organizations. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute also deployed a group of its members to the region soon after the event struck. Major geologic findings reported thus far is the south of the border occurrence of extensive surface rupture with oblique slip offset (east down, right lateral) in places exceeding 2 meters along a 28 km portion of the Borrego fault. North of the border, coseismic strike slip not exceeding 1-2 cm (as reported thus far) is being mapped along a series of faults within a 10 km-wide northwest trending zone that extends about 15 km into California.

Considerable ground failure in the form of surface fault rupture and liquefaction has been documented along various roads and canal levees south of the border. No reports of liquefaction or earthquake-induced landslides have yet been reported north of the border. Clearinghouse updates will be posted periodically as information from the field investigations continue to arrive.

For more information log onto: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2010/ci14607652/#summary