Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, goodnight wherever you are, thank you for joining us
virtually at the 2023 Northern California Earthquake Hazards Workshop.
Today is our welcoming remarks to begin the very first day of the workshop.
For the most welcoming of welcoming remarks, we have the Director of the U.S.
Geological Survey, David Applegate.
Thank you very much, Sarah. Thanks for the opportunity to join and to help to kick off this event.
Good morning to you all, although I am coming to you from afternoon, indeed, coming to you from the USGS office at the Main Interior Building, where I am today, and I do wish to acknowledge at the outset that wherever we're joining
from today it is indigenous land. Part of the homeland of native people who were the first conservation stewards, and I asked that we acknowledge the heritage of today's native people and respect the vibrant indigenous cultures that enrich the nation today.
I had the opportunity to participate in this workshop
two years ago, speaking in a session on "Disparate impacts of hazards and risk."
At that time, we were taping the presentations, and I was working on recording mine in the morning of the President's inauguration, which was a few hours before I started
exercising the delegated authority of the director, and on my way to the current role that I'm in as the USGS director.
A lot has changed in the past two years, but what is not varied is the USGS commitment to advancing earthquake safety in Northern California, and indeed across the nation, and you know the partnerships that it takes to make that happen are very much reflected
in the many voices that you'll be hearing from in this workshop and so I want to thank you all USGS folks and everyone else for coming together.
This really does showcase the power of partnerships.
You know the connections that are reflected here are essential to seeing our science put to work. Delivering what we call actionable information,
when and where it is needed, and with an eye towards equity.
We want to ensure that the science we undertake can be useful to those who need it
the most. I want to say a big thank you to Keith Knudsen for adding Northern California coordinator to his duties
for some time now, and to Sarah for taking on that load, and in particular doing such a wonderful job, coordinating our scientific response to the pre-Christmas holiday rush that was the Ferndale earthquake. It's great to see, I know they're gonna be
a number of talks about that coming up. Earlier this month,
I had the opportunity to participate in a symposium at the American Meteorological Society's Annual Meeting.
It was honoring the retirement of Bill Hook a former NOAA, chief scientist and long time guide to the science policy interface, particularly as it has to do with natural hazards and the very unnatural disasters, that they trigger. I was in a session that was
on wicked problems, not evil, but complex.
Those that defy simple solutions, and often lie at the intersection of human and natural systems and competing interests and values, and the wicked problem that I chose to talk about was one that lies at the heart of disaster
risk reduction. How to get credit for disaster losses
avoided. Stealing from Sherlock Holmes.
how to get credit for the dog that didn't bark, and that makes all of the difference.
And for this, for this crowd of meteorologists, I could share one slide and the slide I chose to show was a photograph of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System
shortly after the magnitude 7.9 Denali earthquake had ruptured the Denali fault right across the pipeline.
But of course, because of the work that had been done, the wonderful geologists, USGS, and other geologists, including a number from this neck of the woods who'd been involved in the studies back in the early 70s that identified the potential for such a rupture, the engineers
who'd worked with the geologist to design the teflon slider bars and Kingston system to enable it to handle this.
This was the biggest environmental disaster of 2002 that nobody's ever heard about, because it didn't happen.
The pipeline slid to nearly the end of the of the slider bar, did not rupture, did not spill a drop of oil.
We're in a time when we cannot simply respond our way out of disasters.
The work you are discussing here is so important to understanding the hazards in their societal context, and to be having these discussions to be working with communities so that we can figure out how to address that wicked problem to get that credit for the work that is done; the work of
mitigation, the work of disaster, risk reduction. You know, for motivating DRR
before the next one, you know before, for example, I saw the Greenville fault.
is on your agenda, and you know before that ruptures the levies. And the many other potential cascading consequences that are associated with the events that you're going to be discussing here.
So again, I want to say, thank you so much for all coming together, and the last thing I'll say is, I want to to welcome Christine
Goulet. I already consider her to be part of the USGS
family from her time with the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), which has been such an important partnership for us.
And of course I'm thrilled that she's now joined the Survey in the all important role as a director of the Earthquake Science Center.
So with that I will thank you all again, and say, welcome to Christine.
Thank you, Dave. I think I'm next. Should I just go alone.
Unless you want to be introduced as all amazing new ESC
Director, Christine Goulet.
You're funny. Well, that that's easy to say.
now, I've not been on a job for even two months yet, so give me some time to prove that I can do this right. [laugh]
So, yes, thank you, David, for the the nice introduction to all the issues we're trying to work on here.
