Author: Admin

At 10:44 AM on December 5, 2024, a M7.0 earthquake struck offshore near Ferndale, California in Humboldt County. Visit the United States Geological Survey event page for more information about the earthquake.

The California Earthquake Clearinghouse has been activated virtually in response.

The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), one of the Clearinghouse managing partners, has established a virtual earthquake clearinghouse website here for sharing reconnaissance data and observations as they emerge. At this time, the activation is virtual only and no physical clearinghouse has been established.

At 2:34 AM on December 20, 2022, a M6.4 earthquake struck offshore near Ferndale, California, causing damage to lifelines and structures in Humboldt County. Visit the United States Geological Survey event page for more information about the earthquake.

The California Earthquake Clearinghouse has been activated in response, and all clearinghouse partners extend our sympathy to those affected as the rescue and relief work continues.

The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), one of the Clearinghouse managing partners, has established a virtual earthquake clearinghouse website here for sharing reconnaissance data and observations as they emerge. At this time, the activation is virtual only and no physical clearinghouse has been established.

In response to the 2019 Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence, the California Earthquake Clearinghouse activated and established a physical clearinghouse location in Ridgecrest, CA from July 5 to July 9, 2019.  Over the course of the weeklong activation, the scientific and engineering communities came together in clearinghouse briefing calls to coordinate, collaborate, and share information.

On August 14, 2019, the California Earthquake Clearinghouse hosted the Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence Reconnaissance Briefing Webinar. The webinar provided an overview of the earthquakes, geological observations, Geotechnical Impacts, and Structural Engineering Impacts.

Many clearinghouse participants contributed to the Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence Reconnaissance Report. This report captures reconnaissance findings from the first months following the main shock and includes sections from over 30 contributors. The multi-disciplinary report includes sections on geosciences, geotechnical impacts, lifelines, structural impacts, emergency response, clearinghouse operations, and data collection methods and products. The report features a close look at the extent of damage to manufactured homes, which emphasized the vulnerability of these structures, given the limited occurrence of damage to structures overall in the City of Ridgecrest. The report also includes several sections on data collection methods and products that show progress in collecting and coordinating post-earthquake data.

8 months after the earthquake sequence began, a series of one-year anniversary sessions were held as part of the 2020 National Earthquake Conference. The session topics included Science Findings and Lessons, Engineering Findings and Lessons, a poster session, and several other presentations.

The Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence Virtual Clearinghouse Website contains more information about the earthquake, including, reports, updates, links, and information about how to contribute data. The site continues to be updated.

On August, 24, 2014 at 3:20 AM (local time) a magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred in South Napa County. In response to the earthquake, California Earthquake Clearinghouse established a physical clearinghouse location in Napa, CA from August, 24 to August 26, 2014. A complete summary of the Clearinghouse activation for the South Napa Earthquake can be found in the After-Action Report.

The South Napa Earthquake Virtual Clearinghouse Website contains more information about the earthquake, including, reports, updates, links, and information about how to contribute data. The site continues to be updated.

The Clearinghouse has activated a low-level virtual Clearinghouse in response to the March 28, M5.1 La Habra EQ in Southern California. As part of this activation, SpotOnResponse, the Clearinghouse situational awareness tool, is also activated. The SpotOnResponse map below contains data and observations related to the La Habra EQ.

If you are outside the Los Angeles area, please follow these steps in the map below to view the data:

1. Click on tools icon
2. Select set location
3. Turn GPS location to “OFF”
4. Type in La Habra California
5. Click “lookup”
6. Click “set location”
7. Scroll to see incidents at below map or click on pins on map
8. Click on incident reports to see photos and other data

Scroll down for more information about how to get started with SpotOnResponse. The map functionality is still a work-in-progress–if you have problems using SpotOnResponse, please send a message to californiaeqclearinghouse@eeri.org.

Getting Started with SpotOnResponse

SpotOnResponse is a web based application and will run on any web browser. There may be slight differences in appearance due to each browser. (The screenshots below are from Google Chrome)

This overview is broken down into three sections. Use the links below to jump to the desired section.
Logging In
Area of Interest and Setting Location
Creating a point of action or Responding to an Incident

Logging In

The login page (https://app.spotonresponse.com) is shown below. If you already have a username and password that you used in the last Clearinghouse ShakeOut exercise, now would be the time to login. If you do not have one yet, click “Click here to register for access” to create an account. You will be prompted to enter a project code, please enter userClearHouse, then click “Check Code” to proceed to fill out your user information.

