City of Palm Springs Meeting

On June 29, USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project managers and coordinators met with representatives of City Palm Springs government to discuss their on-going work to create a plausible and useable earthquake scenario for southern California. The earthquake scenario will detail the impact of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the southernmost 300 km of the San Andreas fault.The earthquake was chosen by geologists as highly probable and one that would cause intense shaking in the Palm Springs area and moderate to strong shaking over much of southern California. Scientists working on the earthquake scenario plan to focus in depth on the scenario earthquake’s impact on two communities. This detailed information could be informative and helpful to nearby communities. City of Palm Springs, Emergency Manager, John Hardcastle hosted Dr.Lucy Jones, MHDP Chief Scientist, and earthquake scenario coordinators Dale Cox, MHDP Project Manager, Ken Hudnut, USGS Geophysicist, Keith Porter, Caltech Seismic Engineer, Rich Bernknopf, USGS Economist, Anne Wein, USGS Decision Support Scientist, and Dennis Mileti, Social Scientist from the University of Colorado. Earthquake scenario managers and coordinators explored what the community of Palm Springs might need from the earthquake scenario to improve their response to an actual event and how they might contribute to the scenarios value to other communities. Contact: Dale A.Cox, MHDP Project Manager, 916-997-4209