After the Next Major Earthquake – Resources for Educating the Public

While the US Geological Survey provides considerable basic and technical information very quickly after major earthquakes, additional materials such as visualizations and animations can be helpful to explain the earthquake to the public. The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS, www.iris.edu) has a variety of online tools and resources that may be of use to broadcasters in these situations. For example, visualizations of seismic waves traversing EarthScope's 400-station array provide a unique movie of the actual recordings of ground movement in the US from a large earthquake anywhere in the world. The visualizations are available online within a few hours after the earthquake and are generated as soon as the seismic waves travel around the world. The array also has a barometric pressure sensor package at each site, allowing the creation of movies of atmospheric pressure changes over a uniform grid. These movies clearly show the correlation of low-pressure systems with tornadoes occurring in the array's footprint.

Other online tools can display a seismogram from the latest earthquake recorded at a seismic station near any US city or town. There are online animations that illustrate a variety of earthquake-related phenomena, such as tsunamis and associated ground movements, wave propagation through the earth, and movement on different fault types. For the largest earthquakes, where public interest continues into the next day, Teachable Moment slide sets are produced with 24 hours. These PowerPoint slides are designed to tell a story about the earthquake and include animations and visualizations.

The IRIS Education and Public Outreach program also seeks to learn what other seismic information would be useful for broadcast meteorologists and the time frames that the information is needed.