For Your Consideration: Bring The Olympics To The Southern California Mountains

It is the Olympic rings being used in all its glorious public domain. 

HEAPS PEAK IN THE SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS - There is much talk that Los Angeles may be a step closer to hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics. Deals from the L.A. City Council to the International Olympic Committee are still being worked out, and there are a few other things to work out. One of those things to be worked out is competing with other cities around the world to host the games. If all goes well, and many of us hope we receive the answer we are looking for, it would be the third time L.A. will host the Summer Olympics.

Standing at The L.A. Memorial coliseum looking to the north and turning your head to the northeast you can see, provided the inversion layer and its hazy smoggy nastiness is not blocking the view, The Transverse Range, which make up The San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains. Having the Summer Olympics in L.A. and throughout Southern California really do make for a perfect fit, but what about The Winter Olympics? I know saying "let's bring The Winter Olympics to Southern California" sounds like a joke, and maybe even a third-tier Woody Allen joke (New York, by the way, has never hosted the Olympic games), but seriously, the powers that be should seriously look at and consider bringing the Winter Olympic games to our local mountains.

Seriously, Could Our Local Mountains Really Host The Olympics?

Yes. The Sochi Olympics wrapped up in February 2014 bringing to end the somewhat contentious XXII Olympic Winter Games. Among the many real or perceived problems, there was one real problem, which is the Sochi games were just a little too warm for the Winter Olympics, which is not unlike our own mountains. The climate in the Sochi area is typically rather mild and Russian officials stored significant amounts of snow for the games, just in case. Nonetheless, despite social issues outside the gates and despite the events in nearby Ukraine, the Sochi games were an overall success.

So, if a place like Sochi with its lack of snow can pull off a Winter Olympics then why cannot our own Southern California mountains, The San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, host the winter games? After all, the weather in our local mountains are about the same as in Sochi, as you never quite know if it is going to be a snowy year or warm year, and if it is a warm year our ski resorts know how to make and store quite of bit of snow.

Where In Our Mountains?

Probably the most logical site for the home-base of the Winter Olympics would be Big Bear, but however events could be spread all over the Transverse Range. Spreading out Olympic events is nothing new. It was done in Sochi, and it was done during the 1984 Summer Olympics and 1932 Summer Olympics in L.A. with many Olympic games spread throughout Southern California.

Sure, there would be some infrastructure that would need to be built, but that would be a boom to the local construction industry.

Okay. All This New Stuff Is Built, But What Happens When The Games Leave?
 
What happens when the Olympics leave the mountain resorts with so much new stuff built? Well, for places in Big Bear, and perhaps other places in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains, they can now brag and sell their ski resorts as being world famous, and boost their ski resorts from being local destinations to world destinations. What skier would not love to play and ski at an Olympic ski resort?

What About The Mountain Roads?

What about accommodating all the Olympic spectators, and those mountain highways?

Yes, as any person who has driven our mountain highways and roads can attest, the roadways to and around the mountain towns are not the best, and can provide for a white-knuckle ride at times, but this would provide the opportunity to improve the mountain highways.

Furthermore, shuttle service can be provided to and from events, and up and down the mountain. Also, this may be an opportunity to explore other unique forms of transportation, such as a tramway from the base of the mountain to perhaps Big Bear, not unlike the Palm Springs Tram.

Just Where Is Everybody Going To Stay?

In the mountain towns there would be a need to build some new hotels, but there are many hotel and motel rooms down the mountain in the Inland Empire that are underused and could be used to house Winter Olympic spectators.

Of course before, during and right after the Olympic games it will be massive boost to the hospitality industry, and not just in the mountains, but it will have a positive ripple affect throughout Southern California. It is not an unlikely scenario that hotels from Palm Springs to L.A. would be filled up with Winter Olympic spectators. 

What About Traffic Down The Mountain?

What about traffic having a ripple affect in the flat lands? Well, we all worked together during the 1984 games, and during the recent events on Interstate 405, and so why cannot it be that way again for the Winter Olympics?

