Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
assistants that it would be the most vulnerable part of the Los Angeles Water
Works.” Vulnerable, indeed: “nothing is more inelastic and less contrived
to accommodate itself to sudden shocks, than a great big tank full of water,
for water is the most inelastic substance in nature. . . . there are major frac-
tures, grand faults, that run through the country. . . . I have worked,—done
lots of engineering work,—along that fault; made explorations at different
points along it, and I know that it is a major fracture.” these faults had
cracked a reservoir of his own construction on Salano Hill, a reservoir “ob-
liquely crossed by a fault line of minor character; but it broke the walls, and
threw the walls about an inch and a half out of level. I repaired that, but
came back in six months and found it had faulted the other way.” In short,
Mulholland had come a long way from his optimism of 1906. Instead of
giving Californians a slap on the back for their pluck, he expressed humility.
Rather than calculating acceptable damages, he was ready to rule out certain
projects altogether. Mulholland compared his experience with earthquakes
to that of his colleague Homer Hamlin, who had abandoned construction
of an outfall sewer near the same ridge outside Santa Monica. earthquakes,
as Mulholland put it, were a “subject that gives a waterworks man a whole
lot of worry, for those things are unavoidable. You cannot get around them.
there are some things we have to face. . . . If an earthquake comes, there
is nobody on earth that can build an aqueduct, or a building, that will be
proof against it. You can build it so the damage will be slight; but it is going
to rupture.”
94
Homer Hamlin had made a similar appeal to this same audience in Jan-
uary 1918, describing his efforts to “collect data and records pertaining to
earthquakes in southern California.” Hamlin was the autodidact director
of the engineering Department of the city of Los Angeles. three months
after the earthquake of 1906, he had written to Andrew Lawson to offer his
support to the investigative commission: “I am of course much interested
and would like to be in the field. Would such data as the location of some
of the principal fault zones in Southern California be of interest or value to
you. two years ago I went down the Colorado River to the head of the Gulf
of California and then down the west side for about 40 miles. there are
many evidences of great faulting there. Will be pleased to write you about
them if the data will be of any use.”
95
Hamlin was just the figure the fledg-
ling SSA needed. Following the disappointing performance of the volunteer
observers, Branner was all too happy to fall back on Hamlin's knowledge
and connections. When an earthquake struck the northeastern corner of Los
Angeles County in October 1916, Hamlin was responsible for collecting
most of the reports that informed Branner's published study. Branner even
