The La Honda Voice

Local Scientist Recognized as World Expert on Quakes

Just a note of recognition: La Honda resident Carol Prentice has been published and cited in a number of recent articles, especially concerning the Centennial of the Great San Francisco earthquake, which occurred on April 18, 1906. Some examples include:

April National Geographic magazine, author Joel Achenbach said, "Scientist Carol Prentice and I scrambled through dense woods in search of something she promised would be impressive: a redwood stump split down the middle by an earthquake. I feared we wouldn't find it. We seemed lost. The forest was a mad tangle. Huffing and puffing, I turned and saw it: a stump the size of a small living room, distinctly offset in line with the San Andreas, the gap in the middle so big I could climb into it. Carol let me help take measurements, and for a moment I could pretend to be a field scientist, not just a scribbler." [http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0604/feature6/assignment1.html ]

Time magazine (week of April 10): http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1179365,00.html
"Thanks to the efforts of USGS paleoseismologist Carol Prentice and her colleagues, however, residents of the Bay Area will have a much better sense of the precise path the earthquake took. Working with old photographs, Prentice has found a number of the missing signs of 1906--abrupt jogs in fences that once straddled the rupture zone, for example--and located them on aerial photos. Among the communities bisected by the fault break is San Bruno, a city of 40,000 that borders San Francisco international airport…"

April-June edition of Bay Nature magazine (http://www.baynature.com/v06n02/v06n02s_main.html),  "Watch out for the poison oak," warns Carol Prentice as we clamber down a steep slope above the Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir near Interstate 280. The freeway noise behind us begins to ebb as we descend into the valley bounded on the west side by the dark slopes of the northern reach of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Prentice stops for a moment and we look down the slope. "I have had two distinct reactions from the people I've shown the actual fault line to," she says. "They're either disappointed and say: 'What! This is it?' Or they are utterly impressed to be standing on the boundary between two of the giant plates of the earth's outer layer." I get the feeling that my guide, a research seismologist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Menlo Park, wants to test my reaction, too. She has brought me into the valley west of Hillsborough on land owned by the San Francisco Public Utility Commission to show me one of the few traces left of the biggest natural disaster ever known to strike the Bay Area, the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906."

New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/science/11quak.html?_r=1&oref=slogin (needs registration)…and many more.
Congratulations Carol!…

[Note: Jim Warren posted on the LH news group (msg #11445) this link: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2005/15/ ,which contains additional good information on earthquakes and preparedness]

Rain damage has made Highway 84 dangerous

[Note: the County has corrected the worst of the highway damage mentioned below as of this date. However, the road is still bumpy and the problem in this area of Highway 84 seems to be chronic]

by Larry Whitney on May 01, 06
"Two motorcycle injuries within a quarter mile and a couple of hours of one another demonstrate just how dangerous Highway 84 has become as a result of damage due to recent rains.

At 10:30am Sunday, the La Honda Fire Brigade was dispatched to a motorcycle accident at 11895 Highway 84. This single rider accident resulted in major injuries and the rider was transported by helicopter to Stanford Hospital. As La Honda Fire units were returning to their station, they happened upon a second major injury motorcycle accident not more than a quarter mile away from the first. This rider was also sent by air ambulance to Stanford Hospital.

The La Honda Fire Department warns that motorcycle riders should be particularly cautious in the area of Highway 84 between milepost 11.5 to 12.5. This is a stretch of road just to the east of the Town of La Honda and has been the scene of numerous major injury and fatality accidents in the past. At three points in this section of road the highway falls dramatically due to a massive land movement, part of the west bound lane has slipped away and the shoulder has been eaten away resulting in a dangerous turn that if missed will result in a fall of nearly 50 ft. into the creek below. Caltrans has marked all of this damage with signs, barricades and will soon activate a series of signal lights.

The cause of both accidents is under investigation by the California Highway Patrol."