The first quake, which struck at 1:07 a.m., caused weak to light shaking and no damage, according to preliminary reports from the U.S. Geological Survey. The second struck at 2:06 a.m., and the third came nine minutes later, according to the USGS. All three occurred at a depth of about seven kilometers.

The epicenters of all three earthquakes were just northeast of the UC Berkeley campus in Tilden Regional Park. Tuesday morning’s earthquakes come after a magnitude-3.0 earthquake that shook the area Oct. 6. That quake also had an epicenter in Tilden Park.

The first earthquake was felt as far away as Los Altos, Pleasanton and Daly City, according to the USGS website.

Megan Messerly is a news editor. Contact her at mmesserly@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @meganmesserly.

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Amanda Burke/Staff

When Haiti was struck by an earthquake, people and charities across the world ran to the rescue with a total of $3.3 billion in aid for the 3 million people affected.  A few months later, when Pakistan experienced a flood that inundated 30 percent of its arable land, those same charities mobilized only $1.5 billion in aid for the 20 million people affected — less than half of the funds gathered for the less politically contentious Haiti.  While the media reminded people daily about the importance of help during the disaster in Haiti, that compassion did not translate to Pakistan. There were little to no attempts made to overcome the associations we make with Pakistan: extremism, violence and terror. While the amount of aid gathered for those in need is commendable, why have we become so easily tired of showing compassion to those in need? Why is it that we let macro-political associations overshadow the needs of the poor?

The fact of the matter is foreign aid policy is more political than personal. Often, even if a foreign country has high levels of extreme poverty, other nations will reduce aid if the foreign country’s political leaders act contrary to the prevailing will of the donating country. It is only deemed wise to help when it helps oneself. Even aid policy is based on inherently self-interested motivations, despite common rhetoric of social welfare.

These limitations on international development policy also exist in local aid organizations. Although local policy debates are not as explicitly conflicting with the politics of aid as international policy debates, they serve as an example of the discrete superiority complex practiced when speaking for others. Local policy issues still show the danger of speaking from an ivory tower, where culture inadvertently distances the practitioner from those he or she tries to help. This schema provides a new bastion people can point to when they say they know what is best for communities. This same language of local responsibility leads to the removal of community-based efforts to replace them with less “risky” alternatives.

In the early 1990s, President George H.W. Bush began a program promoting the “Thousand Points of Light,” an idea that later became a private nonprofit. The organization was founded on the idea that government should remove itself from local communities so that local organizations could prosper — the same justification was made for the reduction of domestic government-sponsored aid programs. Instead, however, this led to the rise of nonprofits with massive funding. Such large aid organizations have made it near-impossible for local organizations to prosper and successfully use their their knowledge of their community’s specific problems.

As stated by Paulo Freire in “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” “to speak a true word is to transform the world.” This is what is missing in the discussion on aid organization, structures and their relationships with poor people rather than poor countries. Far be it from me to say that the organizations that exist now are acting incorrectly and that I have the right answer to these problems. Yet having discussions around development aid encourages both a more informed citizenry as well as more informed and thus more impactful solutions.

Free speech is the right not only to speak but also to be heard. Collective action is difficult, especially on an international scale. But this is why I believe in the project of One Degree (1deg.org).

One Degree uses the Internet to connect communities to the places they can work with. While it is San Francisco-based, its mission is global. In doing so, the organization has created a space for individuals to easily access information about opportunities to help others, place their opinions of them online and spread the word to other individuals who could make use of them. Any group can use this space to promote its community events, classes it offers, educational opportunities or anything in the way of social welfare and community support.

One Degree allows individuals to speak from their personal experience and encourages discussions that are both transparent and public. It gives local organizations a chance to promote their unique view on community problems and ascertain funding without being seen as a risky venue for social good. In doing so, a tool such as this helps stop the politicization of aid and welfare policy and encourages impactful and local solutions.

We must ask, does one practice naivety and help strangers without truly understanding their situation? How can we make an assessment of random people before even knowing them, and how can we deny them help without being certain? To know that only one degree of separation exists between you and an individual in need allows you to know that we are each not adamantly unencumbered, and it allows others to know they are not alone. This is what One Degree makes possible.

Shahbaz Shaikh is a senior at UC Berkeley and a volunteer at One Degree.

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The earthquake’s epicenter was at Tilden Park, just northeast of campus, and had a depth of 7.4 km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The USGS response map, which allows residents to report if they have felt an earthquake, shows tremors were felt in Concord, Vallejo and weakly in San Francisco.

