California Earthquake Preparedness Survey

The California Earthquake Preparedness Survey (CEPS) was conducted by the UCLA School of Public Health and Survey Research Center for the State of California. The objective was to provide baseline data describing how prepared California households are for earthquakes and where they get their information about preparedness and mitigation.

Telephone interviews were conducted with a representative sample of 2,081 households in California between June 26 and December 18, 2008. The sample was stratified into: the ten northern California counties at greatest risk of earthquakes, the six southern California counties at greatest risk, and the remaining 42 lower-risk counties. MORE INFO...

Rock & Roll

A light earthquake occurred at 8:39:36 PM (PDT) on Sunday, May 17, 2009. The magnitude 4.7 event occurred 1 mile ESE of Lennox, CA. The hypocentral depth is 9 miles.

USGS Real-time Earthquake Map for Los Angeles region, VIEW

California's water supply vulnerable to quakes, floods

The California Department of Water Resources has just released a study that concludes there is a 40 percent chance that a major earthquake will flood 27 delta islands between now and 2030, costing billions in repairs and knocking out the water source for 25 million Californians for more than a year.

Without intervention, it is estimated that about 140 levees of California's could fail in the next century due to storms or rising seas. An earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater could result in fatalities, flooding of islands and costs of $15 billion. In California levees have failed about 160 times in the past 109 years. READ MORE

California Department of Water Resources: Delta Risk Management Strategy - Final Phase 1 Report

Soil Liquefaction During Earthquakes Technical Seminar

Register now for a day-long seminar to be given in Pasadena, CA on March 10th by I. M. Idriss and R. W. Boulanger, authors of the recently published EERI monograph sent to all members in 2008, Soil Liquefaction During Earthquakes. Participants earn 0.7 Continuing Education Units. MORE

Register on-line for Pasadena, CA class

Southern California San Andreas Overdue?

New research by University of California Irvine scientists shows the southern stretch of the San Andreas fault has had a major temblor about every 137 years (previous studies indicated a 200 yr cycle). The last major earthquake in the Carrizo Plain section of the San Andreas was the 7.9 magnitude Fort Tejon event of 1857. READ MORE

'Soft-story' buildings at risk in quake

An on-going seismic study concludes that without a costly seismic retrofit, 80 percent of San Francisco's weakest wood-frame buildings are expected to collapse or to suffer damage beyond repair in the large earthquake scientists say is likely to occur in the region within decades. READ MORE

This is not an issue unique to San Francisco or northern California. The risks associated with "soft-story" construction were evident following both the 1989 Loma Prieta and 1994 Northridge earthquakes. MORE

Magnitude 5.1 earthquake hits near Ludlow, in San Bernardino County

A moderate earthquake struck California's Mojave Desert on Friday night / December 5, 2008. Effects were felt from San Diego to Los Angeles.

USGS reports say the 5.1-magnitude temblor struck just outside Ludlow on Interstate 40 in San Bernardino County, about 120 miles east of Los Angeles. MORE

CISN Display V1.0

The California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) has recently released CISN Display V1.0 as a tool for integrating earthquake information in emergency response. CISN Display is an integrated Web enabled earthquake notification system, designed for emergency management 24/7 operations centers. The application provides users with maps of real-time seismicity, and automatically provides access to Web-related earthquake products such as ShakeMaps. CISN Display also offers an open source GIS mapping tool that allows users to plot freely available layers of public highways, roads and bridges, as well as private layers of organizational-specific infrastructure and facilities information.

CISN Display is designed to provide earthquake information for emergency response. First-responders, organizations with critical lifelines and infrastructure, and emergency responders are invited to register for an account. MORE INFO

Development of the Golden Guardian 2008 ShakeOut Scenario

Larry Collins from the LA County Fire Department and a member of the SoCalHUG has a great article in the September 2008 issue of Fire Engineering on the development of the Golden Guardian 2008 ShakeOut Scenario (.pdf), DOWNLOAD

The Great Southern California Shakeout Web Site

CA OES Golden Guardian Web Site

The Great Southern California ShakeOut / Golden Guardian 2008

At 10 AM on November 13, 2008 millions of Southern Californians will participate in The Great Southern California ShakeOut ... the largest earthquake prepardness exercise in U.S. history.

Visit The Great Southern California ShakeOut web site for a schedule of events and to see how you can participate, click here...

The nation’s largest state sponsored emergency exercise will take place November 13-18. Golden Guardian 2008. This exercise will test California’s capability to respond and recover during a major catastrophic earthquake, to go to the CA OES Golden Guardian 2008 web site, click here...