SCEC is pleased to announce our undergraduate research opportunities in summer, 2007, funded by the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program and diverse other sources. From now through January 31, 2007, we are accepting applications from students around the country for these two components of the SCEC student research programs:

The SCEC Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SCEC/SURE) program pairs students who are typically majoring in earth science or geotechnical engineering to conduct research one-on-one with a SCEC scientist at the scientist's institution or field site.

The SCEC Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (SCEC/UseIT) program unites undergraduates from many disciplines to conduct team-based research at SCEC headquarters at the University of Southern California (USC).

To learn more about either program, or submit an application on-line, go to http://www.scec.org/internships. A recruitment flyer may be downloaded from the same website.

The 2006 SCEC Annual Meeting was held on September 10-13 at the Hilton Palm Springs Resort in Palm Springs, California. This year's meeting featured several associated workshops and field trips, including a viewing of the paleoseismic study site at Salt Creek, a meeting to discuss the Southern San Andreas Fault (SoSAF) Project, a workshop on three-dimensional velocity models, and a review of Extreme Ground Motion research results. Abstracts from the meeting's poster sessions (pictured at right) can now be searched online! The complete meeting volume is also available for download. If you couldn't attend the meeting, you can still get in on the exciting results shared by SCEC researchers! More...

A researcher investigating several facets of the San Andreas Fault has produced a new depiction of the earthquake potential of the fault's southern, highly populated section. The new study shows that the fault has been stressed to a level sufficient for the next "big one"—an earthquake of magnitude seven or greater—and the risk of a large earthquake in this region may be increasing faster than researchers had believed, according to Yuri Fialko of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Historical records show that the San Andreas Fault experienced massive earthquakes in 1857 at its central section and in 1906 at its northern segment (the San Francisco earthquake). The southern section of the fault, however, has not seen a similar rupture in at least 300 years. More...

(See also: "Distant Quake Could Hit Los Angeles Hard")

This popular 32-page earthquake science and preparedness handbook was first published in 1995 by the Southern California Earthquake Center, and with the Spring 2007 update is again available in both English and Spanish. The handbook features current scientific understanding of when and where earthquakes will occur in Southern California, and how the ground will shake as a result. Updated maps of earthquakes, faults, and potential shaking are included as well as instructions on how to get information after earthquakes.

A comprehensive preparedness section is organized according to the "Seven Steps on the Road to Earthquake Safety." These steps provide a simple set of guidelines for preparing and protecting people and property, and to survive and recover from a damaging earthquake.

Individual copies may be available for free at home improvement centers in southern California, and copies of the Spring 2007 edition can be requested for free at www.earthquakecountry.info/roots. The handbook is also available via this website as web pages and also as a downloadable PDF document.

An earthquake at the south end of the San Andreas fault could inflict unexpected damage on Los Angeles, according to simulations commissioned by the Southern California Earthquake Center at USC.

A strong earthquake near the Salton Sea, more than 100 miles from downtown Los Angeles, could launch seismic waves that would be amplified and guided into the Los Angeles area by the sedimentary basins south of the San Gabriel Mountains.

The intensity of the ground shaking in the sedimentary basins would be greater than estimated by previous models, said Thomas Jordan, SCEC director and professor of earth sciences in USC College. More...

(See also: "New Scripps Study Reveals San Andreas Fault Set for the 'Big One'")

On Thursday, March 23rd at 8:00 PM the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pasadena Office will continue their free Public Lecture Series. The next presentation, entitled "Parkfield 2004: Lessons from the Best Recorded Earthquake in History", will be given by Dr. Andy Michael of the USGS Menlo Park Office.

Obtaining high-quality measurements close to a large earthquake is not easy: one has to be in the right place at the right time with the right instruments. Such a convergence happened, for the first time, when the September 28, 2004, magnitude 6, Parkfield, California, earthquake occurred on the San Andreas fault in the middle of a dense and diverse network of instruments designed by the scientists of the Parkfield Earthquake Prediction Experiment to record what occurred before, during, and after this event. The resulting data reveal aspects of the earthquake process never before seen. These data, when combined with data from a sequence of at least 6 earlier Parkfield earthquakes dating back to 1857, provide important lessons about earthquake processes, prediction, and the hazards assessments that underlie important policies such as building codes. Come and learn more about the Parkfield earthquake and how it's helping us to understand California's shifting surface.

All lectures are free and begin at 8 PM in Beckman Institute Auditorium on the Caltech campus in Pasadena. There is plenty of free parking available.

Earthquakes are a fact of life in California. The southern part of the major San Andreas fault, however, has not seen a major earthquake since about 1690, and the accumulated movement may now amount to as much as six meters—setting the stage for an earthquake as large as magnitude 7.7—the “big one.”

To understand the basic science of earthquakes and to help engineers better prepare, scientists want to identify which regions are likely to experience the most intense shaking in such an earthquake, particularly in the populated sediment-filled basin of Los Angeles and similar areas in Southern California and northern Mexico. With this goal, scientists from the Southern California Earthquake Center/Community Modeling Environment (SCEC/CME) have run enhanced simulations at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), using the improved TeraShake 2 earthquake model. The new simulations are the most realistic yet of where the most intense ground motion may occur in Southern California during a magnitude 7.7 San Andreas Fault earthquake. More...

April 18, 2006 will mark the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco earthquake and fire, a seminal event in the scientific study of earthquakes as well as in the cultural and social history of California. Many events, exhibits, and other activities have been organized and are described at http://1906centennial.org/.

One of the major events is the 100th Anniversary Earthquake Conference, April 17- 21. More than 2,000 professionals engaged in emergency management, earth science, engineering, risk management, and business continuity from around the world will meet in San Francisco. The event will include more than 100 sessions, tutorials, and field trips, including many that have been developed specifically for teachers and the business community. Special sessions include a centennial perspective on what happened in the 1906 earthquake and what we learned from it, earthquake scenarios, and visions for continued progress. Additionally, the conference will present a scenario that looks at how the San Francisco Bay Area would fare if a 1906 earthquake hit us today.

More information and online conference registration is available at http://www.1906eqconf.org/.

The W.M. Keck Foundation has awarded a $1.2 million grant to the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) to develop a global research program on earthquake predictability. Rather than a laboratory, the first-of-its-kind program will be called a collaboratory — a center without walls in which scientists throughout the world can conduct research and share data in digital libraries.

The new grant brings SCEC and participants one step closer to setting standards that will help the U. S. Geological Survey and California Office of Emergency Services assess the usefulness of earthquake prediction and place prediction research in the appropriate context of reducing risk to people. The first goal of the Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP) will be setting standards in tremor prediction experiments and evaluations.

More...

On Thursday, January 19th at 8:00 PM the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pasadena Office will continue their free Public Lecture Series. The next presentation, entitled "The San Jacinto Fault: Little Brother of the San Andreas", will be given by Dr. Katherine Kendrick of the USGS Pasadena Office.

In southern California, the San Andreas fault splits into two strands south of Cajon Pass, the San Andreas and the San Jacinto faults. Both have produced large earthquakes in the past. The San Andreas is older, but the San Jacinto may be more active and may be carrying the majority of the plate motion where it is present. More...

All lectures are free and begin at 8 PM. This lecture will be held in Baxter Lecture Hall on the Caltech campus in Pasadena. There is plenty of free parking available. For more information, see http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/info/lectures/ or call 626-583-6801.