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NEWS2 ! March 24, 2011

Portland is due to have a

massive earthquake.

According to scientists, the

Cascadia Subduction Zone,

which lies about 75 miles off the

Oregon coast, has a fault which

produces a major quake about

every 250 to 500 years. Currently,

we are about 311 years out from

when the last one occurred.

According to Public Safety’s

Environmental Health and Safety

Officer Jeff Rook, the shaker

that will send the ground under

Portland quaking is expected to

be on par with the 9.0 magnitude

earthquake that occurred in

Japan earlier this month.

“Disaster is going to be

inevitable,” Rook said. “With the

one that strikes here, and not if

but when, survival is optional.”

In order to make sure the

UP community is prepared

for earthquakes, Rook started

working with CCERT, the

Community Campus Emergency

Response Team.

CCERT trains students,

faculty and staff not only from

UP but Portland Community

College and Portland State

University as well.

According to Rook, 75 to 80

percent of people who respond

in an emergency situation are

volunteers. The purpose of the

CCERT program is to make sure

the University of Portland has

some prepared volunteers.

“It’s disaster medicine,” Rook

said. “It’s learning how to take a

cardboard box, strip it down and

use it for splinting.”

On April 1, CCERT will

have a four-hour field experience

day where members will utilize

their training to size up a fake

emergency situation and extricate

victims from the emergency.

They will also practice search

and rescue as well as triage

skills.

“There are one to two Public

Safety officers to a total student

body of over 3,000 plus faculty

and staff,” Rook said. “You are

in a situation where you are

completely overwhelmed. We

want to make sure our campus

members are better prepared.”

UP has also taken steps to

prepare for a disaster.

According to Rook, UP has

a small stock of Koldkist water

bottles on campus, despite

the water bottle ban that was

implemented last year. The

Bauccio Commons has three

days worth of food that could

sustain up to 3,000 people.

“We have at least that much

product on campus during

the academic calendar,” Kirk

Mustain, the general manager

of Bon Appétit, said in an email.

“Obviously we would amend the

style of service and offerings but

I feel confident that we would be

able to take care of the university

community.”

Back-up generators are in

Franz Hall, Shiley Hall and

Public Safety that can run for a

week or two at full capacity.

“In an emergency situation

we wouldn’t be running them at

full capacity,” Rook said.

According to Rook, secondary

items would not be powered up to

make the generators last longer.

The school also has an

agreement with Belfor Property

Restoration so UP could receive

a back-up generator for the

Chiles Center within 24 to 48

hours of an emergency.

Finally, Rook encourages

everyone to make a 72-hour kit

for his or her place of residence.

“Each kit should have one

gallon of water per person per

day,” Rook said.

He said the kits should also

include at least a week’s worth

of food that doesn’t take much

effort to prepare, such as Power

Bars.

A full list of supplies to

include in a kit can be found on

Public Safety’s website at http://

www.up.edu/showimage/show.

aspx?file=7037.

“How many more times

before it actually happens do we

need to see examples before we

get prepared?” Rook said.

The next CCERT class is

coming up this summer. Students

can contact Rook at rook@

up.edu if they want to take the

class.

Jeff Rook

On Campus

Accuracy in The BeaconThe Beacon strives to be fair and accurate. The newspaper corrects any significant errors of fact brought to the attention of the editors. If you think an error has been made, contact us at beacon@up.edu. Corrections will be printed above.

MANQUISITION

Tonight, LXG will host the

Manquisition, a satirical mock

trial of prominent men on

campus, in the Terrace room

in The Bauccio Commons at 6

p.m.

MR. CORRADO

Tonight, Mr. Corrado will be

held in the Buckley Center

Auditorium from 8 p.m. to

10 p.m. Mr. Corrado is a man

pageant fundraiser for Holy

Cross Charities. The event is

free.

‘COUNTRY STRONG’

Friday and Saturday night,

“Country Strong” will play in

the Buckley Center Auditorium

at 10 p.m.

BLUFFOONS IMPROV

SHOW

Friday night, the Bluffoons

are having an Improvisational

Comedy Show at the Mago

Hunt Recital Hall at 7:30.

Tickets are $2 per person, or $3

for two people.

