Noted earthquake expert Dr. Lucile Jones will discuss the problems and progress of earthquake prediction in a pair of free lectures sponsored by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. The first lecture will also be webcast over the Internet.
The first lecture will be held at JPL on Thursday, August 30, and the second at Pasadena City College on Friday, August 31. Both lectures are open to the public and will start at 7 p.m.
In her lecture, "Earthquake Prediction: A Practical Approach to an Impossible Problem," Jones will explore the evolution in earthquake prediction. She will discuss why classical earthquake prediction is such a difficult problem and how several different approaches have failed. She will also show how long-term assessments of the earthquake potential of different faults and probability studies of foreshock and aftershock activity are useful ways to understand earthquake risk.
Jones is a visiting research associate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and scientist-in-charge for Southern California with the U.S. Geological Survey. She is a familiar face to many Southern Californians, as she is frequently interviewed on television after earthquakes occur.
Lecture seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. The lecture at JPL will be held in the von Karman Auditorium, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., off the Oak Grove Drive exit of the 210 (Foothill) Freeway. For directions to JPL, see http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/about_JPL/maps.php .
Information on the webcast is at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures/aug01.html .
On Friday, the lecture will be held in Pasadena City College's Forum at 1570 E. Colorado Blvd. For more information, call (818) 354-0112.
Find information on the von Karman lecture series at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures.html or call JPL's Public Services Office at (818) 354-0112.
JPL is managed for NASA by Caltech.