Talk:1989 Loma Prieta earthquake/GA1

GA Review
The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.''

Reviewer:  ceran  thor 14:03, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

It's good to see another earthquake article at GA! I'm the coordinator over at WikiProject Earthquakes, so when I saw this I was quick to take it one. A fascinating earthquake, isn't it? Ok, here's the review. I'm going to go hard on this one, because it is a major earthquake.


 * of the quake was in Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, an unpopulated area in the Santa Cruz Mountains (geographical coordinates 37°02′N 121°53′W﻿ / ﻿37.04°N 121.88°W﻿ / 37.04; -121.88), approximately 2–3 miles (3–5 km) north of unincorporated Aptos and approximately 10 mi (16 km) northeast of Santa Cruz.  - this needs a cite. There is plenty of distances and this is possibly controversial information (ie, someone will remove it without a source)
 * Fifty-seven of the deaths were directly caused by the earthquake; six further fatalities were ruled to be caused indirectly.[1]  - Do you see the redundancy?
 * In addition, there were 3,757 injuries as a result of the earthquake. - this also needs a cite
 * One 50-foot (15 m) section of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge also collapsed, causing two cars to fall to the deck below, leading to the single fatality on the bridge. The bridge was closed for repairs for a month and one day, reopening on November 18. - both of these sentences need cites.
 *  While the bridge was closed, ridership on Bay Area Rapid Transit and ferry services soared, along with traffic levels on nearby bridges such as the San Mateo – Hayward, Richmond – San Rafael and the Golden Gate. - this also needs a cite.
 * Other effects included sand volcanoes, landslides, and ground ruptures. 18,306 homes and 2,575 businesses were damaged. - cites?
 * Given the distance between the quake's epicenter and some of the worst-hit areas, geologists were surprised at the severity of the resulting damage. - absolutely needs a cite ("were surprised")
 * Subsequent analysis indicated that the damage was due to the amplification of the earthquake's Seismic waves by waves reflecting off the deep 15-mile (24 km) discontinuities in the Earth's surface. - cite
 * The quake caused an estimated $6 billion to $13 billion in property damage, becoming one of the most expensive natural disasters in U.S. history at the time. cite?
 * Private donations poured in to aid relief efforts and on October 26, President George H.W. Bush signed a $3.45 billion earthquake relief package for California. - cite?

Once you fix these, we can continue with the rest of the article. The article's citations need a lot of work, but I'm not going to fail this article, at least not yet. Please do your best to cite all this information so that we can continue to cleanup this article and bring it to a good article standard!  ceran  thor 14:03, 30 August 2009 (UTC)


