Bringing Earthquake Early Warning to Washington: Background, Challenges, and Were we Successful?

 

Video recording of the presentation.

 

Even though felt ones do not happen frequently, earthquakes have shaped geography and life in the Pacific Northwest.  Our mountains and valleys have been shaped by tectonic forces going back to well before humans arrived here.  Earthquakes are still occasionally felt here in the Bellingham area.  Since 2018, the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system has been providing alerts about potentially damaging shaking to partners in California, Oregon, and Washington.  On May 4th, 2021, public alerting finally went live in Washington state.  Now basically every cell phone in the state (residents and visitors) can receive a Wireless Emergency Alert message to notify them that an earthquake has happened and they might feel strong shaking from it.  This enables folks to stop whatever they are doing and take protective actions to protect themselves and others.  Getting to this point has been a long process with many false alerts and funding shortfalls.  We will discuss the path taken to earthquake early warning and look at the results from recent activity on the West Coast.  Has ShakeAlert been successful?

PNSN Earthquake Map

About the Speaker

Mouse Marie Reusch in tulip field
Mouse Marie Reusch

Dr Mouse Reusch serves as the Manager of Projects and Process Management at the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network on the University of Washington Seattle Campus.  She has been at the PNSN for the last 5+ years, increasing the number of new seismic stations by over 250 sites to help build out the network in anticipation of the expansion of earthquake early warning in Oregon and Washington. 

Prior to the PNSN, the previous 6 years were spent based out of New Mexico working for a seismometer lending library and installing seismic stations in North and South America, Africa, and Antarctica.  She herds cats at home as well as in the UW office and enjoys traveling around the Pacific Northwest.

Environmental Speaker Series

The Environmental Speaker Series is hosted by the College of the Environment at Western Washington University.

The Series is free and open to the public. Talks are held each Thursday at 4:30 pm in Academic Instructional Center West room 204 - AW-204. Talks will also be streamed via zoom. Register with the Alumni Association for the zoom link. Paid parking is available in lot C.

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