About the author  ⁄ Judy Liu, Ph.D.

Dr. Judy Liu is an Associate Professor in structural engineering at Purdue University’s Lyles School of Civil Engineering. Dr. Liu can be reached at jliu@purdue.edu.

On August 24, 2014, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred northwest of American Canyon, California. The earthquake was located between two faults: the West Napa Fault and the Carneros-Franklin Fault near the north shore of the San Pablo Bay. Structural damage was most severe in the downtown Napa region, where a number of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings were located. Damage to residential building construction was also observed surrounding the downtown region, and became less severe farther away from town.

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STRUCTURE magazine