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County prepares for big one at Tahoe; Scripps Institution report suggests fault may rupture

Posted by: Maven on May 21, 2009 at 8:00 am

From the Auburn Journal:

Scientists say the Lake Tahoe area is overdue for a major earthquake. But a quake won’t catch Placer County flat-footed. It’s something the county’s emergency services division has very recently been rehearsing for.

Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego reported this week that earthquakes with a magnitude-7 occur every 2,000 to 3,000 years in the Tahoe basin but the largest fault there last ruptured more than 4,100 years ago. The fault runs along the west shore of the lake before passing west of South Lake Tahoe. Waves from the shaking would run the length of the lake onto the north shore, which is part of Placer County.

Placer County’s Office of Emergency Services conducted a training exercise in November, using a major earthquake and the subsequent tsunami-like seiche as the starting point for a dress rehearsal for disaster.

Rui Cunha, Placer emergency services program manager, said Wednesday that while there has been nothing in recent memory that has produced significant damage, the threat is serious enough to have it identified as one of several hazards included in safety plans for the Tahoe area.

Read more from the Auburn Journal by clicking here.

May 21, 2009 · Filed Under Lake Tahoe, the Sierras & foothills

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