And yes, I just join the Earthquake Science Center Director.
This is my contact information. So don't hesitate to reach out.
If you have questions, or would like to know more about what we're doing.
But I thought it was a great opportunity for me to remind everyone.
The Earthquake Science Center Mission, which is again included in the broader issues that David has introduced.
Our mission is to collect a wide range of data on earthquake faults crustal deformations, and so on. Conduct research to increase our understanding of these earthquake processes or occurrences and effects, and then to synthesize the knowledge into seismic hazard assessment products.
We disseminate this data and products with stakeholders and the public to support a seismic resilience.
So, this is all done with a lot of collaborators at the federal, state, local levels through multiple partners and in collaborations, and includes also private industry, professional associations, and also nonprofit organizations and of course universities and all those that support the work and the
research. I wanted to introduce this because this workshop here, the Northern California Earthquake Hazard Workshop really is part of the synthesis and dissemination.
And this is also a place where we can learn from each other, and it's now the twentieth iteration of the workshop.
It's a workshop, an event that was high on my list of those to attend every year.
I used to fly to Menlo Park to be there in person, and with time we we saw an increase in the capabilities to accommodate online participants, and now it's the third year for which we're completely online and so you will see a representation of all those different
aspects of the hazard. Everything that goes into it, and the different stakeholders.
And this is really well done and presented by the program that our amazing program committee, prepared for us.
So Sarah has a bigger picture, because she's the ringleader in here, and she's really bringing everybody together in this workshop and in developing the plan.
And and she, of course, worked with Susan, Shane, Evan, Grace, Josie, Dave, Belle, and Keith, and that's the science planning committee.
So those that really plan and focus on the program itself that you will all get to enjoy.
This could not have been done without Scott, who's also at the USGS and John, our fearless music ringleader, moderator.
So I want to thank everybody for this it's really important that we acknowledge that.
So I invite you to a round of applause in advance of the amazing workshop we're about to join, to start right now.
One last thing I want to say is, the USGS strives to provide the diverse, inclusive, and respectful environment, because it's essential to the integrity of our organization and science.
So, if anything during this workshop doesn't meet those standards or ideals,
please alert us. This is really important for us. For technical help, contact Shane or John Grindle.
All the information is there, John? I just made you a cookingware, calling you a griddle. I apologize. So don't hesitate to reach out and
also use the chat. So this is really an opportunity for all of us to engage.
It's real nice to see all the friendly faces on camera, and also the list of participants in the participant pane there, and I encourage you to really make the best and take advantage of the Zoom capability, so engage in the chat, be part of it.
It will be more interesting for you, and that's also a nice way to contribute, so that we can learn from each other. Again,
this is focused on Northern California, and that's really a flagship of the Earthquake Science Center, this workshop.
What we learn here, the interactions we have, the collaborations we build, and the connections we make will have an impact on hazards across the nation and potentially beyond.
So, please enjoy and interact, and have a great workshop, and thanks again for joining.
Thanks.
Thank you so much, Christine. That was wonderful. And now here comes
Keith Knudsen.
Thanks. Thanks, Sarah. My job today is really easy.
That's to introduce and thank Sarah. The amazing Sarah,
I might add. Sarah, this is, I think, her third, maybe fourth year of leading and organizing these workshops, and they've just gotten better and better each year.
So thanks so much for that, Sarah. Additional news about Sarah, that some of you may not be aware of is that just a few months ago she was selected to represent the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program of the USGS as its Northern California Regional Coordinator and I for one I'm particularly
glad she was ready to step up and take on that role.
I thought I'd just take another minute or two to describe to those of you who are unaware of what that role means.
So first, the regional coordinator plays a role in guiding internal research.
Second, they are the liaison with external partners, like many of you.
Third, they coordinate and lead our external grants
panels and write the prospectus about activities that we would like to see proposals addressing.
And then, perhaps most importantly, is to lead earthquake response.
As Dave mentioned, Sarah has been doing that in spades for the Ferndale earthquake sequence, and actually other earthquake.
So welcome, Sarah into that role. Thanks so much for being willing to take it on.
And we really appreciate everything you do for us. Thanks
Awwww, thank you so much, Keith. That is so sweet of you.
So Hi! I'm Sarah Minson. I am helping MC
this workshop, and it is really a group effort.
Huge thank you to all the organizers. As Christine listed them. It's Shane Detweiler, Susan Garcia, Evan Hirokawa, Keith Knudsen, who just gave such a sweet talk.
