WSSPC Post-Earthquake Technical Clearinghouse
History of Clearinghouses
The first post-earthquake clearinghouse was mandated in the California Public Resources Code (Division 2, Chapter 2, Sec. 2201(c)) after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake. The California Geological Survey is responsible for the “operation of a clearinghouse for postevent earth science investigations”. The purpose of the clearinghouse is to provide disaster response managers and the scientific and engineering communities with prompt information on ground failures, structural damage, and other impacts from major earthquakes.
California developed a clearinghouse plan, and after the Northridge earthquake in 1994, clearinghouse forms were developed to standardize data collection by the various researchers who were expected to visit the area impacted by the earthquake. The forms covered geological and tsunami observations; structural and non-structural building effects; transportation and industrial facilities; seismological instrumentation; and emergency management and social impacts.
In 2001, the M6.8 Nisqually earthquake in Washington led to the establishment of a physical clearinghouse at the University of Washington to facilitate the collection, dissemination, and archiving of data as well as a virtual information clearinghouse on the Internet.
A month after the Nisqually earthquake, the WSSPC Basin & Range Province Committee convened a Post Earthquake Technical Clearinghouse Workshop in Salt Lake City, Utah, to share the experiences of California and Washington and to plan for the possibility of operating a clearinghouse following a major earthquake in their state. The Committee modified an earlier version of California’s post-earthquake technical clearinghouse plan to create a generic model plan applicable to all Basin and Range Province states.
After the Wells, Nevada M6.0 earthquake in 2008, a virtual clearinghouse website was created by Utah and Nevada. Although the website is no longer available, a paper describing post-earthquake scientific response is available here
WSSPC Policy
A WSSPC Policy Recommendation was first developed in 2001 to encourage states to pre-plan for post-earthquake technical clearinghouses.
WSSPC Policy Recommendation 19-3 on Post-Earthquake Technical Clearinghouses states:
WSSPC recommends that each member state, province, and territory establish a plan for a post-earthquake technical clearinghouse to be activated if possible within 24 hours after each major earthquake within its jurisdiction. WSSPC also recommends that multijurisdictional agreements between and among WSSPC members and Federal agencies be in place that would allow for the establishment of a single comprehensive technical clearinghouse in the event of a large earthquake.
Current WSSPC Clearinghouse Activities
WSSPC Clearinghouse Working Group:
Intent: to bring various people and organizing to the table to identify opportunities for standardization of processes and outcome expectations, identify opportunities to better and more consistently implement clearinghouse plans with respect to support state emergency operations, identify opportunities to better implement Clearinghouse operations with all NEHRP partners, and begin to develop basic MOA’s for Clearinghouse entities.
WSSPC Policy 19-3 states that WSSPC has a role in facilitating the creation of clearinghouses in the Western States. We facilitate through scheduled monthly Clearinghouse Meetings, the sharing of information, assisting WSSPC members with developing Clearinghouse Plans, and helping to facilitate training and exercises.
Based on inputs, the WSSPC Clearinghouse is delayed until Spring 2022.
Clearinghouse Resources
EERI’s Earthquake Clearinghouse: Includes large world earthquakes:http://www.eqclearinghouse.org
California Earthquake Clearinghouse Flyer – 2010EQClearinghouseflyer
California Clearinghouse Website – www.californiaeqclearinghouse.org
USGS Circular – 1242 circular1242
2018 Haywired Clearinghouse Exercise Summary Report – Clearinghouse-2018-HayWired-exercise-summary-report_FINAL
WSSPC Policy Recommendation 19-3: Post-Earthquake Technical Clearinghouses – PR_19-3_Clearinghouses_Version3_111518-2
American Geosciences Institute Webinar “Improving Earthquake Resiliency Through the Use of Post-Earthquake Clearinghouses”
2020 M5.7 Magna, Utah Earthquake Response Digital Clearinghouse
Clearinghouse Plans:
Original WSSPC Clearinghouse Plan Template wsspcclearinghouseplan-1
ATC Plan to Coordinate NEHRP Post-Earthquake Investigations atc-35postearthquake
Idaho Clearinghouse Plan – Idaho_Clearinghouse_Plan_v3_2020_04_21