Consider It and Bring It To Our Mountains!

We say to the powers that be, bring the Winter Olympics to the Southern California Mountains. We have, and could easily have, the infrastructure in place, and hosting the games here you would not have to worry about any possible social problems taking center stage at the games. The United States is a very stable place to hold the Winter Olympics, and our Southern California mountain range will make it even better.

As an added bonus to consider, though it is on a smaller scale, Big Bear has hosted the X-Games, among other such major winter sporting events.

The Winter Olympics in Southern California? Yes, this can be done.

We have already hosted two Summer Olympics, and maybe a third, and now let us take stage in hosting the games The Winter Olympics!

This can be done, and so let us do it!

[NOTE: This originally appeared on this site in February 2014 and has been updated. Also, this site and story is not supported by or affiliated with any local chamber of commerce, booster groups or local Olympic committee. Holding the Winter Olympics in our local mountains is an interested idea to float around and, frankly, something to give serious consideration to.]

 

Seven Facts About The Landers Earthquake

THE HOT MOJAVE DESERT IN SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY - Little earthquakes, many of them very little earthquakes, shake Southern California everyday. However, it was on June 28, 1992, on which the largest county in the lower 48 states was the epicenter of the largest earthquake in California in about 40 years. Though not a lot of spectacular, memorable damage was done, there were a lot of lessons learned from this earthquake.


Probably the most noticeable damage following the 1992 earthquake was this bowling alley in Yucca Valley. Photograph taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and in public domain.

Waking Southern California up on a Sunday morning at 4:57 a.m. in the very busy year of 1992 here are seven interesting facts about the earthquake commonly known as, "The Landers Earthquake."

1 - It Still Remains The Last Largest Earthquake In California

It has been over 20 years and the Landers Earthquake was, according to the moment magnitude scale (M), a M7.3 earthquake, and (as of this writing) retains the record as being the last large earthquake, by way of magnitude, to hit California. Prior to the 1992 event the last large earthquake to hit California was the 1952 Kern County Earthquake, which occurred near Wheeler Ridge on the (thought to have been inactive) White Wolf Fault, and was M7.3. After the Landers Earthquake the next closest earthquake in magnitude size was the 1999 Hector Mine Earthquake at M7.1.

Even though this earthquake was rather big, it was not "The Big One." In fact, "The Big One" is expected to be M7.8-8.0.

As paleoseismology has shown this record held by the Landers Earthquake will likely be broken at some point.

2 - There Was A Lot Of Fault Involved

Rather, lot of faults were involved. The Landers Earthquake did not just rupture on one single fault-line, but rather ruptured on five separate fault-lines: Johnson Valley, Landers, Homestead Valley, Emerson, and Camp Rock Faults, according to the Southern California Earthquake Data Center (SCEDC).

3 - A New San Andreas Fault Could Be Opening Up

That is the theory, at least, from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) geologist Pat Williams. According to the LBL article that came out in August 1992:

A theory that was posed in the aftermath of last month's earthquakes was that a new San Andreas fault could be opening up from the Salton Sea north to central California. Williams says instead that the recent activity has linked the Gulf of California with slip systems east of Mount Whitney, the 1872 site of one of California's three historic magnitude 8.0 earthquakes.

Williams' theory is that the strain is heading toward the back side of the Sierras, northeast into central Nevada, where it may affect active geothermal fields. The earth's movement could enhance the production of geothermal fluids by contributing to a thinning of the crust and allowing the fluids to circulate through complex fractures.

A huge strain response on a scale never seen before occurred during the 24 hours following the Landers earthquake. At the Pinion Flats Observatory researchers from UC San Diego observed a massive redistribution of strain deep in the earth's crust. For the first time, Williams says, scientists will be able to study not just how the upper 12 kilometers of brittle crust reacts, but the response of the deep crust beneath it.

This theory is still being debated among geological and seismologists circles, and, frankly, it will probably take a few more large earthquakes to see if this theory is correct. The earth sciences is sometimes a game of wait and see.

4 - Did You Feel The Foreshock?