Thank you, Keith. Josie Nevitt, Grace Parker, Belle Philibosian, David Schwartz, John Grindle is doing our IT. 00:14:44.000 -our -> 00:14:46.000 Scott Haefner updates the website for us.
Thank you so much. I also want to give a big shout out to Jay Patton, Laurie Dengler, Peggy Hellwig, Bob McPherson, and everyone at Cal Poly, Humboldt, who came together to help organize a late-breaking session on the
Ferndale earthquake while they were responding to an earthquake and dealing with an Atmosphere River.
Thank you so much you were really amazing. Thank you
Keith, who has been an amazing Northern California Earthquake Hazards Coordinator, and who lets me lean on him a lot, as I very, very, very slowly learn what I'm trying to do.
Another thing that I think is really important to understand about the Northern California Earthquake Hazards Coordinator, as opposed to our other regional coordinators, is that in Northern California we are really lucky that the coordinator doesn't work alone we have the amazing Susan Garcia,
who does so much of our outreach and our dissemination of information to local groups
as Christine was just highlighting as an important part of the mission of the Earthquake Science Center, and also I really want to take a moment to thank Keith.
Our Northern California Earthquake Hazards Coordinator and Susan Garcia, who is all amazing, amazing,
amazing leader of outreach. Thank you, Keith, and Susan. And also apologies for how much I'm going to lean on you in the future.
So I am now, Northern California Earthquake Hazards Coordinator,
I have all the power.
I have no power. I do, however, get to learn the secret of why this workshop exists, and the secret for why this workshop exists other than to have fun and share a lot of exciting information is to help guide scientific priorities for all funding programs which I have
to write immediately after this workshop ends. Technically, it's due during the workshop,
but I got a little extension. So what I would really love to hear you all of your thoughts about what you think is either where the amazing research is happening now.
Or where the research is not happening, and it should, and I will write that into our guidance, for external funding programs. Just share with me
however, you want through chat through email, through Q&A. And if you don't know about external funding programs, you're in luck, because on Thursday we're going to have a session with Gavin Hayes, Steve Delong and Eleanor Snow talking about all our funding programs.
And also all student internships. I'll postdoc fellowships, anything that we can do to assist our collaborators in doing
their research. I just have a couple more things I want to say.
One is, I know sometimes people feel like Zoom can be intimidating.
You know, having to be on camera, having to be seen. You are very welcome, exactly as you are.
Don't feel any pressure if you have children and pets, they are more than welcome.
Just introduce them, so that we can also hi to them too.
And finally, as people have hinted, like, we really want a lively discussion and a lot of interaction.
So get in there; however, you want. We will have live chat during the talks.
We will have Q&A, after the talks, and John will tell you the details of how Zoom works.
I just wanna make one little idea. So last year we got some feedback that people found the chat wonderful.
But occasionally it'll be overwhelming when there were multiple conversations about multiple talks going on at the same time.
So this year our suggestion is, yes, please, chat, have a lively chat about the talk that's happening during the talk, and then, when that chat end, don't end the discussion just put a PIN in it and pick it up again at the Q&A at the end, so that we're always chatting about the
talk that is happening now, and I will let John explain to us how all of this works.
Thank you, Sarah. Yeah. I'm excited to be here again for the third year.
My role here is basically just to do the technical pieces and make sure that all that is set up correctly. Some of the things on this real quick presentation have already been shared with the group with Christine and Sarah reemphasized it.
But the USGS strives to provide a diverse, inclusive, and respectful environment because it's essential to the integrity of our organization and our science.
If anything fails to exemplify these ideals, please, alert an organizer for immediate assistance.
Couple of ground rules. Now, I'm gonna assume that most of us know how to use
Zoom. If you have any issues with raising your hand or any of those kind of your virtual hand, just send me a chat message.
But basic ground rule. You're gonna stay on mute for most of the time.
If you're a speaker, please unmute yourself when you are talking.
Obviously. As Sarah mentions, questions in chat as much as you can, be on topic and be nice hopefully
that goes without saying and then for the Q&A sessions at the end of the presentations, if you'd like to actually say something verbally, you'll raise your virtual hand and using the reactions button at the bottom of your screen and then you're always encouraged to turn your video on even if you haven't taken a shower today. That's totally fine. And if you have your
full name and your institution on there that really helps out.
And then the last slide. I'm going to show cause we've already talked about all of our amazing organizers.
You can chat me. The name in chat
is NCEHW Help. And then, if you have something that goes wrong outside of Zoom, or you're not able to get into Zoom, you can email Shane or myself at those two addresses. That's all I have Sarah, I think we're ready to actually get everything going.