 * A tough reviewer is ideal for what this article needs. Thanks for jumping in! I'll get going on the improvements. Binksternet (talk) 15:35, 30 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Okay, I've made the noted changes.
 * of the quake was in Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, an unpopulated area in the Santa Cruz Mountains (geographical coordinates 37°02′N 121°53′W﻿ / ﻿37.04°N 121.88°W﻿ / 37.04; -121.88), approximately 2–3 miles (3–5 km) north of unincorporated Aptos and approximately 10 mi (16 km) northeast of Santa Cruz.  - this needs a cite. There is plenty of distances and this is possibly controversial information (ie, someone will remove it without a source)
 * I have a USGS reference there now, with one order of magnitude more precision on the decimal coordinates.
 * Fifty-seven of the deaths were directly caused by the earthquake; six further fatalities were ruled to be caused indirectly.[1]  - Do you see the redundancy?
 * I'm just quoting this coroner's report. If this wording doesn't work for you, I could use more direction.
 * In addition, there were 3,757 injuries as a result of the earthquake. - this also needs a cite
 * Cited.
 * One 50-foot (15 m) section of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge also collapsed, causing two cars to fall to the deck below, leading to the single fatality on the bridge. The bridge was closed for repairs for a month and one day, reopening on November 18. - both of these sentences need cites.
 * Both cited. The two cars bit is removed.
 *  While the bridge was closed, ridership on Bay Area Rapid Transit and ferry services soared, along with traffic levels on nearby bridges such as the San Mateo – Hayward, Richmond – San Rafael and the Golden Gate. - this also needs a cite.
 * I deleted the list of bridges and cited the increase in BART ridership.
 * Other effects included sand volcanoes, landslides, and ground ruptures. 18,306 homes and 2,575 businesses were damaged. - cites?
 * I corrected the number of homes and businesses to match the cite I found.
 * Given the distance between the quake's epicenter and some of the worst-hit areas, geologists were surprised at the severity of the resulting damage. - absolutely needs a cite ("were surprised")
 * Deleted.
 * Subsequent analysis indicated that the damage was due to the amplification of the earthquake's Seismic waves by waves reflecting off the deep 15-mile (24 km) discontinuities in the Earth's surface. - cite
 * Deleted.
 * The quake caused an estimated $6 billion to $13 billion in property damage, becoming one of the most expensive natural disasters in U.S. history at the time. cite?
 * $6B cited, $13B deleted.
 * Private donations poured in to aid relief efforts and on October 26, President George H.W. Bush signed a $3.45 billion earthquake relief package for California. - cite?
 * Cited. Binksternet (talk) 03:00, 31 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Awesome, I'll move down more tomorrow. Thanks for being so cooperative, I hope you can reach your goal by October. :)  ceran  thor 23:52, 31 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Part 2.


