Earthquake Safety

Get Ready for The BIG One! Earthquake Preparedness

Get Ready for The BIG One! Earthquake Preparedness

Learn about the risks posed by earthquakes and what you can do to prepare for it. A training for UO students, faculty, and staff that features a presentation by Kelly Wiesbard Missett (Oregon Hazards Lab), Shannon Fasola (Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center), and Vicki Strand (Safety and Risk Services). Participants will learn about earthquakes, what kind of damage to expect, the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and what steps individuals can take to be more prepared on campus and at home. It will include a brief “drop, cover, and hold” drill as part of the Great Oregon ShakeOut. 

What: A free, training to learn about the risks posed by earthquakes and what you can do to prepare for it.

When: Oct. 16 from noon to 1 p.m.

Where: University of Oregon, 1680 E 15th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401

Register: Get Ready for The BIG One! Earthquake Preparedness. No registration is needed for UO students.

Event Sponsors: Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT), Oregon Hazards Lab (OHAZ), and University of Oregon Safety and Risk Services.

The Great ShakeOut! Oregon

Join us for the Great Shakeout! Oregon. Safety and Risk Services will send out an alert through UO Alerts at 2:17 p.m. on Oct. 17, informing people about the ShakeOut and encouraging them to participate via the Drop, Cover, Hold On protective action.

ShakeOut Drill

Quake Questions Answered: Building Our Community's Resilience

Quake Questions Answered

October 17 is Great ShakeOut Day, when millions of people worldwide participate in earthquake drills at work, school, or home. This event aims to improve understanding of seismic hazard and resilience in our region, where earthquakes are rarely felt, but have the potential to occur with devastating consequences.

What: A free, public panel event to discuss what we know now, what we expect to learn, and what you can do to be prepared for the Big One here in the Pacific Northwest. Get your earthquake questions answered by expert seismologists, researchers and emergency managers (panel members listed below).

When: Oct. 17 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. (refreshments provided)

Where: Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon, 1680 E 15th Ave, Eugene, OR 97401

Event Sponsors: Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT), Oregon Hazards Lab (OHAZ), and University of Oregon Safety and Risk Services.
 

Are you ready to drop, cover and hold?

Shake It Up: What you need to know about the Cascadia earthquake

A training and Q&A for UO students, faculty, and staff featuring a panel discussion by seismologists Dr. Lucy Jones (Caltech) and Prof. Doug Toomey (UO Earth Sciences), as well as Krista Dillon (Director of Operations for UO Safety and Risk Services), sponsored by the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics


Oregon ShakeOut!

 

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Oregon lies at a convergent continental boundary where two tectonic plates are colliding. The Cascadia Subduction Zone is actually a 600 mile long earthquake fault stretching from offshore northern California to southern British Columbia.

This fault builds up stress for hundreds of years as the Juan de Fuca and North America Plates push against each other. Eventually, the two plates rip apart, creating some of the largest earthquakes and tsunamis on earth. Where the Juan de Fuca oceanic plate and the North American continental plate meet is called a subduction zone, because the denser Juan de Fuca Plate is being pulled under North America. The Juan de Fuca Plate is moving to the northeast at about an inch a year as the North American Plate moves west. The Oregon coastline is actually bulging upward from the two plates pushing against each other.

There are over 1000 earthquakes over magnitude 1.0 in Washington and Oregon every year, with at least two dozen being large enough to be felt. Approximately 17 people have lost their lives due to earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest.

Since 1872, there have been 20 damaging earthquakes in Washington and Oregon. The Pacific coast poses special risk from tsunamis associated with a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. In addition to Subduction zone earthquakes, Oregon is also susceptible to crustal earthquakes. The two largest earthquakes in recent years in Oregon, Scotts Mills, (magnitude 5.6) and the Klamath Falls, main shocks (magnitude 5.9 and magnitude 6.0) of 1993 were crustal earthquakes.

Read more at the Oregon Emergency Management Earthquake Hazards page.