S3E2: "We Know How to Build for This." Diego Melgar on Earthquake Preparedness

On this episode we're joined by Diego Melgar, professor of earth sciences and director of the Cascadia region earthquake science center (CRESCENT) at the University of Oregon. Melgar discusses his work with CRESCENT, his path to earth science, and why earth science research matters. He also explains how ShakeAlert technology helps us to prepare and respond to earthquakes. Diego explores what research tells us about "The Big One" and natural disaster risk in the Pacific Northwest, and how AI plays a role in the future of earth science research.

Topics

• How Diego Melgar Found His Way to Studying Earth Science [0:42]
• How Earthquakes and Other Natural Disasters Affect Our Communities [2:17]
• Earth Sciences Research: What Is It, and Why Does It Matter? [6:33]
• How ShakeAlert Technology Gives Us a Head Start, and What to Do During an Earthquake [8:31]
• "The Big One:" What Research Tells Us About Natural Disasters in the Pacific Northwest [12:49]
• AI and the Future of Earth Science Research [16:42]

Guest

• Diego Melgar, professor of earth sciences and director of the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center

Resources

• 2026 Great Shakeout, learn more about what the 2026 Great Shakeout, the annual earthquake awareness drill in collaboration with UO's Safety and Risk Services, CRESCENT, the Oregon Hazards Lab, the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, and the Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience.
• CRESCENT Public Outreach Events, explore CRESCENT's public outreach series in collaboration with the Eugene YMCA and EWEB, offering free presentations on Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake science, how earthquake preparedness impacts the Eugene area, and how to prepare for natural disasters.

Quotes

• "I think we can draw a straight line from [the article, "The Really Big One" by Kathryn Schulz], to increased funding for resilience, preparedness and research. So even though there's been a difficulty with coming to grips with what can happen in the Pacific Northwest, we've made enormous strides and I do want people to keep that in mind. We are learning every day with alacrity. We're learning so, so much and all our state agencies, our engineers, our partners, emergency managers, they're all on top of it." (5:48)
• "One of the beauties of our earth science fields is that they're so data-rich and from a variety of places, folks work in the field collecting rock samples, sometimes looking at fossils. Fossils can tell stories about what happened because of a tsunami or an earthquake, but we can go from there all the way to space." (6:47)
• "We get this incredibly rich, variety of data that we can pick apart and that can help us to understand any earthquake that happens, but also any historical earthquake that has happened in the past so we can begin to put the pieces of this jigsaw together." (7:24)
• "Everywhere that a human has ever lived, there has been a hazard. Whether it's a blizzard, frost, a storm, hurricanes, landslides, all of our ancestors that have lived before us, and all of our children that will live after us will live with a hazard. All we have to do is learn how to live with them, and in the case of earthquakes, we know how to live with them."(18:41)

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