Shake Loose Funds for More Quake Monitors

In the decade since the Northridge earthquake, scientists, engineers, planners and elected officials have made giant leaps forward in understanding and mitigating the forces that make the Earth shake. But the need for advanced earthquake monitoring and research only grows.

Such science, for example, is the basis of Southern California’s “seismic information network” -- which was reinforced after the Northridge earthquake by a partnership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey and state government. Now the data from monitors that record how the Earth moves during temblors can be combined with geologic, topographic and earthquake-magnitude and location information to make a ShakeMap -- a near-real-time Web-based tool that shows areas of greater and lesser shaking. Immediately after an earthquake, it allows for the quick dispatch of paramedics, firefighters and utility companies to areas that are hardest hit. And in calmer times, it can be used to adjust building codes and target retrofitting programs.

But for ShakeMaps to work, seismic areas have to be covered by a dense array of modern seismometers. The USGS and its partners are steadily improving the so-called Advanced National Seismic System, but there is funding for only about 400 of the 7,000 instruments needed nationwide. Outside of a few key areas like Los Angeles, we can only make educated guesses about quake behavior.

San Diego’s seismic information network, for example, uses 1970s technology that cannot provide vital, life-safety information in the minutes after an earthquake. Likewise, December’s San Simeon earthquake, which killed two people in Paso Robles, occurred in an area where aging monitors are in place. An updated system alone would not have saved those lives, but it would have earmarked Paso Robles, with its unsafe buildings, for severe shaking.

Right now, science cannot predict earthquakes. What is possible, however, is pinpointing where the worst shaking is going on during a temblor and where it will happen in the future. It’s crucial that the USGS and its partners expand that work to keep California and the rest of the country as safe as possible.