Temblor, an app focused on your seismic risk and how to reduce it

Abstract:

Half of the world’s population lives near active faults, and so could suffer earthquake damage. Most do not know they are at risk; many of the rest do too little, too late. So, Temblor is intended to enable everyone in the United States, and eventually the world, to learn their seismic hazard, to determine what most ensures their safety, and to determine the risk reduction measures in their best financial interest. In our free web and mobile app, and Chrome extension for real estate websites, Temblor estimates the likelihood of seismic shaking from all quakes at their occurrence rates, and the consequences of the shaking for home damage. The app then shows how the damage or its costs could be decreased by buying or renting a seismically safer home, securing fragile objects inside your home, retrofitting an older home, or buying earthquake insurance.

Temblor uses public data from the USGS in the U.S., SHARE in Europe, and the GEAR model (Bird et al, in press, BSSA) for the globe. Through publicly available modeling methods, the hazard data is combined with public data on homes (construction date and square footage) to make risk calculations. This means that Temblor’s results are independently reproducible. The app makes many simplifying assumptions, but users can provide additional information on their site and home for refined estimates. Temblor also lets one see active faults and recent quakes on the screen as they drive through an area.

Because fear tends to trigger either panic or denial, Temblor seeks to make the world of earthquakes more fascinating than frightening. We are neither scaring nor soothing people, but rather talking straight. Through maps, globes, push notifications, family connections, and costs and benefit estimates, Temblor emphasizes the personal, local, realtime, and most importantly, rational. Temblor’s goal is to distill scientific and engineering information into lucid, trusted, and ideally actionable guidance to renters, home owners, and home buyers, so that we all live more safely in earthquake country.