Bridging the Gap between Earthquake Hazards Research and Community Education

Through our academic research initiatives, we have (1) constructed a model of seasonal strain along the San Andreas Fault in Central California and (2) investigated the seismic hazards of Nevada's two urban basins. Too often, such research initiatives funded by government agencies do not reach the awareness of local communities. From the perspective of a geophysicist, it can be hard to engage with public audiences without adequate resources, and with the fear that scientific principles can get lost in translation to the general public. Here we present several efforts to bring the latest geophysical research to local Nevada communities. We show that in engaging with local community members, catering specifically to your audience is important. Each audience and venue is unique.

We find that hands-on demonstrations are key, especially with younger audiences. In communicating the seasonal modulation of earthquakes along faulting systems, such as the San Andreas Fault, we designed and built an interactive demonstration for use with elementary school family science nights and informal public talks. It shows the local community how the weight of water from aquifer systems can change the stress state of a nearby faulting system. In communicating the earthquake hazards of Nevada's two urban basins our efforts have ranged widely. Years of formal engagement with engineering, urban development, and building-code enforcement agencies in Las Vegas led to completion of the 1500 sq. km Clark County Earthquake Parcel Map. In Reno, informal "pub talks" and "speed science" Q&A sessions were organized. While the messages on hazards and preparedness had to be kept accurate and consistent across all outreach efforts, the packaging and presentation style was varied for each audience. In carrying out these outreach endeavors, we find that our efforts overall increased community understanding of scientific research as applied to earthquake hazards, making them relevant to many Nevada communities.