Word: temblor
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...white flagpole and crowned it with the same gold-painted sphere that was knocked wildly askew on Oct. 17, 1989, by the strongest earthquake to strike the city since 1906. This week the American flag will be hoisted there once again, to mark the anniversary of last year's temblor, which registered 7.1 on the Richter scale, killed 63 people, injured 3,757 others and caused at least $6 billion in damage...
According to Filipino myth, the earthquakes that regularly ravage the archipelago are caused by the exertions of a legendary Tagalog king as he tries to free himself from his prison cave. Last week the king bestirred himself anew. At 4:26 p.m. Monday, a massive temblor shook the northern island of Luzon. At its epicenter in Nueva Ecija province, north of Manila, it measured 8.0 on the Richter scale (last month's quake in northwestern Iran registered 7.7). One of the worst-hit cities was the mountain resort of Baguio, 150 miles north of Manila, where dozens of buildings collapsed...
Notwithstanding the religious imagery, what characterized the first few hours after a savage temblor struck northern Iran last week was the stunning silence. Not until 7 a.m. or so, 6 1/2 hours after the quake, did Iran radio begin to report the damage suffered overnight in the fertile agricultural belt along the Caspian Sea. First accounts spoke of 50 dead, but the number soon mounted geometrically. By noon, it was 1,000; by evening, 10,000; by midnight, 25,000. By the next day, it was 45,000, plus 130,000 injured. There were fears that the final death toll...
...seismologists have long warned that Los Angeles is the more vulnerable city. Because Los Angeles has not suffered a massive tremor in this century and has a much larger population, a major quake could result in far greater devastation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that an 8.3 magnitude temblor (16 times as powerful as the one that hit San Francisco) on the southern San Andreas fault near Los Angeles could cause $17 billion in property damage and between 3,000 and 14,000 deaths...
...special vulnerabilities. Its water comes in by aqueducts that a big quake would fracture. Like the devastated Marina district in San Francisco, parts of coastal communities such as Marina Del Rey, Venice and Long Beach are built on sandy soil and landfill that could liquefy during a temblor, amplifying its destructive impact. State transportation officials last week handed the city council a list of 48 highway bridges and overpasses that need reinforcement to withstand a powerful quake. Cost: $32 million. Los Angeles' city engineer Robert Horii informed the city council that $100 million worth of shoring up may be required...