Good afternoon, and welcome. My name is Michael Gurnis.
I'm the Director of the Seismo Lab, which is celebrating its Centennial.
So, what we re going to do today is look at clips
from various earthquakes movies over time and then ask for reflections by our various experts here.
All of the movies begin with a scientist being ignored.
I know you'll laugh, but I think we're going to have a really big quake probably today, tomorrow at the latest.
There s a high probability that we are going
to experience a magnitude 7.5 earthquake in this city. All I want to do is raise
the alert so people can start getting ready for this thing. They are ready! Los Angeles is more ready than any other city...
Are you saying you think the whole San Andreas fault might go off?
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Who should we call? Everybody.
This notion that there's a scientist and he's predicting in real time while the TV is shooting the video?
That is not how we work!
We all know that, of course, there's never been a successfully predicted earthquake, but we have had different attempts over time.
Prediction isn't really where it we like to try to focus. It's much more on that preparedness.
For the policy maker, I think we're looking at how families can communicate in the event they're separated.
What does that look like? So, let's look at how they portrayed the earthquakes.
The San Andreas fault.
The first thing to point out is that the better the special effects get, the worse the movies get.
Of course, the guy cannot run faster than the earthquake rupture,
but I'll leave that, and I'll leave the chasm for Zhongwen.
I feel like that huge crack is a huge insult to the San Andreas fault. If the San Andreas fault could speak,
it would probably say "I'm a proud strike-slip fault! I move sideways, I don't just open up like that!"
In San Andreas, you know he's in a full sprint, looks like he's running a professional
100m, carrying a child and then was able to even throw them! But you would have this significant momentum
that's just going to be literally dropping you to your knees.
What happens after the earthquake?
So much. Okay, start with fires. When you look at the majority of our water supply lines,
they're run underground. As that ground shakes, you're going to certainly expect to see ruptures there.
The other major utility that's run underground that we see there most of the time,
is our natural gas service. And so certainly we expect post-earthquake that there is going to
be some issues with fire following that earthquake.
As I was watching the last clip, I was thinking: Well, if we ever are in a big one like that I kind of want to be on Team Rock.
He can fly us out of here. Right ...over the over the edge. I think the work that
Caltech is doing on early warning detection allows families to be able to be in a position
where they can be prepared and braced. If we're going to have any time for questions at the end, I think I better get us to our last clip.
What are we doing? Getting you on the air. We need to warn people.
How? There's no way to upload a signal. Ha ha ha, you're at Caltech!
Who wants an "A" in independent study? I'm starting a new class: How to Save Lives by Hacking Media Outlets.
Oh yeah, man, I'm in. Sweet, bro. Get your laptop. Let's go. ...Well, since we are at Caltech...
I'd like to thank the panel and I want to thank all of you for joining us.
I hope this independent study was helpful, and no hacking please. Just enjoy the rest of the afternoon.