Lessons learned from the Northridge Earthquake
Before the Los Angeles fires of 2025, the largest natural disaster to hit the Southern California region was the Northridge Earthquake. The devastating 6.7 quake struck before dawn, killing dozens and causing tens of billions of dollars in damage.
Thirty-two years ago, freeways fell, buildings flattened and local communities were reshaped forever by the earthquake.
It turns out, the quake also reshaped science.
Before 1994, experts assumed only faults reached the surface to produce large quakes, but Seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones said Northridge proved that theory wrong.
"People wanted to believe it was a surprise," Jones said. "The biggest surprise about Northridge was the fault that it occurred on. Most of our faults dip down toward the north, but Northridge was on a south-dipping fault, and it didn't make it to the Earth's surface.
The quake also cracked open another misconception: that the amount of damage is tied solely to magnitude.
"It's not the magnitude of the earthquake that determines the damage — it's what shaking comes to you," Joens said. "Northridge was directly under our city; we were closer to it, so we got stronger shaking."
Still, many people in the public were stunned by the destruction, including the collapse of the Northridge Meadows apartments, but engineers weren't.
"Our building code doesn't say, 'don't be damaged,' it says, 'don't kill somebody,'" Jones said. "We are developing a city that we do not intend to be repairable. We only require that it not kill people."
Northridge did spark change. There are stricter rules for homes and hospitals, retrofits for vulnerable "soft story" apartments, and seismic shutoff valves on gas lines. But Dr. Jones said one critical piece of infrastructure remains dangerously exposed.
"All of the imported water to Southern California crosses the San Andreas Fault and they will all be broken when that earthquake happens," Jones said. "We will be really lacking in water; you can't stay here without it."
Preparedness has faded among many Angelenos who didn't live through the Northridge earthquake. But Jones warns that we are living in an unusually quiet seismic era, and it won't last forever. The best thing you can do is prepare now.
"The California you've experienced is not the long-term picture," Jones said. "We have been living in a particularly quiet time since Northridge, be grateful for it, but don't expect it to last."
Dr. Jones said her biggest fear if Northridge happened today isn't buildings, it's communication. Limited backup power could knock out internet access, leaving millions to wait for instant answers.
While some risks are bigger than we acknowledge, Jones said, do not panic.
"We underestimate what's going to happen and we don't prepare, but floods have killed more Southern Californians than earthquakes," Jones said. "Take it seriously but keep it in proportion."
She said what we learned 32 years ago still stands: preparation saves lives, long before the shaking starts.