 * Multistory buildings shook violently and many that had inadequately reinforced garages on the first floor had their heavy upper stories fall into that floor. In some instances, only the top floor was left intact, having spilled into the road, crushing parked cars, trees, and light poles. - cite both
 * At the intersection of San Francisco's Beach and Divisadero Streets, a natural gas main rupture caused a major structure fire.  -cite
 * In collapsed buildings that did not catch fire, rescue teams searched the fallen buildings thoroughly, pulling out survivors from underneath splintered wood and other debris. - cite?
 * In Santa Cruz, the Pacific Garden Mall was irreparably damaged, with falling debris killing three people. cite
 * When the earthquake struck, the brick facades of the historic buildings tumbled into the streets, while buildings slammed against one another and crumbled in reaction to the lengthy temblor. - cite?
 * Immediately, a number of citizens began to work to attempt to free victims from the rubble of Ford's Department Store and the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company—both buildings had collapsed inward on customers and employees alike. - cite
 * Two police officers who crawled through voids in the debris found one victim alive and another dead inside the coffee house. cite
 * Police dogs were brought in to help locate further victims. - cite?
 * At nightfall, public search operations were called to a halt because of unsafe conditions, with fire department personnel continuing their primary search operations by flashlight and generator light. - cite
 * During the first few days following the quake, electric power was out to most Santa Cruz county subscribers and some areas had no water. Cell phone service remained online, providing a crucial link to rescue workers. Widespread search operations were organized to find possible victims within fallen structures. As many as six teams of dogs and their handlers were at work identifying the large number of damaged buildings that held no victims. - Uncited paragraph? No-no.
 * There was significant structural damage to beachfront villas of Capitola Village, when the fireplaces and end-walls of a landmark row-style hotel collapsed onto the sidewalks. The quake claimed a number of lives in Watsonville. Many older wooden structures were knocked off of their foundations and collapsed. Many residents were displaced from their homes. The earthquake also destroyed several buildings in the Old Town district of Salinas. In Monterey, windows were shattered in many homes and businesses and several historical structures were damaged. - Uncited paragraph
 * Fix these up and I'll be glad to continue. Eventually I hope we'll get around to the prose and we can patch that up too, because it seems a little choppy. But for now, let's focus on finishing these citation problems so this article can be on the main page by October!  ceran  thor 12:56, 1 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Here are some more of the specified changes:
 * Multistory buildings shook violently and many that had inadequately reinforced garages on the first floor had their heavy upper stories fall into that floor. In some instances, only the top floor was left intact, having spilled into the road, crushing parked cars, trees, and light poles. - cite both
 * Deleted both
 * At the intersection of San Francisco's Beach and Divisadero Streets, a natural gas main rupture caused a major structure fire.  -cite
 * Two refs added
 * In collapsed buildings that did not catch fire, rescue teams searched the fallen buildings thoroughly, pulling out survivors from underneath splintered wood and other debris. - cite?
 * Deleted
 * In Santa Cruz, the Pacific Garden Mall was irreparably damaged, with falling debris killing three people. cite
 * Changed "irreparably" to "severely"; cited
 * When the earthquake struck, the brick facades of the historic buildings tumbled into the streets, while buildings slammed against one another and crumbled in reaction to the lengthy temblor. - cite?
 * deleted
 * Immediately, a number of citizens began to work to attempt to free victims from the rubble of Ford's Department Store and the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company—both buildings had collapsed inward on customers and employees alike. - cite
 * cited
 * Two police officers who crawled through voids in the debris found one victim alive and another dead inside the coffee house. cite
 * cited
 * Police dogs were brought in to help locate further victims. - cite?
 * cited
 * At nightfall, public search operations were called to a halt because of unsafe conditions, with fire department personnel continuing their primary search operations by flashlight and generator light. - cite
 * Deleted
 * During the first few days following the quake, electric power was out to most Santa Cruz county subscribers and some areas had no water. Cell phone service remained online, providing a crucial link to rescue workers. Widespread search operations were organized to find possible victims within fallen structures. As many as six teams of dogs and their handlers were at work identifying the large number of damaged buildings that held no victims. - Uncited paragraph? No-no.
 * Cited
 * There was significant structural damage to beachfront villas of Capitola Village, when the fireplaces and end-walls of a landmark row-style hotel collapsed onto the sidewalks. The quake claimed a number of lives in Watsonville. Many older wooden structures were knocked off of their foundations and collapsed. Many residents were displaced from their homes. The earthquake also destroyed several buildings in the Old Town district of Salinas. In Monterey, windows were shattered in many homes and businesses and several historical structures were damaged. - Uncited paragraph
 * Heavy editing, corrections, changes, cites
 * Round 2 complete! Binksternet (talk) 18:03, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the delay, my schedule has been a bit overwhelming lately! I'll try to get to a final prose review or at least a preliminary one by tomorrow. I know you want it to be featured soon, but unless it's of great quality that won't happen.  ceran  thor 19:09, 10 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Ok, Round 3. I'm going to finish up the citation errors here and hopefully focus on the lack of scientific information in the article. There is definitely more on the geography, tectonic history even of the area. Try google books and google scholar. Anyway.


 * Rebuilding the freeway took eight years. In the meantime, traffic was detoured through nearby Interstate 980. Instead of rebuilding Interstate 880 over the same ground, Caltrans rerouted the freeway further west around the outskirts of West Oakland. Street-level Mandela Parkway now occupies the previous roadbed of the Cypress Structure. - at least one cite needed here
 * With anchorman Ted Koppel in position in Washington, D.C., ABC began continuous news coverage of the quake. - cite, please
 * Michaels, who had extensive knowledge of the Bay Area from his time as a San Francisco Giants broadcaster, effectively became an on-scene reporter, interpreting for the viewers scenes of earthquake damage shot by the ABC Sports cameras and the Goodyear Blimp.  - the sentence after this is obviously non-controversial, but I think a cite at the end of the paragraph can help over-citation
 * There had also been a seismic-strengthening project previously completed on the upper deck concrete windscreen. - cite
 * Fans reported that the stadium moved in an articulated manner as the earthquake wave passed through it, that the light standards swayed by many feet, and that the concrete upper deck windscreen moved in a wave-like manner over a distance of several feet. - cite
 * KGO-TV, the ABC-owned-and-operated station in San Francisco was the first of the local Bay Area television network affiliates to cover the earthquake after the game was postponed. - if unable, don't worry about it
 * Massive cracks in Oakland's runway and taxiway reduced the usable length to two-thirds normal, and damage to the dike required quick remediation to avoid flooding the runway with water from the bay. - cite
 * Not only did the quake force seismic retrofitting of all San Francisco Bay Area bridges, it caused enough damage that some parts of the region's freeway system had to be demolished. - cite if possible
 * The Loma Prieta earthquake was preceded by disturbances in the background magnetic field strength nearby. Large increases in extremely low frequency field strength were observed about 4.5 mi (7 km) from the epicenter, up to two weeks in advance of the actual event. The measurement instrument was a single-axis search-coil magnetometer that was being used for research on radio communications with submarines by Professor Antony C. Fraser-Smith of Stanford University. Signal strengths 20 times higher than normal were observed on October 3, rising to 60 times normal about three hours before the earthquake.[43] This data gave scientists new ideas for research into potential precursors to earthquakes. - cites