View this map on Google Maps.

Sara Grossman is the executive news editor. Contact her at sgrossman@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @saragrossman.

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A bill that would implement a statewide earthquake early-warning system is currently awaiting approval from Gov. Jerry Brown. Earthquake Early Warning, which was developed in part by UC Berkeley researchers, would become the first public earthquake early-warning system in the United States.

UC Berkeley researchers developed the system in collaboration with colleagues from California Institute of Technology, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Washington and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

“I think this is a much needed investment to protect the lives of Californians,” said Igor Tregub, who serves on the Berkeley Housing Advisory Commission. “The time could not come soon enough.”

Four hundred seismometers and other sensors are located around California’s fault lines to detect the strength of an impending earthquake as well as when its first damaging seismic waves will strike. The system awaiting Brown’s approval can notify people 60 seconds before shaking starts.

Brown has until Oct. 13 to sign the bill.

The system works by detecting P-waves and estimating the magnitude, intensity and location of an earthquake before the S-wave, which causes the ground to shake, strikes.

Because it detects the less destructive P-waves before the shaking begins, the system has time to warn those in the region.

Jennifer Strauss, external relations officer for the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, said researchers at the lab were responsible for creating the ElarmS algorithm, which detects the P-waves and stands for Earthquake Alarms Systems.

Although the idea for an earthquake-warning system was conceived in 2002, the project’s first phase did not begin until four years later. State Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, heard about the project and introduced legislation to implement the system throughout California in late January.

“(We want to) develop more ways to alert the public, whether it’s to do Amber Alerts, signs on the freeways or apps on our smartphones,” Padilla said in a recorded audio release.

The system is estimated to cost $80 million for the first five years. This includes the cost of buying and installing more sensors, as well as other operation costs.

UC Berkeley runs part of the seismic network in Northern California and maintains the systems and the data received from those sensors, Strauss said.

Those who see the alert will receive a countdown to an earthquake’s first shake. They also will be informed whether they will be able to feel the earthquake, given their current location. The time of the warning depends on where the receiver of the alert is standing relative to the fault.

“Given the next big one is predicted to strike around Berkeley in the next 30 years, I certainly appreciate the state providing more tools to minimize the damage and the potential loss of life from such an event,” Tregub said.

Contact Lydia Tuan at ltuan@dailycal.org.

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Sean Conners/Staff

Tucked in an unassuming neighborhood in a district two miles southwest of the UC Berkeley campus, the “world’s safest” house stands boldly. And so does Eugene Tssui, a Cal alumnus and the house’s architect. In the past 20 years, the pair has challenged conventional wisdom and defied architecture’s status quo. Buying a small plot near a university built atop the Hayward Fault, in a state renowned for its earthquakes, Tssui seized the challenge to build a secure house for his elderly parents. His plan? Emulate the hardiness of a microscopic water bug.

The neighborhood fortress

From the street, the water bug likeness is uncanny. Amid a blanket of dense and colorful foliage, the rough-hewn exterior soars upward. Walls are striped with wrinkles and pockmarked with dinosaurian ridges. According to Tssui, every form has a function. The ridges each contain a black plastic tube that lets hot air flow around the house. The wrinkles magnify the effect. In the case of a fire, the striated surface would carry the heat up, out and away.

“It’s completely fireproof,” Tssui explained.

But that’s not all. The massive sailfish-like fin towering over the entrance doubles as a rain cowl and a wind breaker. Water and gusts of wind are directed away from the windows and doors (preventing indoor flooding). Though California hurricanes are rare, the house is prepared for the worst.

Tssui paid careful attention to sourcing the best building materials. The house’s structure is made of Rastra, a special concrete infused with compressed, recycled coffee cups. Rastra’s benefits are numerous, including fire resistance, flooding resistance, mildew resistance, termite resistance and noise reduction. In fact, Rastra’s sound insulation reduces sound levels by 50 dB or, in Tssui’s terms, “the difference between a jet roar and normal speech.” As for earthquakes, the house’s cavernous interior is supported by Structo-lite, a super strong plaster. Under stress, Structo-lite bends, flexes and adjusts. When the world is shaking, the house comes alive and survives.

Close-up of the exterior walls. Note the wrinkled texture.