There are a few terms that need to be defined:

• Area of Interest – the area around the user where Incidents will be shown
• Incident – an event/situation that a user feels should be investigated or brought to attention
• Update – for any Incident, additional information or comments can be associated with the Incident

Once logged in, the first page will be the listing page. This is the main page for SpotOnResponse. There are a few things to point out on this page:
Each number corresponds with the number on the figure above.

1. Layers – This button controls what you see on the map. You can toggle to see team members in the area, polygons (shake maps, etc), Incidents, Alerts, Updates, Traffic, Weather, and Icons.
2. Settings – This button will allow you to change your information on your profile or to set your location.
3. Create New Item of Interest – This button allows for the creation of one of many types of alerts, incidents, or labels that can be placed on the map for others to check out.
4. Center Map – This button will center the map back to the Area of Interest.
5. Refresh – This button will refresh SpotOnResponse.

The Red and Yellow bars are in your immediate and general area, based on your Area of Interest.

Area of Interest and Setting Location

Click on the Settings button in the top left corner and select profile. The profile page is shown below.

Here you can edit your personal information along with the organization you are affiliated with. Here, the password can be changed as well. There is also a field that asks for the Area of Interest in miles. The Area of Interest (AOI) will be the area around the user on the SpotOnResponse map where they will see incidents (in this case the AOI is set for 100 miles). Anything outside the AOI will not be shown. You can always change the AOI to see more incidents. Once you are done changing your information or setting the AOI, click submit and the listings page will be brought back up.

On the same settings button, there is also an option to set your location.

If the location on the SpotOnResponse map does not accurately reflect the your position, your location can be set manually by selecting to turn off the GPS on the top left corner. There are three options for setting your location. If the latitude and longitude of the location is known, simply input it in to the fields. If they are not known, you can look up the coordinates by searching for the address and the fields for lat and long will be populated automatically. The third option is to double click on the map and the lat/long fields will be populated. Once the new location is satisfactory, click “Set Location” and the new location will be saved. Note in the picture above, the original location has the marker set in San Francisco. The new location where the marker will be placed is Oakland.

Creating an Item of Interest or Responding to an Incident

Once the location and Area of Interest is set, the map will be populated with Incidents within the Area of Interest. By going to Layers button, different features can be toggled on the map.
The red and yellow bars at the bottom of the screen are all the Incidents within the Area of Interest. An incident will be red if it is within two miles of your current position.

To create an Incident/Item of interest

Selecting the create new Item of Interest button in the top left corner will begin the process to create a new Item of Interest. Items of Interest include:

• Incidents*
• Action Plan*
• Alert (CAP)
• Command
• Hospital/Health
• ICS Forms
• Infrastructure
• Resources
• Situation Report
• SOP & Task
• Shelters

*For ShakeOut 2012 only Incidents and Action Plans will be used

The process to create an Incident is the same as creating any other Item of Interest. Fill out the subject line and description of the item. The location for the incident will be the location where you are making the Incident is located. If you is not near actual location of the incident, a change in location will be required.(See setting location). Once the incident/item of interest is created it will be populated on the map.

Responding to an Incident
Clicking on any of the Incidents in the list will bring up the page for that Incident. Also, selecting a marker on the map anad clicking on details will bring up the Incident page. In this example, the Zynga incident was selected.

The first thing that should be noted is that SpotOnResponse will highlight a route from your location to the Incident. Also there are several important buttons in the top menu.

1. Observation – this button will bring up options to add an update to this incident, set your location, and check-in
2. External Reports – here you will be able to access field tools and forms from other organizations (ie. USGS, EERI, etc)
3. Back – this button will bring you back to the listings page

The blue bars towards the bottom are Action Updates. These updates range from noting that someone has checked in or that someone has made a comment on this incident. These updates are organized from the top to bottom, top being the earliest and the bottom being the most recent. The map also shows these updates as a blue markers with a “U”.

To check-in, click on the observation button and select check-in. The check-in will appear at the bottom of the Action Updates as you join the team.

To add an Action Update, click on the observation button and select update. The following screen will appear.

Once the fields are filled out, there is an option to attach a file or URL to the update. The files need to be the local device. After the update has been filled out, click “submit” and the update will appear at the bottom of the Action Update list. If a file is attached to an update, it will appear with the update as seen below.

Just as each incident on the listing page had its own page, so does each Action Update. This page shows the details and description about the update. The files attached to the update will also be shown.

Finally, if the Incident has particular interest with other organizations like a ground failure for the USGS or structural collapse for EERI, there are external reports that can be filled out. By clicking on the external reports button in the top left corner, there are currently a few forms available for data collection. Here is an example of the USGS Field Tools form. More information on this tool can be found here.