The California Earthquake Clearinghouse participates in many excercises to prepare and practice its operations. A full list of upcoming and completed exercises is listed below. Also visit the Upcoming Events page for comprehensive list of other future Clearinghouse activities.
2016 Vigilant Guard Exercise
During November 14-18, 2016, the California Clearinghouse participated in the Vigilant Guard 17 Exercise. The scenario is a M7.8 earthquake along the San Andreas Fault in southern California, followed by a M6.0 aftershock.
For more information, including a participation timeline and participation instructions, visit the 2016 Vigilant Guard Exercise.
2016 Cascadia Rising CA Clearinghouse Companion Exercise
In June 2016, FEMA Region X will be conducting the 2016 Cascadia Rising Exercise. The exercise scenario is an earthquake in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. While California is not playing in this exercise, a Cascadia earthquake will likely have impacts on the state. For this reason, the California Clearinghouse will be conducting a companion exercise as an opportunity to further practice Clearinghouse activation procedures.
For more information about the exercise is available on the 2016 Cascadia Rising Companion Exercise Page.
2015 National Level and California Capstone Exercise
The California Earthquake Clearinghouse participated in the 2015 National Level Exercise (NLE) that used the ShakeOut Scenario of a M7.8 earthquake on the Southern San Andreas Fault.
The California Earthquake Clearinghouse used the 2015 NLE as an operational exercise to foster inter-agency data collection and collaboration among Clearinghouse partners, with an ultimate goal of developing an information collection plan for earthquakes.
While the National Level Exercise focused on the southern California region, the Clearinghouse defined a much smaller area of interest in the Cajon Pass Area as shown below.
As part of this exercise, Clearinghouse partners submitted requests for information based on their own organization’s needs using the Collection Deck Template. Collection Decks from all organizations were then compiled and each organization had an opportunity to discuss their collection deck with all participating organizations. This process provided a better understanding of how different organizations collect and use data and how this data can be fed into the Essential Elements of Information used by emergency managers.
For more information about the exercise is available in the After Action Report / Improvement Plan.
ShakeOut 2014 Activities
In Southern California on October 21st, the Clearinghouse Overflight Committee conducted a workshop with the Cal OES Air Coordination Group, California National Guard and California Highway Patrol.
On October 22nd, the Clearinghouse hosted a workshop to discuss information collection needs and requirements of the scientific, engineering and emergency response communities, Essential Elements of Information, how to organize data so that it can be easily shared, accessed, and used, by organizations in need of post-earthquake information.
The California National Guard is providing logistical support coordinating a location for activities on both the 21st and 22nd.
2014 Cascadia Earthquake and Tsunami Exercise Series
The functional exercise was held on May 14, 2014. On the basis of our two successful technology demonstrations in October, FEMA, OES and the California National Guard (CAANG) joined us in sharing information for the Cascadia exercise (CSZ) employing the XchangeCore technology. We employed XchangeCore middleware to connect a number of different applications, including Web EOC, NICS and SpotOnResponse, as well as ArcGIS online and Google Earth viewers. A simplified diagram that shows two-way information sharing between FEMA-OES-CAANG-Clearinghouse can be downloaded here: Interoperability-Design.
To learn more about this Emergency Response Spatial Tools Technical Interchange here: https://californiaeqclearinghouse.org/ai1ec_event/emergency-response-spatial-tools-technical-interchange/?instance_id=38.
ShakeOut 2013
The California Earthquake Clearinghouse conducted activities ahead of the 2013 ShakeOut Exercise. The exercise took place on October 16th, 2013. Physical and virtual clearinghouse locations were established and the Clearinghouse, its partners, and its members shared observations and data during the exercise. More information about the exercise is available here: https://californiaeqclearinghouse.org/shakeout-2013/.
Golden Guardian 2013
The California Earthquake Clearinghouse conducted the third in a series of technological demonstration exercises. Clearinghouse partners that participated in this year’s Golden Guardian Exercise included: XchangeCore, SpotOnResponse, E-Decider, Aria, FiRST, CDPH, and the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory. The data collected as part of the exercise can be seen in the SpotOnResponse map below. More information about the May 2013 Golden Guardian Exercise can be found in the After Action Report.
ShakeOut 2012
The October 2012 ShakeOut exercise was the second of six planned technology demonstrations of the Unified Incident Command & Decision Support (XchangeCore) middleware for data sharing developed through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate. The objectives of the 2012 Clearinghouse Shakeout exercise were to:
- Introduce the concept of operations for the virtual Clearinghouse through a tecnology demonstration of the XchangeCore middleware to enable electronic data sharing amongst/between California Earthquake Clearinghouse member organizations.
- Introduce the new field data collection tools being developed for the Clearinghouse by SpotOnResponse (SOR)
For SOR there were 109 unique IP addresses of which there were 48 end-user names with unique and completley valid emails registered. For XchangeCore, there were 12 organizations/programs, 5 XchangeCore cores, 12 connected applications, 192 incident reports, 86 field observations – in a three hour exercise. The numbers showed an increase in participation and pregress moving from demonstration to operational mode since the May 2012 Golden Guardian Exercise.
This exercise provided much useful information. Suggested improvements for future exercises include: refining XchangeCore sharing agreements; additional improvements to the SOR application; additional outreach to increase participation by emergency response organizations; a test of overflight capabilities; and establishment of the Clearinghouse at a physical location.
More information about the October Shakeout Exercise can be found in the After Action Report. The following organizations participated in the 2012 ShakeOut exercise:
Golden Guardian 2012
The 2012 Clearinghouse Golden Guardian exercise took place on May 30th, 2012. It allowed engineers and scientists to test various field tool applications and demonstrates new data sharing techniques. To learn about the applications that were tested, see this page: https://californiaeqclearinghouse.org/reconnaissance-field-tools/. For information about visualizing the data through XchangeCore read this: Following the Golden Guardian Parallel Technology Demonstration Through XchangeCore. The following organizations participated in the Golden Guardian exercise:
