From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from ip-64-139-1-69.sjc.megapath.net (ip-64-139-1-69.sjc.megapath.net [64.139.1.69]) by huchra.bufferbloat.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2131720223B for ; Sat, 26 May 2012 20:25:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: from shuksan (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ip-64-139-1-69.sjc.megapath.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id EBB73800037; Sat, 26 May 2012 20:25:02 -0700 (PDT) X-Mailer: exmh version 2.7.2 01/07/2005 with nmh-1.3 To: dews@lists.bufferbloat.net From: Hal Murray Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sat, 26 May 2012 20:25:02 -0700 Message-Id: <20120527032502.EBB73800037@ip-64-139-1-69.sjc.megapath.net> Subject: [Dews] USGS: ShakeAlert X-BeenThere: dews@lists.bufferbloat.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.13 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 27 May 2012 03:25:04 -0000 In Apr, 2012, the monthly public lecture at the USGS Menlo Park campus described their work in this area: ShakeAlert! --building an earthquake early warning system for California by Doug Given, USGS Earthquake Early Warning Coordinator * Millions of Japanese citizens received advance warning of the 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake -- can such a system be built for use in California? * University researchers and government agencies are working together to create an Earthquake Early Warning system in California to reduce earthquake losses * April is Earthquake Awareness Month in California -- how could you and your family best prepare for severe ground shaking using 30 seconds of advance warning? The video of the talk is online. It's an hour and a half. http://online.wr.usgs.gov/calendar/2012/apr12.html It's pretty good. I think anybody interested in this topic should watch it. If nothing else, it will give us a common reference. Numbers and such from my memory: P waves travel at 3 miles/second. S waves (the destructive ones) travel at 2 miles/second. It takes about 10 seconds to verify that a quake exists and estimate how big it is. They think they can get a 20-30 second warning. That's for a big enough quake, and far enough away but not too far. If it isn't big, nobody cares. If it's too far away nobody cares. If it's too close, you don't get enough warning time to be useful. Quakes on the San Andreas Fault near Los Angeles are likely to fit. (The USGS people doing the work are located in Pasadena.) Half (or more) of the work is making contact with the people who want to know that a quake is coming. BART wants to stop their trains. (BART trains can carry 1000 people.A serious wreck would overload the emergency response system even without any other earthquake damage.) He had lots of info from Japan. They have a lot more/denser sensors than we do. The USGS is looking for $50-100 million over 5 years to install more sensors and $5-10 million/year for operations. -------- The Moore foundation gave $6 million to CalTech, Berkeley, and Univ of Washington for work in this area. http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article_pf.asp?ID=3041 They are cooperating with the USGS. -- These are my opinions. I hate spam.