The Fault in Our Crust
If you live in an earthquake-prone area, there's probably one question on your mind a lot of the time: when is the next big one going to hit?
In this episode, we talk earthquake prediction with Dr. Barbara Romanowicz, a geophysicist at UC Berkeley and the former director of the Berkeley Seismology Lab. And while earthquake prediction is definitely important, our conversation revealed to us that there's so much more we can learn from earthquakes. Earthquakes (and their sister natural phenomena volcanoes) can teach us about the history of the geography that surrounds us and the make-up of the Earth beneath our feet. And just like any good science, earthquakes can reveal even deeper questions than we knew to ask before.
Strap in and join us for a wild ride through the center of the Earth, with stopovers in California, Japan, and on the newest Hawaiian volcano.
This episode was written and produced by Anna Lipkin, Cindy Liu, and Kanchi Mehta. Music in this episode is by Blue Dot Sessions, Kai Engel, Ketsa, and Six Umbrellas from the FreeMusicArchive. Episode art from Public Domain Vectors.
Transcript link here.
More resources:
Click here to learn more about Dr. Romanowicz’s work.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has excellent explanations for the concepts that we covered in the episode, including the shadow zone, descriptions of fault activity, and plate tectonics.
Also check out the Berkeley Seismology Lab for more information, including an overview of hot spot volcanoes and general information about seismicity of the Bay Area.