WESTWOOD—At approximately 11:20 p.m. on Monday, September 18, an earthquake with a magnitude 3.6 shook the grounds 3 miles northwest of Westwood. It was followed by a 2.0 magnitude aftershock. No injuries were recorded.
The last earthquake in the Westwood region recorded a 4.4 magnitude in 2014. Seismic studies show that earthquakes with magnitudes exceeding 4.0 are usually felt by everyone, and are the types that can wake people from their sleep. A earthquake with a 7.0 magnitude have the potential of crumbling a home or building.
The last major earthquake closest to the Los Angeles region big enough to cause such damage was the Northridge quake of 1994 (that measured at a 6.7 magnitude) and lasted for more than 10 seconds, causing buildings and freeways to crumble.
City inspectors noted that many of the buildings built after WWII in the Los Angeles area, contain flimsy first floors that are not able to hold up the weight of the upper floors if shaking occurs. Los Angeles recently passed a new law for all soft-story L.A. building owners to retrofit their complexes in order to make them earthquake proof.
Over 13,500 building-owners (which house at least 75,000 units) have been ordered to make the retrofitted seismic adjustments to their buildings so that if a major earthquake does strike, the building can withstand the shaking. Concerned with the high costs in making these seismic adjustments, building-owners have increased the rates of rent to supplement the cost of making the appropriate modifications
