Earthquakes in Oregon - are we ready for the Big One
Channel: ESF Oregon
Date: 2022-01-21

At our virtual meeting on November 9, we heard a presentation from Dr. Scott Burns speaking on Earthquakes in Oregon - are we ready for the Big One.

Bonus – at the end, Jack Kerfoot will give update on our efforts to send Zenith Oil in North Portland packing. He is starting to interact with a series of state and local officials to help them help us to say goodbye to Zenith Oil. This is related to the topic of earthquakes because Zenith is sitting on soil that will liquify in the presence of most any significant earthquake, and their large stores of fossil fuels would tremendously damage the Columbia River ecosystem.

Speaker: Dr. Scott Burns
Dr. Burns is a Professor of Geology at Portland State and is in his 52nd year of teaching. He has taught in Switzerland, New Zealand, Washington, Colorado, and Louisiana before coming back to his native Oregon 32 years ago. He specializes in geological disasters like landslides, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, and tsunamis. He has many publications in the field, gives many talks in the community about these topics, and is interviewed by the news media often about these topics.

Dr. Burns will talk about all of the earthquakes in Oregon (types and numbers and dates) in the past and will talk about how we must prepare for the future - both at the community level and individually. He will focus on western Oregon and the Portland area.

When: November 9, 12:00 to 1:00 PM PT