“It goes beyond the definition of safety itself,” Tssui said. “A safe building is (by conventional standards) a heavy, rigid and monolithic building. But in nature, the strongest things are lightweight, flexible and unified. (This house) is designed as nature would design for safety. I’m absolutely sure it’s the safest thing that could be built for this disaster-prone area.”

Onlookers agree. From “most indestructible” to “disaster-proof,” the house’s accolades have held up to its miniature namesake: the Tardigrade, a beetle-like, extremophile creature. In 2007, the tiny Tardigrade became the first animal to survive outer space. In both form and function, Tssui’s meticulous translation of the little survivor’s body features into practical building designs has succeeded beyond the architect’s expectation. Recently, he replaced his house’s former, more mysterious designation, “Ojo del Sol,” with a more direct “Tardigrade House.” In spite of his best efforts, the public has been slow to catch on. ­

“Its seems to the general populace that it looks like a giant fish,” Tssui says with a shrug.

Twenty years ago, cynics thought the house would attract prostitution and drug trafficking. Over time, locals have come to call it “the Fish House near San Pablo Park.”  Now, this too may change. Originally built as his parent’s private residence, Tssui has partnered with Airbnb to rent the house to Bay Area travelers as short-term lodging. Now empty, Tardigrade House’s interior design is a striking contrast to its ashen exterior. Inside is a secret, otherworldly place with its own artistic bravado.

Swollen with sunshine

Entering the house is its own story. A flagstone path meanders from the sidewalk to the front door. The path descends in a slope, leading one into the jaws of the house. Tssui explains that he is trying to draw people into nature. At the same time, he adds, he has made the entire residence wheelchair accessible. Form, he reminds, always has a function.

The massive fin above the entrance casts a deep shadow inside the house, an altogether discrete and disorienting darkness. Through the still meandering entryway, the shadows vanish to reveal an atrium swollen with sunshine. Light filtered through a massive glass ceiling acts as the primary light source for the house. For Tssui, sustainability was key. Along with lighting, Tssui’s interior structure has made insulation and ventilation maintenance worry-free. Indoor temperatures never fluctuate.

“Year-round, you could wear shorts and a t-shirt with no heating,” he explains. “There are no fans either. And no air conditioning. (The house) is a great prototype for a zero-energy building , although it does require energy for ovens. But for heating and ventilation? Zero.”  To prove his point, he takes a sniff. “See? Mustiness does not exist.”

For an architect with a long career, reception for energy-efficient housing is a social development that is relatively new.

“LEED and energy conservation … none of that was talked about 20 years ago,” he admits. “This (house) is a success given today’s ecological goals and a pioneering effort in that. I am really pleased how everything turned out.”

The living room lies beneath the skylight. Sitting cushions flank a suspended wooden table. Hanging from the ceiling, like strings from an enormous puppet show, steel cables provide support to the atrium.

Each cable is anchored to a section of a massive spiral ramp. In the event of an earthquake, the cables absorb stress from the ramp and reinforce the entire house. Sound familiar? The mechanics were borrowed from the Bay Area’s most enduring icon: the Golden Gate Bridge.

The spiral ramp — also wheelchair accessible — provides access to the residence’s second-story living quarters. Along the path, the interior walls are riddled with orbs of stucco and inter-coiling, tendril-like carvings. Halfway up the ramp, a hemispherical window, like an enormous eyeball, bulges out. Like a silent guardian, Tardigrade House keeps watch over the Berkeley skyline.

The largest window in the Tardigrade House (seen from the spiral ramp)

In fact, every window in the house is circular. Shape, an often-overlooked component in window design, can be the deciding factor leading to irreparable property damage.  According to Tssui, ”One of the things commonly seen after an earthquake is cracks on the windows. This is because square windows cannot take strain and bunches stress at the corners. For (my) windows, forces are taken tangentially around the circles, so there is absolutely no cracking.”  Referring to the window’s submersible semblance, he, for good measure, adds, ” There is no reference to Jules Verne.”

On the second floor, bedrooms are decorated with maritime motifs. Shelves built into the walls have rounded, rippled edges. Carvings of spirals and parabolas crisscross. Squint. Some of the walls contain mica chips. Squint again. They glisten like starlight.

A new dimension of living

Architecture’s many episodes of history, from ancient Greek to art deco, bear little resemblance to the Tardigrade House. For Tssui, today’s challenges must be solved by 21st-century solutions.

