SCEC Outreach Presentations to the Emergency Preparedness Commission

On June 9, 1999, Jill Andrews and Mark Benthien gave presenta-tions to the Emergency Preparedness Commission for Los Angeles County and the cities in the area. Andrews spoke about SCEC and its outreach programs, highlighting the programs that SCEC is conducting with the city and county of Los Angeles, that include: A joint task force of engineers, scientists, and city and county officials to study vulnerable buildings in Los Angeles-specifi-cally "tuck-under" or "soft story" structures such as the Northridge Meadows apartment building that collapsed in the Northridge earthquake-and nonductile concrete structures like parking garages. A partnership with the California Division of Mines and Geology to conduct a series of workshop to educate city officials on how to use liquefaction hazard maps. [Ed. note: See separate article in this issue for a description of a workshop. ] Andrews also described "The Real Meaning of Seismic Risk"-a proposed symposium that would feature lively exchanges among scientists, engineers, building officials, policymakers, insurers, developers, and the media-with the goal of encouraging public participation in and understanding of earthquake science through interactivity with SCEC. The symposium would consist of a panel of experts with differing or opposing views who would make short presentations on urban seismic risk issues. Topics could include: A critique of methods used to interpret the earthquake threat Vulnerability of tall buildings and other structures near faults Whether the "life safety" design code is the best practice, given what we now know from Northridge Cost-benefit analyses of various retrofitting techniques and codes for new construction Socioeconomic impacts of earthquakes and secondary hazards in California vs. other natural hazards outside the state A public report, with audio and video tapes of the symposium's proceedings, would be made available through SCEC. Andrews concluded her presentation with a request for the commission's partnership in this project, which they granted. Chris Wright, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Business and Industry Council on Earthquake Planning and Preparedness (BICEPP) also indicated that BICEPP will partner with SCEC on this project. Benthien then gave a presentation on the Los Angeles Region Seismic Experiment (LARSE II), which will be conducted in October 1999. The study will use ultrasound-like images of faults, basin depths, and other features deep in the Earth's crust to determine where earthquakes can occur and how the ground will shake as a result. To generate the vibrations needed to form the "seismic image," more than 100 small buried charges will detonated over a four-to-five- day period along a line from Pacific Palisades to the western Mojave Desert. To record the vibrations, 1,000 seismometers will be placed along the same line. More than 60 separate landowners will grant permission for this joint USGS-SCEC project to be lo-cated on their property.