ChezDaJez
Posts: 3436
Joined: 11/12/2004 From: Chehalis, WA Status: offline
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quote:
I've heard some of the military facilities built in the Aleutians are built on gimbles to flex with the quakes. I talked with someone once who had been at a radar facility in Dutch Harbor or one of the other islands. He said that the first time he saw the building flex radically in an earthquake he ran outside and his co-workers just about died laughing. He was sure the building was going to collapse because the walls and ceiling were flexing so much. The 2-story base house we lived in on Adak was built on earthquake rollers and they were quite effective at dampening the shock...... on the first floor. Upstairs was a different matter... it swayed more than it would have without them but it was a much more "gentle" sway. I can remember waking up many a night to the sound of the handles on my dresser tapping and feeling a slight movement that progressively got worse. During the worst one, the dresser slid across the floor until it was next to the bed and the wife was trying to dig her way through the mattress. That was our 7.2 quake that lasted nearly 2 1/2 minutes. We had quite a mess to clean up afterwards. The only real damage though was to the commissary where a main support beam snapped. BTW, Adak has two types of quakes... those caused by tectonic plate movement and those caused by volcanic action (magma movement). Tectonic plate quakes come and go very quickly normally with an abrupt shock. These are the ones that cause the most damage. Volcanic action quakes can be just as strong but they build up slower and taper off slower. At their peak the shaking can be just as severe as a tectonic plate quake but generally they do cause less damage. Still, in the middle of the night when the dresser handles start tapping.... As far as quake damage during the war, you are correct that would normally be established areas that had the most potential for damage. However, even at places like Guadalcanal in the early stages, the disrutpion to the supply system could hurt. Think of things like the gasoline dump that was nothing more than 55 gallon drums stacked one atop another, ammo crates, spare parts and the like all falling over and potentially spilling their contents. It would still be quite a mess to clean up assuming nothing went boom! Chez
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Ret Navy AWCS (1972-1998) VP-5, Jacksonville, Fl 1973-78 ASW Ops Center, Rota, Spain 1978-81 VP-40, Mt View, Ca 1981-87 Patrol Wing 10, Mt View, CA 1987-90 ASW Ops Center, Adak, Ak 1990-92 NRD Seattle 1992-96 VP-46, Whidbey Isl, Wa 1996-98
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