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Proposed 2000-01 package would improve state's earthquake monitoring

By Robert Sanders, Public Affairs

17 January 2001 | Gov. Gray Davis has proposed spending $6.8 million per year for the next five years to improve California's earthquake monitoring network, with a major fraction of the funds going to Berkeley to deploy more earthquake sensors in the northern part of the state.

The funds, requested in the 2001-2002 budget Davis sent to the state legislature last week, also would replace some temporary federal funds that have helped expand the seismic monitoring network throughout southern California. The southern network, called TriNet, provides emergency preparedness agencies and Caltrans with real-time information on the magnitude and location of a quake, plus maps pinpointing the areas of most severe shaking.

With the proposed state funds, Berkeley and the California Division of Mines and Geology would expand the number of earthquake monitor stations in the northern part of the state, so that ShakeMaps in northern California can be as accurate as those in the South.

"These funds are really important for the earthquake monitoring infrastructure in northern California, and will bring us close to parity with southern California," said Lind Gee, a seismologist in the Seismological Laboratory. "But they also will help us do earthquake monitoring in a more integrated way between the northern and southern parts of the state, establish backup systems for one another, and in general improve the network beyond where we are now."

Gee noted that shake maps, provided as quickly as 5-10 minutes after an earthquake, have helped agencies in southern California deal with the aftermath of quakes, and in last September's 5.2 Napa quake were used extensively by various northern California agencies.

"This kind of information is very useful in order to know where to deploy resources, pinpointing areas where the ground shook the hardest and thus where the most damage may have occurred," she said. "With computer software now available, shake map data also can be combined with other information to project damage and loss."

As part of the program in northern California, the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory would significantly expand the Berkeley Digital Seismic Network.

 


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