Newswise — Amr S. Elnashai (pronounced Ah-MURR El-NOSH-eye) is the director of the Mid-America Earthquake Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Bill and Elaine Hall Professor of Civil Engineering, he has reported on most of the damaging earthquakes around the world since the mid-1980s. He has been on field missions to 17 earthquake sites around the world. Before joining the faculty at Illinois, he was the head of the Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Section at Imperial College in London.
Aftershocks always occur, Elnashai says, and they may continue for a few days after such a relatively low-magnitude earthquake. Usually, with some exceptions, aftershocks are one magnitude unit below the main event. As for what homeowners should do, they should first switch off the gas, and then sniff around for leaks. Homeowners should also check the utility networks in general, and be watchful of any signs of underground leakage, especially if they know that their properties are on soft ground.
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