5/30/13
Earthquake warning bill goes to Assembly - SFGate
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Published 4:16 pm, Wednesday, May 29, 2013
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Legislation to establish a statewide earthquake
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early-warning system for California is on its way to
the Assembly this week after the bill passed the
state Senate unanimously late Tuesday.
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The measure would create an $80 million network
of seismic detection instruments designed to
provide up to a full minute's warning wherever and
whenever a damaging quake ruptures the ground in
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the state.
The network would be modeled after a similar system in Japan, where a recent major
quake touched off alarms, rang cell phones, and gave thousands of children nearly half a
minute of warning to "duck and cover" for protection.
An early-warning system in California "would speed the response of critical public safety
personnel by quickly identifying areas hardest hit by a quake," said state Sen. Alex
Padilla, D-Pacoima (Los Angeles County), who sponsored the bill.
An early-warning system for California is bound to come, Padilla said, but "the question
is whether we have one before or after the next big quake."
The system of seismometers and GPS instruments would swiftly detect an earthquake's
precise location as soon as it begins rupturing the ground along a fault, assess the
likelihood of danger, and set off warnings wherever people and buildings are in harm's
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way, said Richard Allen, director of the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory.
Scientists at UC Berkeley, the California Institute of Technology, the University of
Southern California and the U.S. Geological Survey have joined in testing algorithms for
the system and have developed prototypes as part of the California Integrated
Seismic Network.
Their meetings have estimated cost of a fully developed early-warning system at $80
million, and an annual operating cost of about $10 million.
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Part of that system has already shown that it can work. In one recent test, all BART trains
were quickly stopped because of an early earthquake alert.
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Airport operators and highway officials have noted the system's potential value in
sending out an early warning when runways are in imminent danger of severe cracking or
where a quake could make freeways impassible.
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Most Popular Comments
CheshirebearSF 5:16 PM on May 29, 2013
After the Japanese Tohoku earthquake, I saw a video on YouTube which showed a 30 second
countdown for shaking to reach the area where the computer owner lived. And exactly 30
seconds later, a small little jolt took place, with the earthquake getting stronger and stronger
until things started flying all over the place. The video was made in Tokyo proper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrSEe8jfTxw
Of course, the earthquake was originally being shown as an 8 on the Richter Scale, and we
all know it was much stronger at a 9.0. Obviously, the videographer was surprised by the
shaking as well.
I would LOVE to know when an earthquake is going to start shaking. I live in a small
apartment, so I could use some extra time to move to a safer area. I really hope our leaders
are smart enough to get this in place for the sake of all of us!!!
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hilarious 7:20 PM on May 29, 2013
First reaction, I'm very surprised something like this doesn't already exist. A split second
later, I'm not.
Not in the least.
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