Wildfires across the west caused extensive damage to the seismic and geodetic monitoring infrastructure of the USGS advanced national seismic system (anss) in the summer and fall of 2020 and 2021,…

This $1,000,000 Cooperative Agreement awarded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the USGS Research and Data Collection program (CFDA 15.808) aims to address damage to the USGS Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) monitoring infrastructure caused by recent wildfires across the western United States. The key components of work include: 1) Replacing fire-damaged earthquake monitoring equipment and infrastructure, 2) Hardening earthquake monitoring sites within declared disaster areas, and 3) Improving situational awareness tools for earthquake monitoring operations within fire disaster areas. The Cooperative Agreement was awarded to the Regents of the University of California, Berkeley to carry out this work over a period of 3 years beginning September 2023.

Wildfires across the west caused extensive damage to the seismic and geodetic monitoring infrastructure of the USGS advanced national seismic system (anss) in the summer and fall of 2020 and 2021, with over 100 sites within fire boundaries. Damage from the fires ranged from complete destruction with both the scientific instrumentation and the supporting site infrastructure reduced to ashes to more modest impacts such as loss of communications or damage to some components at a site. In some cases, critical telecommunications relays were compromised by fire, either by damaging sensitive equipment or weakening towers or poles that support antennas. This cooperative agreement with UC berkeley addresses three components of work growing out of the 2020 and 2021 wildfires: replacing fire-damaged earthquake monitoring equipment and infrastructure, hardening earthquake monitoring sites within declared disaster areas, and improving situational awareness tools for earthquake monitoring operations within fire disaster areas