Funding sought to study an earthquake warning system in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah legislature is being asked to spend $150,000 to study whether the state could benefit from new technology that could alert people of an earthquake about to strike.

“It gives us time – even if it’s 10 seconds – it gives us time to shut things down, make it safer, and save lives,” Senator Gani Iwamoto, D-Holladay, told Fox 13 News in an interview Friday.

She asked her colleagues on the legislature’s Subcommittee on Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environmental Quality to fund the application. It will study whether Utah can successfully implement an earthquake early warning system.

The system uses a network of sensors to capture seismic activity and broadcast alerts about an event about to reach a population area, similar to the AMBER alert. The greater the notice, the more safety measures can be taken. Trains can be stopped, and people can take cover.

It has been tried in other states, but it’s unclear if Utah’s geology will allow it to work.

“It’s a different situation,” said Dr. Keith Cooper, a seismologist at the University of Utah. “There are different drawbacks, there are different rocks, so basically what we’re advocating for is a feasibility study.”

Utah has a number of fault lines. The largest is the Wasatch Fault, which runs along the state’s population center. A magnitude 5.7 earthquake in 2020 in Magna caused $70 million in damages and reminded many that we are in an earthquake country.

“People always say was this the biggest? It wasn’t that big,” said Utah geologist Dr. Bill Kitsch. “That was 5.7. If we had 6.0, 6.1, that would have been twice the size. Twice the amount of damage that would have been done. This is kind of a wake-up call, but it doesn’t have to be that big.”

Dr. Kitsch said the odds of a major earthquake in the Salt Lake City area remain high. He told the commission that an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 or more likely killed 2,000 people initially and caused $30 billion in economic damage to the state.

“We could have a big one. One in two in the next 50 years, older than 6.0 and about one in five of 6.5 or more. We got that big, we’re going to do massive damage and if it happens at the wrong time of Today you may have 80,000 homes [affected] In the great Salt Lake Valley”

The scientists who submitted to the committee also had a list of things Utah should do to help mitigate the damage. The Utah Earthquake Safety Commission recommends that:

Invest in seismic improvements to major waterways that feed the Wasatch facade Seismically unsound schools that put tens of thousands of children at risk More than 140,000 buildings in Utah have unreinforced construction Ensure proper building code enforcement

“We’re kind of behind the ball,” Senator Iwamoto said.

The funding request has been considered. Lawmakers won’t be able to make a final decision on it until later in the legislative session when the total budget is finalized. If Utah were able to implement an earthquake early warning system, it could cost millions to install.

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