PACIFIC NORTHWEST SEISMIC NETWORK, EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH AND INFORMATION SERVICES

The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network is a member of the USGS supported Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) and is responsible for monitoring earthquakes throughout Washington and Oregon. The PNSN is also an active part of the Cascade Volcano Observatory providing seismic data and analysis of earthquakes associated with the Cascade volcanos. Operation and maintenance of our expanding 250 station network of weak and strong motion seismometers and the processing of the real time data streams available for use by all, is a primary mission of the network.

Education and service are also prime objectives of the PNSN. Emergency managers, businesses, lifeline providers, students, and the public have wide ranging information needs requiring a diversity in our education and outreach products and services. The PNSN participates in the cooperative development and production of National information products with the USGS and other ANSS organizations. These products include include:

• Recent Earthquake web pages

• Webicorders

• Community Internet Intensity Maps (CIIM, "Did you feel it?")

• ShakeMaps (instrumentally derived intensity of shaking)

• ShakeCast (pulls ground motion data to local computers generating alerts and loss estimation calculations)

PNSN staff also provides informal science and hazards education activities for schools and the public including:

• Seismology Lab tours for thousands of K-12 students annually.

• Public talks for community organizations

• Presentations and information booths at conferences and professional meetings

• Responding to a thousand or so inquiries from the public via email and phone each year on a variety of topics.

Due to limited resources to meet the demand for earthquake and volcano hazards education, the PNSN gives high priority to supporting the community education efforts of management agencies at both state and local levels. The PNSN has also actively contributed to Project Impact Partnerships for hazard mitigation, and to other NGOs working to reduce community vulnerability to earthquake and volcano hazards. I will introduce CPARM, CREW, and PNWER as examples of these and describe some of the important hazards education work they have accomplished.