‘Faulted’ floors, cracked curbs highlight new earthquake exhibit in Fremont

Oct. 22--Earthquakes are scary, but preparing for them doesn't have to be.

At Fremont's Central Park on Sunday, hundreds of inquisitive residents showed up to learn about the Hayward Fault, and mark the 150th anniversary of the last time it sent major rumbling waves throughout the Bay Area.

The Great Quake of Oct. 21, 1868, considered the Bay Area's "big one" until San Francisco's 1906 disaster, has been estimated as comparable to a 7.0 temblor. The city of Hayward was leveled, and damage was significant in San Leandro, San Francisco and Mission San Jose in Fremont.

Organizers and volunteers at the one-of-a-kind Fremont Earthquake Exhibit and Tour spent the day showing people of all ages geological features of the park and surrounding areas, all caused by the creeping of the Hayward Fault.

The day's main attraction was the "faulted floor," where visitors could get up close to a large crack in an old city building that started to emerge shortly after it was built in the early 1960s -- right on top of the fault.

"It's astonishing," Mary Mason of San Ramon said. She came to the park with her sister Betsy Mason in hopes of learning a bit more about how to prepare for a big shaker.

Another popular exhibit was the earthquake simulator trailer, which shakes violently and replicates what it's like to be in a home while a major quake hits.

Abed Helmand, 11, of Fremont, said after he took a ride that it was like "a weaker version of a roller coaster," and "really cool."

The event -- put on by the educational nonprofit Math Science Nucleus, the U.S. Geological Survey, California Geological Survey and the city of Fremont -- also brought out firefighters and vendors to chat with people about what steps they can take to better prepare for an earthquake while in their homes, cars or elsewhere.

Brittney Price, of Newark, came with her husband, Nate, and their two young kids, and said she's mostly concerned about retrofitting their home to be safe during a temblor, so having vendors around to chat with was handy.

"It just helps to hear a little bit of where do you even start? What's the process?" she said.

Her family has an earthquake safety kit at home, but she acknowledged it may not have enough supplies for all four of them. Like many people interviewed for this story, she felt the event served as a good reminder to take steps to get better prepared soon.

During walking tours of areas around the park, volunteer guides pointed out some of the ways -- large and small -- the fault has influenced the landscape over time.

On either side of the fault are sections of curbs that have shifted several inches away from one another.

And some of the benign-looking hills are actually compression knolls caused by the shifting of tectonic plates underneath, volunteer tour guide Karen Anderson explained to a group.

"Our lovely hills are based on the earthquake faults," she said, gesturing toward the light brown rolling hills and Mission Peak across the lake.

Fremont's former city hall, made almost entirely of concrete, was also built on a compression knoll in the 1970s between the city's current police station and main library. When the fault was discovered underneath, the building had to be torn down for safety reasons, and now the empty hill where it once sat is one of six stops on what will become a self-guided walking tour after Sunday's event.

"We've come to Lake Elizabeth a lot of times, but we never know what we're looking at," Fremon resident Jagdish Vankadari of Fremont said of the day's tour, which he was on with his 8-year-old son, Aarya.

"It's a great way to learn," he said.

Quake preparedness wasn't the only draw at the park Sunday. Alia Rafique, 21, of Fremont, was one of hundreds of people there searching for a limited-edition Pokémon Go character on the virtual reality smartphone game. But when she and her friends stumbled across the earthquake exhibits, they stopped to take a look at some maps and the huge crack in the floor of the city building.

"It's crazy," Rafique said of the floor. "I've never been alive for a major one, so it's still something that's a bit surreal," she said of earthquakes.

Luke Blair, a geologist with the USGS, said it's good that, with the urging of Math Science Nucleus staff, the city has preserved the building that houses the crack, but he hopes there will be greater investment from Fremont to keep the exhibit open for more than just occasional events.

"It's just a great way to get more intimate with the fault and geology," he said, noting he was happy to see the large turnout.

"There's a low understanding of earthquake hazards and earthquake potential" in the East Bay overall, he said. "A place like this is invaluable."

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