Geographical agency's Earth movement analysis assists Haiti rescuers

The federal agency charged with monitoring the Earth's geography has been providing round-the-clock movement analysis of the Haiti situation using a new Caribbean seismic network funded in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

"Twenty minutes after the earthquake we could provide the U.S. government with an estimate that nearly 2 million people had been exposed to severe shaking," said David Applegate, senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards at the U.S. Geological Survey. "That estimate enabled them to not have to wait for the news reports to trickle in and get a sense of the scale of the situation."

One of the hurdles federal decision-makers face in helping respond to the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck southern Haiti on Jan. 12 is a lack of situational awareness. Now Google's mapping services and the Defense Department's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are layering the intelligence from USGS onto their own online displays to share with concerned U.S. citizens and the U.S. government.

In 2004, the lack of a robust global seismic monitoring and warning system contributed to the loss of 227,898 lives. At the time, the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado was not a round-the-clock operation. "We were 24-7 only in the sense that people had pagers, and they would go off and people would stumble out of bed," Applegate said.

Following the 2004 disaster, the federal government recognized the international and domestic security dangers posed by woefully inadequate seismic intelligence and pledged $8 million in emergency supplemental funding to USGS. Now, at least two analysts are at the center day and night, 365 days a year.

A little more than $4 million of the funding went toward expanding the existing global seismographic network, a system of sensors connected by a telecommunications network run by USGS and the National Science Foundation. The network was extended to the Caribbean and bolstered with near real-time capability.

The money also allowed the government to build a new Web tool that translates complex seismic data into color-coded maps that the public and emergency personnel can understand. The so-called ShakeMaps show near-real-time detail of ground motion and intensity following significant earthquakes. USGS specialists are in the process of enhancing the system to include casualty estimates.

U.S. Agency for International Development officials used the ShakeMaps in deciding to deploy the Fairfax, Va., urban search-and-rescue team to Haiti, Applegate said. Google Earth also has incorporated ShakeMap displays to assist in the response effort.

"The best way to review the aftershocks is through Google Earth," Applegate added. As of Friday afternoon, there had been more than 14 magnitude 5 aftershocks, he said.

In addition, users of NGA's crisis response mapping tool, NGA-Earth, can toggle between viewing options to see a ShakeMap layer. NGA is supporting the Haiti effort with analysis of unclassified commercial satellite imagery and geospatial intelligence.