HAWAII CLUB LU’AU

Saturday, Hawaii Club is

hosting its 35th annual Lu’au,

“Ke Ea o Hawaii,” in the Chiles

Center. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.,

and dinner is at 6 p.m. Pre-sale

tickets are the following: first

200 students are free, faculty

and staff are $10, general

admission is $20, senior

citizens (55+) are $15, children

(5-12) and groups of 10 or more

are $12 per person and children

under four are free. Tickets can

be purchased Friday at The

Bauccio Commons from 11 a.m.

to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at

the Pilot House from 11 a.m. to

2 p.m. or in the UP Bookstore

with a sales associate. Ticket

prices will increase at the door.

CORRECTION

In the March 10 issue, the

photo for “No strings (or

ropes) attached” on page 16

was submitted by Sebastian

Berisford. The photo at the top

of page 14 was submitted by

Victoria Clark.

The Beacon regrets the errors.

On Campus

Q: What causes

earthquakes?

A: The two-word answer is

plate tectonics, which is motion

between lithospheric plates. On

their boundaries, forces build up

and get released.

This particular plate boundary

that released its stored energy

on March 11 was the boundary

where the Pacific Plate dives

beneath Japan. The plates are

converging, moving towards

each other, and the Pacific Plate

bends down and dives down into

the Japan trench.

That’s a line of deep ocean

floor, off the east coast of Japan,

and the Pacific plate is a slab

which is about 100 kilometers

thick, and it dives down into the

deeper mantle below Japan.

Q: What causes tsunamis?

A: To produce a tsunami,

an earthquake has to move

ocean water. Most tsunamis

are produced by great, shallow

earthquakes. And when we mean

shallow, we mean 10 kilometers.

This particular earthquake

actually initiated at about 24

kilometers depth, and then it

ruptured a big patch of the plate

boundary. It changed the shape of

the ocean floor, and produced a

big mound of ocean water.

Q: What does “9.0” mean?

A: There a bunch of different

magnitude scales for earthquakes.

The most effective scale to use is

a moment magnitude scale.

That actually uses information

such as the displacement, the

opposite sides of the fault – how

far did one side of the fault move

with respect to the other side of

the fault – and it also uses the

area of the fault that got moved.

Q: Explain the risk and

what possible scenarios could

occur in the Portland area and

at UP.

A: The Pacific Northwest has

three kinds of earthquakes. One

kind is what would be considered

to be a deep earthquake.

Another kind is crustal

earthquakes. These are on faults,

where the North American crust

is broken. There is large crustal

fault called the Portland Hills

Fault. It’s immediately across

the Willamette River from UP.

We know the fault is capable

of certainly having magnitude

6.0 earthquakes, maybe even

magnitude 7.0 earthquakes.

But we don’t know very well,

at least, when the last earthquake

occurred on that fault. That

means it makes it difficult to

assess the risk which is posed by

that crustal fault.

There is another fault called

the East Bank Fault which is

basically mapped to go along

parallel to the East Bank of the

Willamette River, and it runs

under the UP campus.

That fault is really hard to

evaluate. We know it’s there, but

we don’t have a very good idea

about what risk it does or does

not pose.

The third kind of earthquake

is what people around here in

the Pacific Northwest region call

“The Big One.” This is a great

earthquake occurring on the

Cascadia Subduction Zone.

We know the last one of these

great Cascadia earthquakes,

which was probably a magnitude

9, occurred on Feb. 26, 1700 at

about 9 p.m. That one is parallel

to this great earthquake that just

occurred in Japan. It’s the same

kind of plate boundary.

The 1700 earthquake

produced a tsunami which kind

of did the mirror image of what

the Japan earthquake did – that

is, the Cascadia 1700 earthquake

created a tsunami that arrived in

Japan and caused damage.

- Butler will present “March 11,

2011 Magnitude 9.0 Earthquake

and Tsunami in Northern

Japan: Comparisons with Past

and Future Earthquakes and

Tsunamis in Cascadia” today

at 4:30 p.m. in Buckley Center,

room 163.

-Hannah Gray

Q&AEnvironmental science Professor

Robert Butler discusses earthquakes and tsunamis

Disaster preparedness at UP?Rosemary Peters Editor-in-Chiefpeters12@up.edu

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Continued from page 1

Sunday, March 20

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