Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
The weekend in Southern California was rocked by a 5.1 earthquake Friday night, with several aftershocks centered around the La Habra area.
They struck near a fault close to the La Puente Hills thrust fault. Though it is less known than the larger San Andreas, scientists worry a large-scale quake along this fault could cause even more destruction in the L.A. area.
"It's what we call a blind thrust, in other words it's deep enough that it doesn't hit the surface, so we don't know as much about it as we do some of the faults that do reach the surface," said Seismologist Kate Hutton of the California Institute of Technology. "Most of the faults that we have in Southern California are strike slip faults, where one side slides horizontally past the other. A thrust fault, the fault is at an angle and one side is sliding up over the other side."
The fault runs from northern Orange County through the San Gabriel Valley and up through downtown Los Angeles into Hollywood. There are many older, more vulnerable buildings and densely populated areas along the fault than the San Andreas, which lies about 30 miles outside metropolitan L.A.
Friday's 5.1 earthquake made for some interesting conversations come Saturday morning — chief among them, perhaps, were brought on by probing questions from young minds.
RELATED: 20 things to do to prepare before the next earthquake hits Southern California
For more on how to make sure a child is safe but not scared, we checked in with clinical psychologist Dr. Enrico Gnaulati, who gave us the following pointers when talking with children about earthquakes: