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Empowered by ShakeAlert: The Development and Assessment of Educational Resources for Earthquake Early Warning in the United States

Session: Earthquake Early Warning System in the Americas: The On-Going Effort and the State of the Art II

Type: Oral

Date: 4/20/2021

Presentation Time: 10:30 AM Pacific

Description: 

Over 55 million people live in the earthquake prone states of Washington, Oregon, and California. A moderate-to-large magnitude earthquake in a dense population center, such as Los Angeles or Seattle, has the potential to cause severe damage which could threaten the national economy and its security. In light of this, the U. S. Geological Survey and its partners developed the Advanced National Seismic System’s ShakeAlert, the earthquake early warning system for the west coast of the United States. However, many people in these three states are not very aware of their earthquake hazards and risk, and what actions they need to take to protect themselves before, during, and after an earthquake. A robust education program in both formal and informal learning environments, such as museums, libraries, national parks, and the K-12 classroom is needed to reach everyone. The ShakeAlert Educational Resources Working Group's suite of educational resources aims to present scientifically accurate information on earthquake hazards particularly on the west coast. We use several short (2-3 minute) animations and scaffolded activities of varying time lengths (5-, 15-, and 30-45 minutes, depending on learning environment) to address basic earthquake and related natural hazard (e.g., tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides) concepts. Our learning objectives include what to do in the event of an earthquake and if/when you receive a ShakeAlert message. We also aim to address misconceptions many may have about earthquakes, such as the relationship between earthquake magnitude and intensity and that early warning is not earthquake prediction. Evaluation of our educational resources determines whether knowledge about earthquake early warning has improved. To this end, we have formed a collaboration with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry to help build our resources with cultural inclusion in mind and to assess their effectiveness. In this presentation, we will showcase the educational activities and animations that we have developed, as well as our preliminary assessment tools and findings.

Presenting Author: Danielle F. Sumy

Student Presenter: No

Authors