Date/Time
Friday
27 Sep 2013
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Location
Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall

Event Type
Non-CSTMS Event

Richard Allen
Director, Berkeley Seismological Laboratory

When an earthquake occurs you could get a warning. The challenge is the rapid detection and classification of earthquake signals given the continuous and variable noise that the Earth generates.  This month the California Legislature unanimously passed a bill that would bring earthquake alerts to the public. As the interest in providing public alerts grows, the challenges in delivering accurate information as fast as possible are brought into sharp focus. At the same time, low-cost low-quality accelerometers are becoming prevalent in consumer electronics providing an opportunity for massive expansion of our monitoring efforts. In this talk we will review the status of earthquake early warning in California and around the world, the challenges that remain, and the opportunities for making use of massive new datasets.

Richard Allen is the Director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory and a Professor in Earth and Planetary Science. His research interests range from 3D imaging of deep Earth processes — processes responsible for the motion of tectonic plates — to rapid detection and classification of surface shaking for real-time information systems, including earthquake early warning.