Fault Lines: Understanding the Power of Earthquakes
The fields of meteorology and seismology are not all that different In both scientists observe our planet’s processes and apply what we’ve learned in the past to make conclusions about what’s going to happen in the future In meteorology we study current conditions like temperature pressure and cloud cover to figure out how they are going to change in a few days In seismology seismology we study the waves that earthquakes send out to understand the stresses that are building up below us and what areas might be at risk for earthquakes in the future And as you’ll see in my job as a meteorologist and science reporter I get to do both explain the weather every day and explain earthquakes whenever there is a major one somewhere on earth In Fault Lines Understanding the Power of Earthquakes I’m going to tell you a little bit about what goes on beneath our feet and how we can prepare for earthquakes wher ever we happen to live You’ll see that seismologists are like detectives examining data from earthquakes to understand what’s going on inside our planet It’s not nearly as quiet down there as you might think from the movement of the tectonic plates under our feet to the shifting weather systems above our head our planet is always in motion nasa Whether it's creating forecasts tracking storms or analyzing the data after an earthquake my days as a science reporter are never dull cBc 8
Here's what the International Space Station looks like orbiting Earth Those astronauts probably have the ultimate view of how our planet's natural processes fit into place GolkIn AndrEy drEAmSTImE com 9
1 A Planet in Motion Johanna's story during my years at university I discovered that I liked getting other people excited about science and finding easy and interesting ways to explain the science of the world we live in After university university I found my ideal job working behind the scenes at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation cbc as a meteorologist helping to forecast Canada’s weather Eventually I got to come in early in the morning to try presenting forecasts live on tv A few months later there was news of an earthquake earthquake in Los Angeles It happened during the day and we were getting a lot of pictures of the shaking and how scared people were The magnitude 5 5 earthquake struck only 45 kilometers 28 miles east of downtown downtown Los Angeles and damaged buildings in the area During the los angeles earthquake i moved from the green screen where i presented the weather to the anchor desk where we discussed what i knew about the breaking news event kelly DoHerty 10
I realized I could add a lot of important information to the news we were reporting I was able to explain to viewers how strong the earthquake was how widely it was felt and if there was a possibility of aftershocks I explained that Los Angeles is located in an area where earthquakes of that size are quite common and don’t usually mean a larger one is coming Luckily that earthquake wasn’t very strong and there were no injuries But it made me realize that understanding understanding more about what’s going on during a natural disaster like an earthquake can be useful and even comforting especially for people who have family and friends there It can also get people talking about how to prepare for future earthquakes where they live no lives were lost due to the 2008 chino Hills earthquake near los angeles but it did cause significant structural damage throughout the area jason sHerWin WikiPeDia org 11
