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In-Depth Information
cited Hamlin's fieldwork on the tejon Pass fault. Hamlin had also begun
distributing questionnaires following each tremor near Los Angeles. “At the
outset I thought we might have eight or ten shocks,” he explained, “if it were
a good year for earthquakes. In all, over fifty shocks have been recorded;
but even these are not all, for I am sure that many slight shocks have passed
unnoticed, or were not considered important enough to report. the effort is
worthwhile and the work should be carried on even if it is rather strenuous
at times, for we shall never solve our own earthquake problems until we
study our own territory.”
96
Hamlin's informal network was tested three months later by an earth-
quake near the San Jacinto Mountains, which seriously injured several
people. Hamlin and Sydney townley, the secretary of the SSA, jointly in-
vestigated the affected region three days later. In all, Hamlin collected 166
reports; other researchers only managed to collect eight. townley seemed
genuinely surprised by the usefulness of these observations. “It is well
known,” he remarked, “that only a very few people are able to estimate a
short time interval in a way which even roughly approaches scientific ac-
curacy”; fortunately, two of the observers used their watches to estimate the
duration of the shaking. “the moment the shock started,” wrote one witness,
“I pulled out my watch and caught the exact duration of the shock, which
was one minute and thirty-one seconds.”
97
Another witness took pleasure
in describing the aftershocks—one was a “corker,” another “twisted things
up proper.” this man had a good laugh at his wife, who “grabbed the baby
and rushed outside” each time she heard a car approaching, mistaking it for
an earthquake.
98
Hamlin's research began with such mundane details of the
earthquake. But it culminated in meticulous knowledge of the damage and
of the topography and geology of the San Jacinto fault.
99
At the close of their 1920 meeting, the engineers voted to form a “South-
west Section of the Seismological Society of America” with Mulholland as
chairman. Arnold likened the task at hand to the “organization of a fire
department. Its members may sit around for a month or two months or
even a year, and not respond to a fire call; but they go on practicing every
day, so that they will know how to fight a fire when it does occur. When the
necessity arises for their activity, they are prepared and ready to respond.”
Within four months, the SSA's first local section had won an additional
forty-five members.
100
Arnold thanked the engineers who had volunteered
for “organizing the work and making it local.”
101
By 1920, then, “making it
local” in Southern California meant appealing to a technical elite, not the
general public.
