The San Fernando Earthquake of 9 February 1971 caught experts completely off-guard. The event galvanised a generation of engineers, and improvements are still being made today that can be traced back to that one day.

One recognisable figure from the tunnelling industry today, was still in education at the time. He had earned his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Cornell University in 1970 and was working on his master’s at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign.

He can look back on a career spent in over- and underground infrastructure, and has been fascinated by disaster resilience ever since the early years of his career…

Guest

Tom O’Rourke, Thomas R. Briggs Professor Emeritus, Cornell University

Resources

The Cornell University Large Scale Lifelines Testing Facility can be found here

For more information on the Gateway Program, click here

An engineering report on the effects of the San Fernando Earthquake can be found here

And the USGS remembers the earthquake 50 years on.