Staying on Top of the Shake-Up : Mother Nature’s Rumblings Punctuate Southland Shows

Near the epicenter of the quake, The J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu reported no damage from Wednesday’s temblor. “Objects are installed to mitigate effects of an earthquake,” a museum spokesperson said.

Sculptures and decorative objects are secured to pedestals and tables, and the bases of sculptures are equipped with ball bearings, a movable system similar to that employed in the foundation of earthquake-proof buildings.

The “Kouros,” the Greek figure that is one of the museum’s major pieces, is held together under spring tension, a new technique, that allows the statue to flex rather than jolt under the force of a temblor. Broken in seven pieces, the statue, thought to be damaged during a quake in antiquity, is threaded with springs rather than the usual method of using metal posts.

A 1984 engineering study found that the museum could withstand a 6.5 quake on the Malibu-Santa Monica fault, likely to cause the most damage in the vicinity, with no structural damage.