LA JOLLA LIGHT
Enlightening La Jolla Since 1913
Vol. 99 Issue 12 • March 24, 2011
Online Daily at www.lajollalight.com
retiring director Anna Galloway See the Pull-out Special Section
Tsunamis
BY KATHY DAY kday@lajollalight.com Ever stood along the coast, wondering just what lives beneath the ocean you’re eyeing? Within a couple of months, if you’re standing near the Seaside Forum at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, you’ll have some answers. Through a partnership between the Birch Aquarium A rendering shows how an and the La Jolla Communi- information panel about ‘Species Found along the ty Foundation, a series of interpretive panels is being La Jolla Coast’ will look near a walkway south of SEE PANELS, A10 Scripps Pier. COURTESY
Know what to do when they happen is key, officials say BY DAVE SCHWAB daves@lajollalight.com ocal experts say an earthquake and tsunami of the same magnitude as the one that ravaged Japan recently couldn’t happen here. But they were quick to add that doesn’t mean there isn’t cause to be concerned — or prepared — for a quake, particularly with San Onofre nuclear facility nearby, or a tsunami that might be generated. “We know there’s going to be another earthquake,” said Debi Kilb, Ph.D., a seismologist with Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “What we don’t know is whether it’s going to be today, tomorrow or a hundred years from now.” Statistics show every year approximately 500 earthquakes occur in California large enough to be felt. San Diego County, compared to other Southern California areas, has sparse seismicity. However, since 1984, earthquake activity in San Diego County reportedly has doubled over that of the preceding 50 years.
L ■ Vintage vehicles
to take center stage at Motor Car Classic Page B1
Image from UCSD’s quake information website shows the location of the Rose Canyon Fault (red line), which is relatively small and less active than the San Andreas Fault, which is about 100 miles from La Jolla as the crow flies, and the San Jacinto Fault, about 50 miles away. COURTESY OF UCSD And while the fault nearest La Jolla is the Rose Canyon Fault, it’s the least worrisome to Kilb who sees greater risks from the San Jacinto Fault that runs through Anza, east of Temecula, and the San Andreas, which runs from Point Arena to the Salton Sea.
As scientists like Kilb and Pat Abbott, emeritus professor of geology at San Diego State University, look at the quakes from their vantage points as to the whys and hows, city and county officials have to deal with what happens “when.”
SEE QUAKES, A12
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Interpretive panels to start surfacing along LJ shoreline
Talking about Quakes and ■ REBA salutes
Residential Customer La Jolla, CA 92037 ECRWSS
Workers start cleaning up junk and clutter around ‘Relaxo Relaxo’ as soon as it was sold. DAVE SCHWAB
‘Rancho Relaxo’ no more: Buyer starts cleanup BY DAVE SCHWAB daves@lajollalight.com As work crews continue to haul the mess out of Rancho Relaxo, a “nuisance” Bird Rock property sold last week, neighbors reacted — most positively — to the change. “I’m very relieved,” said Tracy Trudeau, returning home from a milk run
Everett Stunz Established 1963
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March 21. “This same walk I was doing once with my 3-year-old son,” he said. “These (Relaxo) pit bulls came chasing after us and I had to hold him (son) in the air.” Roderick Leong, who lives at 425 Midway St. just around the corner from
SEE RANCHO, A14