Dr. Goltz (m): In California which is
very seismically active, we have between ４０ and ８０ earthquakes a day.
Some of them very small, typically only measured by instruments that are
extremely sensitive, but a few of those earthquakes come above the
threshold to be felt by people.
HOST: Hallo, thoughtful
viewers, and welcome to Planet Earth: Our Loving Home. Thus far in ２０１０
several powerful earthquakes have struck the Earth, with January’s ７.３
magnitude quake in Haiti and February’s ８.８ magnitude temblor in
southern Chile causing the most destruction as they were centered
in
highly populated areas.
On today’s program we’ll speak with Dr.
Jim Goltz,Earthquake and Tsunami Program Manager in the Preparedness
Division of the California Emergency Management Agency, USA to learn
about earthquakes and appropriate responses to a quake.
Dr.
Goltz has been involved in earthquake research, planning, preparedness
and mitigation for ３５ years. To begin, he will discuss what causes
temblors and how to know if a quake is occurring.
Dr. Goltz (m):
Earthquakes occur on faults. There are thousands of faults around the
world. Some of the largest earthquakes occur around the borders of the
great tectonic plates that characterize our planet.
And we just
recently had two of those earthquakes on plate boundaries, the
earthquake in Haiti and also the earthquake in Chile. So these are large
plate boundary events. The earthquake process is largely random.
For
continually updated details on earthquakes around the world please
visit:
United States Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program
Earthquake.USGS.gov
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