WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. Geological Survey says it plans to award more than $7 million this year in cooperative agreements for earthquake monitoring.
USGS officials said the funding will contribute to the development and operation of its Advanced National Seismic System.
"Earthquake monitoring is absolutely critical to providing fast information to emergency-response personnel in areas affected by earthquakes, so by building and repairing those monitoring systems, these cooperative agreements literally save lives and property," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said.
USGS officials said the funding will help provide continuous, real-time monitoring of earthquake activity and the collection of critical information about how earthquake shaking affects buildings and structures. Funds are also being provided for the operation of geodetic monitoring networks that detect minute changes in the Earth's crust caused by faulting in earthquake-prone regions, officials said.
Institutions receiving funding are the California Institute of Technology; the Universities of Washington, Utah, California-Berkeley, Memphis, Alaska-Fairbanks, Nevada-Reno, California-San Diego, South Carolina, Oregon, and Colorado; Columbia University; St. Louis University; Boston College; the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology at the University of Montana; Central Washington University; and San Francisco State University.
