Donald Trump has just agreed to a solution to the US government shutdown, currently the longest in history at 35 days. The new agreement would keep the government open for a further three weeks before further negotiations would need to take place. This would mean employees would once again be surviving without pay, and some service members may decide to strike as a result. Earthquake monitors are employed by the United States Geological Survey, a government body responsible for warning before tremors hit.
Who is watching for earthquakes during the government shutdown?
USGS workers were sidelined due to the government shutdown, leaving much of California – one of America’s most tremor-prone states – without earthquake monitoring.
While California traditionally only experiences fairly insignificant earthquakes, if a more dangerous one had arisen the state would have been in trouble.
Thankfully, the USGS has assistance from local academics which means monitoring is almost uninterrupted.
The University of California, Berkeley, is in part responsible for monitoring earthquakes in the state.
Their resident Seismology Laboratory is in charge of earthquake activity, and they are somewhat used to government shutdowns.
Richard Allen, director of the Seismology Lab talked to Phys.org about monitoring without USGS.
He said: ”We’ve had to live through shutdowns before; we’re used to it a little.
“But this is the longest we’ve had to do it.”
While the monitoring of earthquake activity can be picked up by the UC Berkeley laboratory, systems maintenance is undertaken strictly by USGS personnel.
According to Mr Allen, this has happened since the shutdown and has meant USGS employees are required to come in for short periods, which may mean the systems are fixed slower than normally.
Mr Allen said: “Berkeley is monitoring all the time when the USGS is not at work.
“When something happens with the USGS system, Berkeley can get in touch with USGS to let them know and somebody will get drawn into work for short periods of time.”
While the monitoring substitute largely fulfils its purpose, it is not perfect, as UC Berkeley relies in part on government funding, which is due soon.
Richard Allen said: “We’re not concerned about our ability to monitor now, but if the shutdown goes on, things will start to get more difficult.
“We would normally be expecting to get next year’s chunk of our USGS funding on Feb. 1.
“But even if the government was to open tomorrow, we can’t be sure that will happen.
“So, what will happen and how much we will get are all unknowns.
“We’re status quo now, and we could limp by on California state money, but it could get hairy.”