Prepared by Robert de Groot
Education Specialist
Southern California Earthquake Center

The earthquake related exhibits at the California Science Center are located in the Creative World Gallery on the east side of the facility (2nd floor).

The introduction display (Gallery Content Organizer) of the gallery is located at the entrance of the Creative World Gallery (2nd floor northeast side of the center).

Creative World has three sub-galleries

-Transportation
-Structures
-Communication

Each sub-gallery has its own content organizer. All of the content in Creative World is mirrored in the Discovery Room: a place where very young visitors can learn about the content of the gallery.

Exhibit #1:

Shake the Ground . . .

“You can create structures that don’t sink when you know the soil is safe”

“Wet sandy ground isn’t safe in a quake”

Content and Comments:

- This is a “liquefaction” demo without the water.
- On the wall above the demo, there is a map with different soil types
- Ground filled with wet sandy soil can usually support structures – but not during an earthquake.

Exhibit #2:

“Who’s interested in breaking plates?”

Content and Comments:

- Short biography of Professor Tanya Atwater, University of California Santa Barbara


Exhibit #3

Feel the Earth Move . . .

“You can understand earthquakes when you know how tectonic plates move”

Content and Comments:

- There are four foam models (two are currently working) that demonstrate different types of plate boundaries through push and pull handles
- “Plates can Dive Under”
- “or Smash Together”
- “or Spread Apart”
- “or Slide by Each Other”

- Display has a simple cross-section of the Earth
- Crust
- Mantle
- Core

Exhibit #4:

Swing Low, Swing High . . .
“Can you shake these buildings like an earthquake would?”

Content and Comments:

- The building’s shaking gets larger and larger with every well-timed push, a phenomenon called resonance. This wild swinging could really damage a building
- The exhibit poses the query “Are tall buildings safer?” The answer given is “sometimes they are. It depends on the quake. Damaging earthquakes can shake the ground slow or fast.”
- This exhibit was adapted from a traveling exhibit If these Walls Could Talk which was at the California Science Center in early 1999.

Exhibit #5:

Yogi Bear Earthquake Preparedness Video

Content and Comments:

- This video demonstrates what to do before, during and after an earthquake.
- This video was developed and used in the earthquake exhibit at the California Museum of Science and Industry. It has an accompanying comic book.

Exhibit #6:

Measure That Quake . . .

“You can understand earthquakes better when you know how they are measured.”

Content and Comments:

- There is a CUBE (Caltech / USGS Broadcast of Earthquakes)/REDI (Rapid Earthquake Data Integration) display
- Visitors can jump on a platform next to the CUBE/REDI display and they see how that jumping is converted into the squiggles on a seismogram.
- There is a drum seismograph (not sure where the data originates)
- Text from exhibit: “Earthquakes happen all of the time in California. You don’t feel most of them because they are too small, but instruments called seismometers can detect the motion of even the smallest earthquakes.”

Exhibit #7:

It’s a quake . . .

“You have the power to keep yourself safe when you know what to do during a quake.”

Content and Comments:

- Visitors enter a room that simulates an earthquake. The earthquake occurs during a short film that discusses the California Science Center’s earthquake resistant structural features.
- At the entrance to the shake room there is a basic earthquake preparedness kit in a Plexiglas display.


Brace your structure . . .

“You have the power to strengthen a structure when you know how to brace it against a quake.”

Content and Comments:

-This exhibit allows the visitor to build and test structures on a shake table.
-Structures need bracing to withstand earthquakes. When you brace a structure’s frame you can help it withstand an earthquake. The support cross braces helps a structure keep its shape as the ground moves. Without cross bracing a structure is more likely to collapse.