holy cow what was that

[Pistolero]

I have spent a couple of days with the curator of antiquities at a major art museum in LA learning
how to keep large and small art pieces intact in earthquakes. I designed several systems for
the local art museum to protect large heavy sculptures and such. Our expected max is around
4.5, but the bootheel of MO has had one of the biggest ever. Mississippi flowed upstream for a couple
of days after that one, according to many reports. Reelfoot Lake was formed in the New Madrid
earthquakes of 1811-12. If the New Madrid ever plays up like that again, it will be bad around
here.

Two tricks. One is to intentionally decouple large heavy stuff (with low CG) from the floor, let it stay in place while
the floor moves sideways under it. Teflon covered skids on thin SS sheet works well. For smaller stuff,
a loop of monofilament line around it and attached to a nearby wall or bookshelf support will keep
stuff from toppling. Easy, unobtrusive, cheap and works great. A double loop of clear 10 or 20 lb monofilament
fishing line and a staple ends in perpendicular directions will keep that cherished fragile trophy or vase or
whatever from crashing to the ground and barely visible from a foot away, invisible from 3 ft.

I have been through the Craters of the Moon area and boy, that landscape has been worked over in
centuries past. I go to Yellowstone almost every single year for a few days, and yeah, if it ever
goes up, we'll all be in trouble. I am guessing Soda Springs means that they have had hot mineral
springs around there, meaning deep geo activity.

Never felt an earthquake myself, and while it would be technically interesting.....not particularly looking
for it.

For stuff like water heaters and such, the overturning forces will be pretty low, probably
under 5 or 10 lbs if your strapping isn't so slack that it can go to a steep tilt before the
straps come tight. I would think a rigid bar to two perpendicular wall so it could take
tension and compression would work better than straps since they can only take
tension. So much of our planning assumes that the earth is going to hold still, and
when it doesn't, lots of unanticipated stuff happens.

Bill

 

[fiver]

when I was doing fire sprinklers par of the install was to put in earthquake bracing.
all the main lines were hung so they could swing, then the bracing was added to control how much they moved.
I thought I had some of the smaller brackets here but couldn't find them.
but since the goal is to keep the water heater from tipping over.

I installed some flexible rubber/braided hose to keep the pipes from shaking it in the first place yesterday.
this gives me 6-8" of movement before reaching the pulling point.
I'm going to bolt a pipe flange to the floor then screw a piece of 1-1/2" schedule 40 pipe to that, and run a pair of large worm screw clamps around the top/bottom of the heater.
perfect...no. but I think it's the best isolation/protection I can provide.


we had a nice wakeup call this morning at a quarter to 4.
they said it was a 4.5 but it shook things up pretty good for about 30 seconds and woke everyone in the house up.

 

[waco]

What in the world is going on over there Lamar?

 

[Rick]

Not all quakes roll side to side, some are straight up & down. Better off having stuff strapped down.

If New Madrid ever cuts loose again like last time you will feel a quake in KS Bill. They felt the last one in Washington D.C.

 

[fiver]

it's just seismic activity.
they have earthquake swarms from time to time in this area as a natural part of the system.

we have carbon dioxide in the ground with a controlled geyser in town fueled by c0-2 as a result,
lots of hot springs, old dormant volcanoes, cinder pits, a large Sulpher spring, a couple of natural lakes formed in old calderas, and several mineral springs in the area. [some sparkling]
pretty much the same natural wonders you find in Yellowstone, only not in a park with a nice paved road circling in to each attraction.

the upper end of the system has had a couple of 4.? quakes too, they just didn't get any press because of what's going on here, the wild fires up north, and the hurricanes down south

 

[Pistolero]

Heck, fiver, your springs and stuff may be an outer edge part of the Yellowstone volcano.

As far as feeling another New Madrid here, Oh, yeah, definitely. I called the KU earthquake
expert and discussed what we might have around KC when consulting on protecting
the art from earthquakes. He said that New Madrid would rattle us pretty hard here if it
ever goes again like in 1811. Hard to imagine sloshing the Mississippi hard enough to
get it to flow upstream, but many observers said it did, I am not going to call them all liars from
200 years later.

Yes, Rick, no doubt that some earthquakes and part of all earthquakes is up and down, but
most stuff is designed to take gravity loads and can handle the up and down pretty well. Most
stuff is not designed for much side load, and that also tips over stuff which is a big part of the
damage, just stuff falling over or off of shelves. Also, houses having the ground move out
from under them, shearing the structure at the foundation.
A friend in San Diego had his house reinforced for EQ damage. I talked to the contractor and the
houses there have short (~24") stud walls up from a low foundation to the floor joists, so their crawl spaces
are wood framed, not concrete like more modern practice. They diagonal brace and then plywood sheet
the crawl space walls to keep them form crumbling from EQ side loads which shatter these short
studs and just ruin the whole house when they collapse unevenly. He said that the housed could
handle the up and down pretty well, but when the foundation moves 6" sideways quickly the wood
structure isn't designed for that, so they do this EQ retrofitting. This is a house made in the 1920s,
no idea what current code calls for in Cali, probably a whole lot better designs.

Like the hurricanes, we need to be mindful that we are passengers in this train, not
the conductors and be careful not to get run over by being inattentive.

Bill

 

[Rick]

yep, I lived in the sewer, sorry I mean SoCal for 46 years. Went through two major quakes and no idea how many smaller ones. L.A. County codes call for strapping stuff up solid. Sure don't want your water heater on roller skates.