USGS public lecture examines the Gold Rush and 1906 Earthquake on Feb. 25

On February 25 at 7:00 pm, The USGS in Menlo Park will present a free public lecture titled The Gold Rush and the 1906 Earthquake: How they combined to create the breakthrough discovery of modern seismic science. It will be give by Ross s. Stein, USS Scientist Emeritus & Consulting Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University, in Rambo Auditorium, Bldg. 3, 345 Middlefield Road.

Among the topics covered:

• Accidents of Gold Rush merchant marine navigation transformed a seismic disaster into a seminal discovery and led to San Francisco’s extreme liquefaction vulnerability today.
• Just about everything that we love about the Bay area is brought to us by the faults. We enjoy their daily fruits and so must live with their occasional spoils.
• No one knows when the next damaging quake will strike; we must frame the ‘payback period’ for seismic expenditures in terms of chance.