An earthquake expert says there's one place in San Francisco she'd never live
Google Maps / USGS
"It could happen tomorrow or in 30 years," Mary Comerio, an architect who specializes in earthquake engineering research and a professor of disaster recovery and reconstruction at the University of California, Berkeley, told Business Insider.
The potential impacts of this quake on San Francisco are severe. Heavy, dense apartments built above cavernous garages (also known as soft-story housing), will buckle as the marshy soil beneath them - added in the latter half of the 19th century by zealous developers wanting to extend the peninsula's real estate - behaves like a liquid.
This phenomenon, which seismologists refer to as liquefaction, is one of the region's biggest threats. It plagues the majority of neighborhoods on San Francisco's eastern shoreline as well as a slice of land along its western edge. Essentially, anything along the water is at significant risk - something that Comerio said has heavily influenced her decisions about where to live.As a result, she said she'd never consider moving to a place near the waterfront.
"I don't want to live on soft soil. I'd love to be able to walk along the bay but I don't want to live in that setting because I know it's going to be highly damaged," Comerio said.
The fact that she so ardently considers the soil conditions in an area has become something of an inside joke to her friends and family, Comerio said.
"It's become a family joke that I always say, 'Honey, I like the soil conditions here.'"
- US buys 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says
- 2 states where home prices are falling because there are too many houses and not enough buyers
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- 9 health benefits of drinking sugarcane juice in summer
- 10 benefits of incorporating almond oil into your daily diet
- From heart health to detoxification: 10 reasons to eat beetroot
- Why did a NASA spacecraft suddenly start talking gibberish after more than 45 years of operation? What fixed it?
- ICICI Bank shares climb nearly 5% after Q4 earnings; mcap soars by ₹36,555.4 crore
- Nothing Phone (2a) blue edition launched
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market