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Podcasts Take Two
How big does an earthquake have to be to level some concrete buildings in LA?
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Oct 14, 2013
Listen • 6:33
How big does an earthquake have to be to level some concrete buildings in LA?
Possibly as small as a 6.0.
An aerial view of Los Angeles. According to an LA Times analysis, more than 1,000 aging buildings in LA County could be at risk of falling in a major earthquake.
An aerial view of Los Angeles. According to an LA Times analysis, more than 1,000 aging buildings in LA County could be at risk of falling in a major earthquake.
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Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
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Possibly as small as a 6.0.

A 6.0 could possibly deal a ton of damage.

That's according to Thomas Heaton - the director of Caltech's Earthquake Engineering Research Laboratory.

Thomas joins the program today to detail the problems with many of LA's older concrete buildings. He also talks about what it would take to make them safer, where the biggest problem areas in Los Angeles are and where an earthquake would have to hit to deal the most destruction (hint: the west side isn't looking too stable).

This is a followup conversation to the earlier talk about the Los Angeles Times story about the danger of some concrete buildings in LA.