Thanks for the update, Ken. We haven’t forgotten your problems, but there have
been a lot of distractions in the last couple of weeks.
Merry Christmas!
Sent from my iPhone
> On Dec 24, 2018, at 6:15 PM, Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Just a little bit of an earthquake update. I've been insanely busy
> this month with end-of-year work tasks so I haven't been very social
> media minded. Among other things.
>
> We're still getting the occasional heavy jolt or shake, but they're
> getting farther between and mostly just the low-grade stuff below 3.0
> that might wiggle the water in the glass but mostly is just background
> noise. The stuff between 3.5 and 4.0 do get our attention, but nothing
> to worry about.
>
> The house damage is interesting and we keep finding cracks and stuff
> out of place or kilter. It definitely got shook hard and one of the
> shear walls popped out a bunch of construction staples. There are
> sections of siding that have popped out a bunch too. No structural
> damage has been found yet.
>
> The office building is another story. It's probably a 50/50 chance
> that the building may never be occupied again. They found the cause.
> During construction in the 1980's, there were a number of beams that
> weren't welded properly. A number of them got tack welded, but were
> never finished up. Those not only broke, but the loss of integrity
> caused other welds and beams to crack and break. How these bad welds
> passed inspections throughout the years is anybody's guess. The
> building withstood every earthquake up to this one. It was located in
> an area prone to soil liquifaction and the specific frequency of the
> shaking in this earthquake caused the entire place to turn to Jello.
> Based on the type of damage to the building and the structural
> failure, it may not have lasted much longer. Less that 15% of the
> entire building complex is considered "safe" right now. There are
> several beams that are actually held up on one end or by the trusses
> connected to them.
>
> When the quake hit, it started out for a couple seconds with the
> standard type of motion but it quickly changed to a pattern and
> movement that nobody felt before. Crazy thought, but when I went under
> the table, I thought to myself that the table would be fine for
> protecting me from the falling ceiling tiles and lights, but it
> wouldn't help against a steel beam coming through the ceiling. Little
> did I know that the beam above my head just happened to be one that
> failed. An HVAC on the roof came through the roof and landed on a desk
> just several feet over from where I was at. (That desk got flattened).
>
> Honestly, I kinda doubt that we'll ever occupy that building again. I
> think it's probably going to get town down. If not, there will be a
> lot of extensive steel work to repair and reinforce all the corners.
> The interior, which was brand new in the past two years has to be
> nearly 100% redone. Too much water damage and all of the ceilings will
> require full reconstruction.
>
> One earthquake analysis I looked at says that the slip during the
> event was six feet by up to 19 miles, with the duration of the slip at
> the epicenter of about 15 seconds. The long duration earthquakes are
> caused by a longer rip distance. 19 miles in length kept the duration
> down. The 1964 quake's fault slip occurred over a length estimated at
> 200 miles or more. That's why that one lasted for five minutes.
>
> Otherwise, we're fine. At the current rate of dissipation, it should
> continue to settle down and we'll be back to normal boring Alaska life
> in a few more weeks.
>
> AK Schnozz
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