The 2014 South Napa Earthquake and its Relevance for New Zealand
Seminar Presentation by:
Bruce Galloway
(Technical Director, Holmes Consulting Group, Christchurch)
Jason Ingham
(Professor of Structural Engineering, University of Auckland)
Wellington: Thursday 6th November, Auckland: Monday 10th November, Christchurch: Tuesday 11th November
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The South Napa earthquake occurred on 24 August 2014 at 3:20am local time. This was the largest earthquake in the San Francisco Bay area since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, 25 years earlier. The main earthquake was Mw 6.0 at a depth of 10.7 km, with the epicenter located approximately 6.0 km northwest of the city of American Canyon.
Parallels exist between the damage in past New Zealand earthquakes, particularly to unreinforced masonry buildings, and the disruption in the Marlborough region following the recent 2013 Mw 6.5 Seddon earthquake. Of interest was the use of physical and virtual clearinghouse for data archiving and dissemination of damage observations. Numerous URM buildings in the City of Napa were previously retrofitted, hence there was interest regarding the observed performance of different retrofitting methods.
With assistance from EQC and MBIE, NZSEE sponsored Bruce and Jason for a 5-day Learning From Earthquakes mission. This seminar will present a summary of the observations with focus on relevant lessons for NZ and ongoing US – NZ work on understanding and mitigating the effects of earthquakes.
