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The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, as a part of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), has the broad objectives to:
Improve earthquake hazard identification and risk assessment methods and their use
Maintain comprehensive earthquake monitoring with focus on "real-time" systems in urban areas
Improve the understanding of earthquakes occurrence and their effects and consequences
These objectives are carried out through a number of regional and topical programs. The USGS currently invests about $7M/year on earthquake monitoring and hazards research and products for northern California (defined as all of California north of about 35.5° N, roughly the latitude of Parkfield, CA). Approximately $1M/year of this total supports university and private researchers funded through a highly competitive external grants program designed to complement and expand upon the internal effort.
The first annual workshop on Northern California earthquake hazards sponsored by the USGS NEHRP was held at USGS headquarters in Menlo Park, California on January 13-14, 2004. More than 100 researchers and members of the Northern California user community attended the workshop. Approximately half of the attendees were USGS scientists from Menlo Park and Golden, Colorado, the balance were from the external community.
The purpose of the workshop was multifold:
increase communication on northern California earthquake hazards issues between internal and external researchers, connect these researchers with the needs of our user community, as well as bring everyone up-to-date on latest research results
highlight important unresolved questions and issues
reach a consensus on short- and long-term priorities for hazard and risk reduction products as well as for future research in Northern California.
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