GCSE case study of the Loma Prieta earthquake 1989

1. Loma Prieta earthquake 1989
Causes: The earthquake struck at 17:04 on 17th October 1989 measuring 6.9 on the richter scale.
The epicentre was located in the Santa Cruz mountains 60 miles south of San Francisco. The
earthquake was caused by movement along the San Andreas Fault (a conservative plate margin).
Impacts: 63 people killed, 3,757 people were injured, 42
people were killed as a result of the 2 mile section of the
Cyprus Freeway collapsing, a 20 metre section of the
Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed, many more people would
have been killed if it hadn’t occurred during the World Series
baseball game, 10,00 people were made homeless, the Bay
area was most severely damaged due to liquefaction of
reclaimed land, over 30 fires broke out due to burst
pipelines, the total cost of damage was over $10 billion
Responses: fire crews used heavy lifting equipment to rescue people who were trapped on the
Cyprus Freeway, Fire teams had to pump water out of the bay to put out fires as water mains
had burst, the National Guard patrolled the streets to help prevent looting, extra boat transport
was provided to transport people across the Bay, electricty was restored within 2 days, the
Oakland Bay Bridge reopened within one month, the Cyprus Freeway was rebuilt using a new
aseismic design and reopened 10 years later, the are received over $3 billion in aid from the US
government and from private donations.