Ridgecrest earthquake mystery: Why so little destruction from huge temblors?
LOS ANGELES - After major temblors on July 4 and 5, structural engineers descended on Ridgecrest expecting to study destruction from the largest earthquake to hit Southern California in nearly 20 years.
They found relatively little.
Yes, mobile homes were torn off foundations, chimneys fell, gas lines leaked and some homes caught fire. But overall, most buildings did fine - and many businesses were up and running within a day or two of the biggest shock, a magnitude 7.1.
"Ridgecrest, I'm just amazed," California Earthquake Authority structural engineer Janiele Maffei said of the light damage.
But the outcome in Ridgecrest shouldn't provide solace to California's biggest cities.
The Mojave Desert town remained largely unscathed because its building stock was relatively new and remarkably resilient. Many homes are one or two stories, built in the 1980s. It lacks the kind of structures that experts say are most vulnerable in a big quake -
