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Northridge, California Earthquake, January 17, 1994, Set 1 |
| At 4:31 am local time (12:31 GMT) on Monday, January 17, 1994, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake twenty miles west northwest of downtown Los Angeles awoke nearly everyone in southern California. Damage was most extensive in the San Fernando Valley, the Simi Valley, and in the northern part of the Los Angeles Basin. This slide set depicts the damage in Northridge the epicentral area. Photos show damage to a shopping center, parking garages, and the interior and exterior of apartment buildings. |
Partial collapse of Bullocks Department Store | |
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At the Northridge Fashion Center, near the earthquake epicenter, the second floor of Bullocks Department Store collapsed onto the bottom story. The shear between the waffle slab and the columns caused complete separation of the slab system from the columns and a pancake collapse. Photo Credit: J. Dewey, U.S. Geological Survey |
Second view of Bullocks Department Store | |
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Second view of Bullocks Department Store. Punching shear failure was also observed. One column remains standing and the groove on the column shows where the second story would have been. Photo Credit: E.V. Leyendecker, U.S. Geological Survey |
Back side of Bullocks Department Store | |
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Another side of Bullocks Department Store in Northridge. Although this wall remained standing, the facade fell on the trees, and would have killed people had the earthquake occurred during busy store hours. The store as a whole incurred extensive structural damage and activated sprinklers damaged merchandise. Photo Credit: J. Dewey, U.S. Geological Survey |
Cracking in store at Northridge Mall | |
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Another department store in Northridge Fashion Mall. Note cracking in wall and in overhang but brick columns remain intact. Photo Credit: M. Celebi, U.S. Geological Survey |
Damage to parking structure at Northridge Mall | |
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The second level of this parking structure at the Northridge Fashion Center collapsed onto the lower level. Two parking structures suffered partial or complete collapse and another was heavily damaged at this shopping mall. Parking structures typically performed poorly in this earthquake. Photo Credit: J. Dewey, U.S. Geological Survey |
Second view of damage to parking structure | |
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Northridge Fashion Center parking structure pictured above. The inadequate transfer of inertia forces to the shear walls of the three-year-old precast post-tensioned construction may have contributed to the partial collapse. Note standing column. Photo Credit: M. Celebi, U.S. Geological Survey |
Garage that incurred little damage at Northridge Mall | |
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Another garage at the Northridge Fashion Center. This was a cast-in-place structure older than the one pictured above. However, it fared better. Note the damaged spirally-confined column and compare with column in previous picture. Photo Credit: M. Celebi, U.S. Geological Survey |
Collapsed roof near Northridge Mall | |
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A smaller building in a satellite shopping center just a block from the Northridge Fashion Center. The facade has fallen, and the roof has partially collapsed. Retailers were hard hit by the earthquake. Photo Credit: J. Dewey, U.S. Geological Survey |
Collapse of first floor at Northridge Meadows Apts. | |
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Northridge Meadows Apartment Building where sixteen people were killed. Some units in this building did not collapse. (Note the reduced height of the structure in the background compared to the structure in the foreground.) Photo Credit: M. Celebi, U.S. Geological Survey |
Second view of damage at Northridge Meadows Apts. | |
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Second view of the damage at the Northridge Meadows Apartment Building. The first floor of the building had garages at each end with apartments in the middle many of which collapsed. The joist hangers were too small and the joists were not nailed in the hangers. The sheer walls were not made of plywood but of gypsum board. There was reduced shear strength on the lower floor because of the garages. Steel supporting posts bent and collapsed, and the upper story of the unit pictured here shifted to the north as it fell. Photo Credit: J. Dewey, U.S. Geological Survey |
Partially collapsed apartment building | |
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Partially collapsed apartment building. Photo Credit: E.V. Leyendecker, U.S. Geological Survey |
Collapsed apartment building in Northridge | |
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Collapsed apartment building in Northridge. The lower story was a carport. Photo Credit: J. Dewey, U.S. Geological Survey |
Collapse of building onto carport | |
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Carport beneath collapsed apartment building in Northridge. Collapse of buildings into carports was a common cause of apartment damage in the epicentral area. The carports, because they were open on one side, did not have the resistance to shaking. There were other evidences of strong shaking in this area. Two units collapsed onto the cars. Photo Credit: J. Dewey, U.S. Geological Survey |
Second view of collapsed apartment building | |
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Second view of the same structure. Note smashed cars under right unit. The units shifted smashing portion of fence. Photo Credit: E.V. Leyendecker, U.S. Geological Survey |
Relatively undamaged apartment building | |
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This apartment building fared better possibly because of the presence of garage doors that were closed and provided sufficient in-plane resistance. The building sustained damage but did not collapse. (Note cracking on end wall above garage level.) Photo Credit: M. Celebi, U.S. Geological Survey |
Interior of damaged apartment building | |
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A number of apartment buildings and condominiums were damaged in the area around the Northridge Fashion Center. This is a view of the affect of the earthquake on the kitchen area in a townhouse near the Northridge Fashion Center. Photo Credit: J. Dewey, U.S. Geological Survey |
Second view interior of damaged apartment building | |
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A view of damage to a second kitchen in a townhouse near the Northridge Fashion Center. An occupant cut her foot on glass when she ran into the kitchen area in the predawn hours after the earthquake. Electrical power to the area was out at the time. Photo Credit: J. Dewey, U.S. Geological Survey |
Partially collapsed parking structure, Cal State Univ. | |
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A partially-collapsed parking structure on the campus at California State University in Northridge. The garage was of precast, post-tensioned construction and was built in 1991. The center columns were crushed resulting in caving-in of the floors and extreme bending of the external columns. No cars were in the structure at the time of the earthquake. A similar shear wall, post-tensioned parking structure built in 1991 was essentially undamaged. Photo Credit: M. Celebi, U.S. Geological Survey |
Second view of collapsed parking structure | |
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A second view of the parking structure on the campus of California State University. The bowed columns are of reinforced concrete. The structure has precast moment- resisting-concrete frames on the exterior and a precast concrete interior designed for vertical loads. The inside of the structure failed, and with each aftershock the outside collapsed slowly toward the inside until finally the west side failed totally. The reinforced concrete columns were extremely bent. Photo Credit: M. Celebi, U.S. Geological Survey |
Undamaged Great Western Bank Building | |
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Pictured here is the Great Western Bank Building and garage in western Northridge, close to Chatsworth. The garage is of cast-in-place reinforced concrete construction. Neither building was damaged. Photo Credit: M. Celebi, U.S. Geological Survey |