Now, on the comprehensiveness.

I'm working on this article as if it were at FAC. At this time, the article is not as cohesive as it should be for a featured level, if I may be so candid. More material on the scientific parameters of this earthquake are needed-you can see 1968 Illinois earthquake, by far a smaller article, for what else should be included. (Yes, I wrote that article from scratch). I think that, in this case, the history of California's earthquakes should probably have its own article, so that can be left out, but I would definitely recommend a section on the major faults and tectonics in the area. I'd also like to improve the prose to a higher standard, it's also not quite Fa-worthy yet, though definitely good. I'd recommend you have someone good with prose, such as Finetooth, Steve, or Tony1, who to my knowledge can all help with this kind of stuff, look over the article and leave comments. I really want you to reach your goal.

Prose later.  ceran  thor 20:34, 10 September 2009 (UTC)


 * I absolutely agree that this GA should lean heavily in the FA direction. Thanks for initiating that level of examination. Binksternet (talk) 02:46, 11 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Rebuilding the freeway took eight years. In the meantime, traffic was detoured through nearby Interstate 980. Instead of rebuilding Interstate 880 over the same ground, Caltrans rerouted the freeway further west around the outskirts of West Oakland. Street-level Mandela Parkway now occupies the previous roadbed of the Cypress Structure. - at least one cite needed here
 * Two different sources used to confirm facts, with some facts added and a correction from eight years to eleven. Binksternet (talk) 22:18, 20 September 2009 (UTC)
 * With anchorman Ted Koppel in position in Washington, D.C., ABC began continuous news coverage of the quake. - cite, please
 * With substantial additions per the source, cited.
 * Michaels, who had extensive knowledge of the Bay Area from his time as a San Francisco Giants broadcaster, effectively became an on-scene reporter, interpreting for the viewers scenes of earthquake damage shot by the ABC Sports cameras and the Goodyear Blimp.  - the sentence after this is obviously non-controversial, but I think a cite at the end of the paragraph can help over-citation
 * Deleted. A nomination is a marvelous personal achievement, but other news agencies won awards for their coverage.
 * There had also been a seismic-strengthening project previously completed on the upper deck concrete windscreen. - cite
 * I found a book that said former mayor Dianne Feinstein ordered a pre-quake retrofit. There's also an engineering company webpage that says they worked on the ballpark seismic retrofit before the quake but they don't have much detail so I didn't use it. Binksternet (talk) 20:30, 19 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Fans reported that the stadium moved in an articulated manner as the earthquake wave passed through it, that the light standards swayed by many feet, and that the concrete upper deck windscreen moved in a wave-like manner over a distance of several feet. - cite
 * KGO-TV, the ABC-owned-and-operated station in San Francisco was the first of the local Bay Area television network affiliates to cover the earthquake after the game was postponed. - if unable, don't worry about it
 * Deleted the short paragraph. I searched and searched but came up empty. With such a paucity of proof, I don't want this sentence in the article. The rest of that paragraph was inexact—it has been replaced elsewhere with more precision from a NY Times article.
 * Massive cracks in Oakland's runway and taxiway reduced the usable length to two-thirds normal, and damage to the dike required quick remediation to avoid flooding the runway with water from the bay. - cite
 * This one was easy... the relevant cite was just one sentence later. Duplicated named reference to cover.
 * Not only did the quake force seismic retrofitting of all San Francisco Bay Area bridges, it caused enough damage that some parts of the region's freeway system had to be demolished. - cite if possible
 * A handful of cites, one per bridge plus one to cover Dumbarton and Antioch bridges, which only recently were determined to be in need of retrofit. Binksternet (talk) 21:47, 20 September 2009 (UTC)
 * The Loma Prieta earthquake was preceded by disturbances in the background magnetic field strength nearby. Large increases in extremely low frequency field strength were observed about 4.5 mi (7 km) from the epicenter, up to two weeks in advance of the actual event. The measurement instrument was a single-axis search-coil magnetometer that was being used for research on radio communications with submarines by Professor Antony C. Fraser-Smith of Stanford University. Signal strengths 20 times higher than normal were observed on October 3, rising to 60 times normal about three hours before the earthquake.[43] This data gave scientists new ideas for research into potential precursors to earthquakes. - cites
 * Rewrote the Fraser-Smith section to more exactly match the cited study. One reference per sentence. Binksternet (talk) 02:35, 2 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Getting into some of round 3. More to come. Binksternet (talk) 04:04, 11 September 2009 (UTC)


