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October 17, 2013
Are you ready for an earthquake? Make sure today.
What if an earthquake hit right now, the moment you read this? A big one. You get a few seconds of puzzling low rumbling to figure out what’s going on, and then the room you’re in lurches to the side and back. The floor bounces, the walls creak and crackle, books and papers topple and slide, and heavy things all around you start to wobble and flop over. You had no …
October 7, 2013
Earthquake PSAs around the world
Earthquake public service announcements run the gamut from trite and dry to hip, beautiful, and even charming. The production quality of recent campaigns attests to both their importance and the practicality of raising awareness inexpensively through the Internet Media Machine. Public awareness and training about earthquake risks forms the foundation of any risk mitigation effort; building retrofits cost tons, but people can be trained how to protect themselves for far …
April 16, 2013
On my way to SSA
This week I’m attending the Seismological Society of America annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. The society was founded in the wake of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, so the annual meetings generally coincide with the quake’s April 18 anniversary. This year’s conference is held in Salt Lake City, at the foot of the gorgeous and seismically ominous Wasatch Mountains. As such the conference is nominally focused on earthquake …
October 18, 2012
ShakeOut!
The Great ShakeOut is happening now! Millions of people across the country are practicing their Drop, Cover, and Hold On, using the video below to guide their drills. Take this opportunity to think about, talk about, and practice what you would do in an earthquake. Think about it everywhere you go today: what would you do if an earthquake hit now? The Earthquake Country Alliance has some answers for you. Happy …
October 15, 2012
ShakeOut this week! World’s largest ever earthquake drill
This is a big week in U.S. (and world) earthquake history. In the U.S. we mark the anniversaries of several major, important earthquakes that have struck the country. On October 15, 1979, a M6.9 earthquake struck the Imperial Valley of southern California/northern Baja. In 2006 a M6.7 earthquake rocked the island state of Hawaii, damaging thousands of buildings at a cost of $73 million. On October 16, 1999, people throughout the …
February 8, 2012
Legendary phenomena in the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes
200 years ago this February 7, on the western frontier of European settlement in North America, the pioneering westward expanders and the natives whose land they were colonizing were thrown from their sleep in the deep wee hours of a winter night by the culminating temblor of a harrowing, months-long sequence of major earthquakes, aftershocks of which continue to this day. The so-called New Madrid earthquakes–named for a small Missouri …
February 5, 2012
Central U.S. “ShakeOut” drill on Tuesday
On Tuesday, February 7, 2012–the 200th anniversary of the biggest of the New Madrid earthquakes–nine states in the central U.S. will conduct a regional earthquake drill put on by ShakeOut, a consortium of organizations and agencies concerned with earthquake research, hazard mitigation, and emergency preparation. Participation is voluntary, but public agencies, school districts, universities, and private companies are all registered and are taking advantage of both public awareness and prepared publicity …
October 18, 2011
Loma Prieta earthquake anniversary
Twenty two years ago this very day the San Francisco Giants were preparing to play their cross-bay rivals, the Oakland Athletics, in the 1989 World Series–the so-called Battle of the Bay. It was just after 5pm on a beautiful October afternoon, and the nation’s eyes were glued on television coverage from Candlestick Park in southeastern San Francisco. Hordes of Bay Area residents had swarmed bars and gathered at home after early …
October 14, 2011
ShakeOut – inspiring practice
This Thursday (October 20), the fourth annual California ShakeOut drill will take place at 10am. What that means for you in California is that companies, agencies, and organizations all around you (hopefully including yours!) will be preparing and practicing their emergency procedures and reviewing their plans for the inevitable occurrence of an earthquake. Emergency management and response agencies and school districts throughout the state have implemented educational campaigns spurred by …
October 13, 2011
I’m back! What I missed and what’s to come
Howdy Loyal Readers, After three months of field work, weddings, and conferences, I finally have a settled, relatively stationary schedule ahead of me, during which time I can get back into the routine of posting the interesting things I find and various seismological musings. I have bunches to talk about, so you can expect plenty o’ earthquake discussion in the future, which, as I will discuss and try to convince …
