Reckoning with the Really Big One

Dr. Elizabeth Safran

Lewis & Clark College

The Pacific Northwest is rocked by the same kinds of giant earthquakes and tsunamis that wreaked such havoc in Japan in 2011 and the Indian Ocean in 2004. But these severe hazards are underappreciated because the last event happened 325 years ago. And unlike California, Oregon lacks many moderate-sized earthquakes in between Big Ones to remind us that we live in earthquake country. The vast majority of Oregon’s infrastructure was built before even geologists recognized how big our Big Ones could be. That means almost all the essential infrastructure in the Willamette Valley and westward is at risk, and some infrastructure failures will themselves create cascading disasters. When (NOT if!) the next magnitude 9 earthquake strikes the Pacific Northwest, it will trigger the worst disaster in U.S. history.

Geologist Liz Safran will explain the origins and anticipated consequences of this region’s major earthquakes. She will also touch upon some of the ongoing efforts to reduce risk and build resilience.

Dr. Safran is a geomorphologist by training (think floods and landslides) and is now obsessed with the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. She got her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, an M.Sc. from University of Washington, and a Ph.D. from University of California, Santa Barbara. Her most recent research uses custom-made video games in experiments to better understand what motivates young adults to prepare for earthquakes.

For more information, see Dr. Safran’s web page

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