The October 17, 1989, Loma Prieta Earthquake: Effects on selected power and industrial facilities

Technical Report · Sun Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5204487

Swan, S W; Roche, T R ^[1]; Schiff, A J ^[2]

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1. EQE Engineering, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States)
2. Precision Measurement Instruments, Los Altos Hills, CA (United States)

The Loma Prieta Earthquake of Tuesday, October 17, 1989, was the most damaging seismic event in California since the great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. The earthquake created Modified Mercalli Intensities (MMI) of 7 or 8 throughout the northern Monterey and southern San Francisco Bay areas. This heavily shaken region included over 5000 square kilometers, and an urban population of over 3 million. This region includes a wide variety of modern industry, ranging from conventional smokestack'' operations to electronics and information processing facilities. The area nearest the fault rupture contains some of the largest power generation and transmission stations operated by the regional utility -- Pacific Gas Electric (PG E). This report summarizes the latest study in a program of post-earthquake investigations sponsored by The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The Loma Prieta Earthquake created the largest amount of potentially useful data of any EPRI study to date. Over two dozen electric power and industrial facilities were reviewed following the earthquake. The following sections provide an overview of some of the primary observations. 16 figs.

• Research Organization: Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); EQE Engineering, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States); Precision Measurement Instruments, Los Altos Hills, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: EPRI; Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5204487
• Report Number(s): EPRI-NP-7500-M
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
240400 -- Power Transmission & Distribution-- Health & Safety-- (1990-)
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
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58 GEOSCIENCES
580000 -- Geosciences
BUILDINGS
DAMAGE
DESIGN
EARTHQUAKES
ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GROUND MOTION
INDUSTRY
MOTION
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
POWER PLANTS
PUBLIC UTILITIES
RELIABILITY
RISK ASSESSMENT
SEISMIC EFFECTS
SEISMIC EVENTS
SURVEYS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
URBAN AREAS