Lecture to highlight the next big earthquake

January 21, 2015 / Sue Mitchell

The very notion of the “the big one” — a singular well-defined earthquake catastrophe — does not apply in Alaska.

There are many “big ones,” said Michael West, the director of the Alaska Earthquake Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.

West will discuss Alaska’s vulnerabilities and potential scenarios during his talk “The Next Big Earthquake,” the second in the 2015 Science for Alaska lecture series. The talk will begin at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 27, in the Gold Room of the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel and Convention Center.

West is also the state seismologist for Alaska.

The lecture series is free and open to the public. This year, Alaska Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research again joins the Geophysical Institute as a sponsor. The series, which began in the early 1990s, brings current scientific research to Alaskans. Four more lectures, covering the research vessel Sikuliaq, unmanned aircraft, weather satellites and hunters and wildlife, follow every Tuesday until Feb. 24.

ON THE WEB: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/PublicInformation/SFALS

DC/1-23-15/172-15

CONTACTS:

Sue Mitchell, University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, 907-474-5823, sue.mitchell@alaska.edu

Michael West, University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, 907-474-6977, mewest@alaska.edu