An earthquake in the United States has the potential to cause severe damage, which could threaten national security and the economy. The United States Geological Survey, in partnership with state emergency management agencies, geological surveys, and academic partners, developed and implemented the ShakeAlert® Earthquake Early Warning system for the west coast of the United States.
EarthScope Consortium (formerly IRIS and UNAVCO), in collaboration with the USGS and ShakeAlert® system partners at large, are developing a suite of educational activities and animations designed to inform and engage multiple audiences, from middle school students through senior citizens in many learning environments. Each activity is a triad (5, 15, or 30-45 minute) of hands-on demonstrations or student tasks tied to ‘Did You Know?’ questions to engage the learner, while the short animations (2-3 minutes long) present a variety of earthquake related subjects. Our educational resources aim to present factual information about earthquake hazards and explain why the west coast is earthquake-prone. We also address misconceptions about earthquakes, such as the relationship between an earthquake’s magnitude and its intensity.
We encourage the reuse and dissemination of the materials provided by EarthScope and ShakeAlert as long as attribution is retained. To this end the material on this site, unless otherwise noted, is offered under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. See also EarthScope’s How to Cite page.
