California unveils new seismic shaking map
If you live in the ``pink'' or ``red'' zones, you could be in trouble, scientists and government officials warned in San Jose today as they unveiled a new earthquake shaking map for the state of California.
For the Bay Area as well as most of Southern California, the map colors are very, very warm. In fact, nearly all of coastal California from north of Eureka to the Mexican border, where more than 70 percent of the state's population lives, is red. So are the southern inland deserts.
The new seismic shaking map shows the potential danger of the strongest earthquakes over the next half century based on fault lines, shaking intensity, earthquake intervals and soil conditions.
Using different colors to show intensity, the map indicates the maximum shaking that could occur from likely sources of future temblors throughout the state.
Areas in pink and red are at the greatest risk of a damage by earthquakes; at the other end of the map's spectrum, those in dark green have the lowest risk.
But the entire state is ``at risk for earthquake damage,'' said Dallas Jones, director of the state Office of Emergency Services. The map, he said, ``serves as a reminder for California residents to practice earthquake preparedness.''
The map was unveiled during the Disaster Resistant California Conference at the downtown Fairmont Hotel, attended by several hundred scientists, emergency, city and school officials and private and nonprofit organizations from throughout the state.
It is different than the ``ShakeMaps'' created online with data from sensors all over the state that show shaking from a single earthquake minutes after it occurs. This map shows the potential damage to help emergency managers focus limited resources on areas that computer models indicate are at greatest risk, Jones said.
The map is a joint product of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, the California Seismic Safety Commission, the California Department of Conservation's Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey. It is available online at www.seismic.ca.gov/sscpub.htm
State OES director Darrell Young said this map is purposely broad. But specific maps showing the risk for individual blocks can also be downloaded from the same site.