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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