Annual Meeting - SCEC.org

Group 1 – CEO | Poster Abstracts
Los Angeles, and the San Onofre and Laguna Beaches. At each site the students applied the same
documenting techniques that professional geologists use when making site observations. They
sketched in their notebooks, analyzed topographical maps, made interpretations of the structures,
took photographs, and discussed details and patterns of rock formations with fellow participants.
Geologists Katherine Kendrick, Doug Morton, Laura Dair, James Dolan and Scott Marshall
modeled geologic inquiry and contributed greatly to the trip.
At the end of the week, the students summarized the data they collected during their trip related to
their topic assignment, “Living with Landslides,” “The San Andreas is Not the Only Fault in
Town,” or “How Much Shaking Can You Expect?” With the assistance of the geologists, they
developed presentations to an assembly at the University High School in Irvine, California.
Following the presentations, Dr. Bob DeGroot shared information on earthquake preparedness and
on ShakeOut.
The Californian expedition was the third and final expedition led by Dr. Cooke. The first two trips
explored faults in Utah and Massachusetts. Cooke included outreach to high school students in her
NSF research grant as a way to encourage deaf and hard of hearing students to consider science
careers. She wanted give opportunity for deaf students who use American Sign Language (ASL) to
apply the same 3-D visual skills they use for communication to visualize geological formations in
3-D. She told the participants that the skills a geologist needs are good observation skills, the ability
to think spatially, and, in 3-D, and the ability to imagine pictures in the mind. She has found in
observations of deaf students who use ASL that there is a “natural fit between the visual skills
geologists use and the skills of deaf learners.”
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SHAKEOUT AND PREPAREDNESS OUTREACH Wilk AC
This summer as a SURE intern in the SCEC main office, I was involved in the creation of an
advertising and outreach campaign for the Great Southern California ShakeOut, as well as
promoting earthquake preparedness and fielding public inquiries on both topics. Working with
Mark Benthien, Jenny Gruen, Debbie Weiser, John Marquis, and many others, I assisted in the
creation of various internet resources for the ShakeOut, including web presences on
www.facebook.com, www.myspace.com, www.bebo.com, www.linkedin.com, and the official ShakeOut
Blog (http://www.greatsocalshakeout.org). Through these websites, we were able to reach a new,
primarily younger audience about the ShakeOut and the importance of preparedness. With over
5,000 hits to the blog and much more on the other sites created, the public gained insight into how
the ShakeOut worked and what went into the planning. Updates on the planning of the ShakeOut
in Steering Committee meetings were used in answering questions from the public as well as
providing ideas for improving the blog and other web resources.
In addition to this, I also attended numerous public safety events, such as the ShakeOut KickOff at
Caltech and a community fair in South El Monte, passing out copies of Putting Down Roots in
Earthquake Country as well as registration forms for the ShakeOut. I also sent out thousands more
of the Roots handbook through orders coming through the website, in order to prepare as many
interested persons as possible.
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WHAT WOULD A MAGNITUDE 7.8 FEEL LIKE? Leeper RJ, and Perry-Huston LY
As a member of the USGS’s Multi-Hazards Initiative, this summer I developed a tool that will help
southern Californians understand what it would be like to experience the M7.8 ShakeOut Scenario
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