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Podcasts Take Two
Northridge: CA's quake warning system runs on shoe-string budget
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Jan 13, 2014
Listen • 5:04
Northridge: CA's quake warning system runs on shoe-string budget
The massive quake that hit Southern California in 1994 came without warning. How close is California to an earthquake warning system?
(
Sanden Totten/KPCC
)
Seismic engineer Josh Sessoms is in vault where a $17,000 motion sensor will sit. He is using a laptop to test the system as he installs the sensor.
Seismic engineer Josh Sessoms is in vault where a $17,000 motion sensor will sit. He is using a laptop to test the system as he installs the sensor.
(
Sanden Totten/KPCC
)
Russell Oliver (above) and Josh Sessoms are vacuuming sand from the vault that will soon hold a state of the art earthquake sensor. Once the new sensor is installed they will put more sand into a pipe around the sensor to insulate it from extreme temperatures.
Russell Oliver (above) and Josh Sessoms are vacuuming sand from the vault that will soon hold a state of the art earthquake sensor. Once the new sensor is installed they will put more sand into a pipe around the sensor to insulate it from extreme temperatures.
(
Sanden Totten/KPCC
)

The massive quake that hit Southern California in 1994 came without warning. How close is California to an earthquake warning system?

This is one in a weeklong series of stories on KPCC leading up to Friday's 20th anniversary of the devastating 1994 Northridge Earthquake. The series will explore the quake's history, its effects and its legacy. You can view more stories on our Northridge Anniversary page. Let us know what you think on our Facebook page, on Twitter ("@" mention @KPCC) and in the comments below.

The 1994 Northridge earthquake came as a total surprise: That magnitude 6.7 temblor shook on a previously unidentified fault and caused at least 57 deaths and more than 9,000 injuries.

Twenty years later, how close are we to predicting the next earthquake?

In the future, Californians may get a warning — as much as a minute or more — before certain kinds of earthquakes start to shake their homes and offices, but only if the state can find a way to expand the bare-bones early warning system currently being developed.

RELATED: Timeline: Northridge Earthquake devastates L.A. in 1994

Caltech, UC Berkeley and the U.S. Geological Survey are testing an earthquake early warning system that relies on sensors placed around the state. These sensors can detect the tiniest of vibrations. KPCC's Sanden Totten reports.