Brown and White Vol. 97 no. 14

              see alumni page 2 earthquake awareness frenzy across the nation but the lehigh val ley has little to fear in terms of earthquakes kodama said potential for a big earthquake is very small smaller faults are found along the east coast but none are plate boundar ies like san andreas most are ancient faults which can be reactivated by the present-day stress field in the north american plate kodama said one example is the ramapo fault in northeastern new jersey another nearby zone of seis mic activity is near lancaster pa according to kodama the lancast er seismic zone runs from lancaster to allentown and could cause an earthquake no larger than 4.5 on the richter scale another area which has experien ced seismic activity in the early 1800s is near new madrid mo along the mississippi river it is possible that this area is the tip of a crack propagat ing through the continent another aspect of the oct 17 earthquake is the surprisingly large number of buildings in the bay area which stayed in tact this reflects years of research and implementation in preparation for such a devastating event connections and proportion beams and columns are made more ductile therefore mak ing them less likely to buckle or fracture professor le wu lu head of the earthquake engineering division from lehigh left for san francisco on oct 19 to offer assistance to those in need thus he was unable for comment on the construction aspects of those see expert page 6 expert says valley safe from quakes by jason greenblatt brown and white news writer the earthquake which shook up california oct 17 registered 7.1 on the richter scale about one-tenth the magnitude of the major earthquake in 1906 which registered 8.3 according to ken kodama professor of geological sciences a gradual shifting of two tectonic plates at the san andreas fault is responsible for the incident the pac ific plate and the north american plate move past each other at a rate of three or four centimeters per year the two plates can get locked together at rough surfaces this locking creates forces which build up over time and then there's a major slip which we know as an earthquake kodama said the pressure has been building up since 1906 but kodama said the earthquake only released about 10 percent of the stress that's built up therefore it was probably not the big one the big one kodama refers to is the earthquake that geologists have been predicting in the bay area which will release all the building pressure kodama said the rupture in 1906 was about 270 miles long whereas the one on oct 17 was 30 miles long understandably there is an vol 97 no 14 the brown and white tuesday october 31 1989 lehigh university students may address police about gripes b&w photo by rich kunger these students enjoy the last few days of warm weather in front of e.w falrchlld-martindale library see forum page 2 by jennifer provda brown and white news writer lehigh university president peter likins addressed the issue of commun ity relations at the forum meeting thursday he said that forum's community relations committee must try to solve the problems rising from increased off campus partying due to the stricter social policy likins said rising ten sion between permanent residents and students are out of the univers ity's region and is for the bethlehem police to handle students expressed their concern over the treatment of students by the bethlehem police stemming from the incident between a brown & white editor and a bethlehem police officer on sept 27 san francisco earthquake hits lu three alumni brave quake without harm by kim phillips brown and white news writer the earthquake in san francisco on oct 17 the largest one to hit californ i a since 1906 stirred little commotion in the lehigh community except for those who permanently reside in the bay area and have family there i've lived in california for many years and have been through a lot of earthquakes and my mother says this is the worst one she's ever been through said aaron young 91 young lives in atherton approx imately 45 minutes south of san fran cisco when young first heard about the earthquake he immediately tried to contact his parents because the lines into the bay area were blocked he did not reach them until 11 p.m the next evening i was more worried about my father who works in a high-rise in the city young said although tim orr 90 who lives near the marina in san francisco received a phone call from his step sister the night of the quake assuring him of his family's safety he did not speak to his mother for nearly a week when orr first heard about the earthquake he was in fairchild marti ndale library originally he thought nothing of it watching the news that evening orr realized the severity of the earthquake i've been through earthquakes bef ore said orr but i've never seen damage like that young and orr both contend the media was efficient and informative due to the fact that the earthquake lasted only 15 seconds the responses and the information transmitted to the people was very positive said orr young said the major networks all if you live in | california there's • always a risk of having hi an earthquake brian cooke 89 resident of san francisco ill did an excellent job covering the story i knew more about the earthquake than my parents did to those in california at the time the earthquake did not seem tragic at first either three lehigh graduates brian cooke 89 dan ryan 86 and craig gordon 76 were driving to work together when the earthquake hit when the earthquake hit the car started weaving cooke said think ing they had a flat tire gordon stopped the car gordon is a former brown and white editorial page editor and founder of