At the time nobody knew it was a foreshock to the Landers Earthquake, and in fact, there was concern this might have been a foreshock to a San Andreas Fault event, and that was a M6.1 foreshock that hit about 11 miles east of Desert Hot Springs on April 23, 1992. The Earth Day earthquake caused a moderate amount of property damage in the Palm Springs area. As this earthquake, called the Joshua Tree Earthquake, rolled through to Los Angeles at 9:50 p.m. a Dodgers' game was going on and Vin Scully broadcast the the rolling motion happenings at Chavez Ravine.

There was concern this could be a foreshock to a San Andreas' event, and, according to the SCEDC, "A San Andreas Hazard Level B was declared following this quake, meaning that a 5 to 25% chance existed for an even larger earthquake happening along the San Andreas fault within 3 days."

This made for some big headlines in L.A. media, but by April 29, 1992, this earthquake and the threat of the San Andreas Fault unleashing its fury would be forgotten, at least for a little while.

This foreshock had its own foreshock, a M4.6, a little over two hours earlier.

5 - Was The Big Bear Earthquake Really An Aftershock?


This was the Big Bear Earthquake broadcast live on CNN to the country and parts of the world.

The short answer, no.


This is a report of the earthquakes from KTVU-TV, Oakland/San Francisco, which includes on-air coverage from KTTV-TV as the Big Bear Earthquake shook the KTTV/Fox 11 newsroom at the now gone Metromedia Square in Hollywood.

At 8:05 a.m. on that Sunday morning a lot of people were already up and had already felt quite a few aftershocks, but one the largest, and probably most damaging, earthquake that morning was the Big Bear Earthquake. It was originally thought the M6.5 Big Bear Earthquake was simply an aftershock, and having an aftershock of that size following such a large earthquake is not unusual. However, as later research showed, the Big Bear event was not an aftershock of the Landers Earthquake. Rather, that earthquake in the San Bernardino Mountains was apart of a "regional earthquake sequence," according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

6 - Location And Magnitude


While there was some strong shaking in the Inland Empire, L.A. area, Orange County and San Diego area, all of the violent shaking, which causes severe damage, was in mostly unpopulated areas of the San Bernardino County desert. "Shakemap" by USGS and in public domain.

Even though the Landers Earthquake was a historically large, powerful earthquake, the epicenter was seemingly in "the middle of nowhere," and damage was mostly minor-to-moderate (if you were somebody who lived near the epicenter in "the middle of nowhere" it was, no doubt, not quite a good morning). The Big Bear Earthquake a little over three hours later, and a lot less powerful than the Landers' event, was in a more populated area, and thus more damage was caused despite it only being a moderate-size earthquake. The Northridge Earthquake vividly showed that it only takes a moderate-sized earthquake in an urban area to cause major damage. So, even though an earthquake may be quite large (and scary sounding to those around the country who only hear, "A 7.3 earthquake struck the L.A. area on Sunday morning"), if it is located in a very sparsely populated area very little property damage will be found. This, too, would be visibly illustrated following the 1999 Hector Mine Earthquake.

7 - The Landers Earthquake Happened One Year After The Sierra Madre Earthquake

Some people have forgotten about this earthquake, but on June 28, 1991, a M5.8 earthquake struck in the Angeles National Forest about 12 miles northeast of Pasadena in an event called, The Sierra Madre Earthquake. It is interesting and curious that some people have forgotten this event as this earthquake caused some major property damage in the Pasadena area, such as, windows shattering and brick-walls collapsing. One of this interesting things about this earthquake was for a quake of its size it had a small aftershock sequence.

No, despite these earthquakes occurring a year apart they are not related.

Songs of Southern California: Mix Tape #2

ANAHEIM - Many musical tunes have been written for and about Southern California, and here are a few of them.

Mel Blanc - Big Bear Lake (Yes, "The man of 1,000 Voices")



Mountain Goats - San Bernardino

Morcheeba - Coming Into Los Angeles

Little Girls - Earthquake Song

D.I. - I Hate Surfing in H.B.