In this Research With Results video, lab director Richard Allen explains how their work helps keep Californians safe while contributing to important earthquake-related research.<\/p>\n
Earthquakes may cause some people to flee the Golden State, but Richard Allen came to California precisely because of them. As a seismologist \u2014 a scientist who studies the geological causes of quakes \u2014 he saw UC Berkeley as the epicenter of cutting-edge research in the field.<\/p>\n
Much of that is thanks to the\u00a0Berkeley Seismological Laboratory (BSL)<\/a>, which operates a large suite of\u00a0seismic stations across Northern California<\/a>\u00a0that ties in with the U.S. Geological Survey\u2019s network to alert the public to shaking throughout the state. As BSL\u2019s director, Allen oversees a large staff of experts on seismic sensors, data analysis and the state\u2019s most dangerous faults, including the Hayward Fault that runs through the UC Berkeley campus.<\/p>\n In this\u00a0Research With Results<\/a>\u00a0video, Allen explains how the BSL\u2019s work helps keep Californians safe, while contributing to important earthquake-related research that advances our ability to identify the most hazardous faults. Perhaps BSL\u2019s most impactful contribution, he says, was the creation of the\u00a0MyShake app<\/a>, which anyone in California can download free to their cellphone to get real-time alerts of ground shaking near them. The app, which accesses data from the statewide USGS warning system, gives people time to protect themselves and their loved ones in the event of a major earthquake.<\/p>\n \u201cAs an individual, you can use it to drop, cover and hold on, but also people use it on a larger scale,\u201d says Allen, a professor of earth and planetary science. \u201cThe BART system in the Bay Area, for example \u2014 they slow trains to prevent the likelihood of derailment. Schools use it to issue a warning and reduce the likelihood of an injury. Fire house doors open, elevators go to the nearest floor and open their doors. All of these strategies are used to reduce the likelihood that you\u2019re going to be injured in an earthquake.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s impossible to predict when the next major quake will happen, he says, but the MyShake app can help save lives and money by providing up to tens of seconds of advance warning when it does occur.<\/p>\n Despite the importance of earthquake early warning, Allen thinks that it might never have happened without university research, specifically the work at UC Berkeley that turned an idea into an alert system you keep in your back pocket.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where the value of both public funding and the universities really come into play,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In this Research With Results video, lab director Richard Allen explains how their work helps keep Californians safe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-175901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}