“Architects and architecture are frozen in the past,” he said. “But past architecture has not even answered the problems of the past — like disaster situations. Our expectations of architecture (should be) to come up with new answers to very old problems.”

And they must also address quite a few new problems. While the house is prepared to confront short-term natural disasters, it doubles in being eco-friendly and energy-efficient. In a voice bordering on prophetic, Tssui adamantly describes the danger of global warming and environmental pollution.

“We are entering into what we call the ‘era of reckoning’,” he said. “All the mistakes we have created in the past we have to figure out and resolve. We have to take care of these mistakes. The last generation has turned Earth into a garbage dump, and we have to fix this. ”

Eugene Tssui stands proudly in front of the “Tardigrade House.”

At 58 years old — or “58 years young,” as Tssui jokes — the architect is remarkably future-conscious. By applying the  principles of modern life science to an ancient profession, Tssui pioneers a new family of architecture. He even has a name for it: the “Biologic Movement.”

“When I first designed this house, I asked, “How would nature design the house with these requirements?’ If you think how nature thinks, you are guaranteed not to destroy the planet.”

The Tardigrade House is located at 2747 Matthews Street in Berkeley, Calif.  This article is part of a series on Eugene Tssui.

Image sources: Sean Conners, staff

Contact Alex Mabanta at amabanta@dailycal.org.

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The quake struck along the Hayward Fault at 9:25 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The epicenter was located about two miles east-southeast of Berkeley at a depth of about 4.5 miles, according to the U.S.G.S. response system, which allows residents to report whether they felt an earthquake in their city.

The coordinates provided by the system place the epicenter just south of the Claremont Hotel Club & Spa.

View 2.7 earthquake 9.28.12 in a larger map

Adelyn Baxter is the city news editor. Contact her at abaxter@dailycal.org.

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The first was a magnitude-3.5 quake that hit at 5:33 a.m. in El Cerrito — about four miles north of Berkeley, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake was originally thought to be of magnitude 2.9 but was upgraded to a magnitude-3.5 Monday afternoon.

The second was a magnitude-4.0 quake that also hit at 5:33 a.m. and was centered about half a mile south of the first epicenter — still about four miles from Berkeley, according to the U.S.G.S.

The quakes originated on the Hayward Fault, according to Peggy Hellweg, operations manager at the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory. She said the larger magnitude-4.0 earthquake caused “a tiny bit of damage” to the houses that are located directly above the epicenter.

Bay Area Rapid Transit trains were stopped after the first quake and were held for about 10 minutes to check the tracks for damage, according to Bay City News.

The U.S.G.S. also reported two more earthquakes that hit after the initial two. At 6:03 a.m. and 6:29 a.m.,  East Richmond Heights saw quakes of magnitudes 2.0 and 1.1, respectively.

In 2008, forecasts indicated that there was a 31 percent chance of an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater hitting the Hayward Fault line in the following 30 years, according to the 2008 Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast.

“The sad answer is that we don’t have enough small quakes to release enough energy to stop the big ones from happening,” she said.

The past five large quakes on the fault — which runs directly under the UC Berkeley campus — have occurred 140 years apart on average, and the last was in 1868.

View Earthquakes 3.5.12 in a larger map

Soumya Karlamangla is the city news editor.

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At 6:09 p.m. Wednesday and 9:13 a.m. Thursday, 3.5 magnitude quakes struck Crockett, Calif., which is 19 miles north of Berkeley, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The coordinates provided by the U.S.G.S. place the quake’s epicenters about one-tenth of a mile away from each other.

View Earthquakes February 15 & 16, 2012 in a larger map

Both quakes caused light shaking and little to no damage, according to the U.S.G.S. The temblors were also felt in San Francisco, Vallejo, Novato and Walnut Creek, according to the U.S.G.S. response system in which residents can report whether they felt a quake in their city.

View Earthquakes February 15 & 16, 2012 in a larger map

Soumya Karlamangla is the city news editor.

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With an epicenter in the Berkeley Hills, the quake hit at 12:41 p.m. and had a magnitude of 1.4, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

View Earthquake 1.22.12 in a larger map

Soumya Karlamangla is the city news editor.

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The 1.2 magnitude earthquake hit at 4:49 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The coordinates provided by the agency put the epicenter adjacent to Birge Hall, just east of Sather Tower.

The Hayward Fault runs underneath the UC Berkeley campus.

View Earthquake 1.20.2012 in a larger map

Soumya Karlamangla is the city news editor.

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