 * My real life schedule expanded substantially in September and it appears to be doing the same in October. I do not think I am going to get this done in time, much as I would like. Binksternet (talk) 02:35, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Question on this text: "Southern Freeway, Interstate 280: Seismic damage also forced the long-term closure of Interstate 280 in San Francisco (north of US 101), another concrete freeway which had never been completed to its originally planned route. The highway remained closed for seven years, with its repair facing numerous delays."

I lived next to the 20th Street overpass from 1995 to 2001. My memory is a bit fuzzy, and some brief searching of old articles and accounts didn't provide the specifics, but I'm not sure that the route was entirely closed for seven years while that work went on. Unfortunately, sfgate.com seems to now limit archival searches back to only 1995, but I did find this:

Interchange Between Highway 280, 101 Reopens Monday, December 4, 1995

The interchange connecting northbound Interstate Highway 280 to southbound U.S. Highway 101 in San Francisco reopened last night following the completion of retrofit work, a Caltrans spokesman said.

Drivers will once again be able to make the transfer without detouring. The interchange was closed for strengthening after the Loma Prieta earthquake. Concrete barriers have been removed from the upper deck of southbound Highway 280, expanding traffic to three lanes instead of two.

The work was completed a day ahead of schedule. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1995/12/05/MN40280.DTL

GXIndiana (talk) 14:40, 13 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Alright, glad to see someone pitching in! The article still needs a lot of scientific information (see FAs 2002 Bou'in-Zahra earthquake and 1968 Illinois earthquake and a blurb on how the earthquake is threatened seismically. Science Daily is a strong, comprehensive, and reliable resource which I'd recommend for the threat section. Per this, I'm glad to say I don't have to fail the article. It's snowing in NJ–again!  ceran  thor 19:13, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * GXIndiana, the URL you cite mentions only a small connecting ramp. I rewrote the section and used some more SFGate refs. Binksternet (talk) 01:47, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Review Status?
It's been a month since the last comment on either side; does this article now pass or fail? Wizardman 06:34, 16 November 2009 (UTC)
 * It is up to the reviewer(s) to update or change the review status on this talk page. Directions are on the nominations page (choices are: Pass / Fail / On Hold / Second opinion). (talk) 17:41, 16 November 2009 (UTC) 17:57, 16 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, wow. I completely forgot about this. It's an obvious fail, as the nominator has not acted upon the things I asked for.  ceran  thor 15:06, 5 December 2009 (UTC)