From Deseret News archives:

Y. professor warned of temblor in 1997

But Indonesia failed to heed him; Utah isn't listening either, he says

Published: Monday, Jan. 3, 2005 10:19 p.m. MST
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
PROVO — Brigham Young University geology professor Ron Harris has had trouble sleeping since the earthquake he predicted seven years ago killed an estimated 150,000 people along the rim of the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26.

Research by Harris indicated an earthquake with a magnitude of at least 8.0 was due in the ocean west of Sumatra and would cause a devastating tsunami. He published the research in an Indonesian journal and pleaded with the government there to prepare, but little was done.

"It might not have made any difference," Harris said of the advice he gave, "but 100,000 people is a lot of people, and I feel connected to it in a way that's hard to explain."

He's also living close to another potential tragedy, the magnitude 7.0 earthquake he and other researchers at BYU and the University of Utah expect could strike at any time along the Wasatch Front.

Harris fears Utah suffers from a lack of preparation similar to Indonesia's.

"We've been talking about the earthquake hazards here for a long time and most people still have their heads in the sand," he said.

Story continues below
The renovations to the Utah State Capitol and the Salt Lake Tabernacle are welcome signs, he said, but hundreds of thousands of Utahns are at risk living and working in buildings that aren't reinforced while strain builds along the Wasatch fault, according to work originated by Bob Smith at the U.

Smith, Harris and students at both universities have measured the accumulating strain on the fault that runs between the Salt Lake Temple and the state Capitol and down through Utah County as the western United States moves farther west away from the Wasatch Mountains.

"We know it's not dead," Harris said of the fault. "We know it's still alive. Eventually, whatever's holding it together will snap."

A very different kind of fault caused the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Instead of it pulling apart, Harris and his former student at West Virginia University, Carlos Prasetyadi, measured the rates that tectonic plates were colliding beneath the ocean floor off Sumatra.

The area, known as the Sunda subduction (or collision) zone, is known for major earthquakes that occur when the energy built up by the plates pressing against each other is finally released.

The longer the plates are stuck and energy accumulates from opposite directions, the larger the earthquake will be.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

previousnext

Latest comments

Notre Dame fires Weis

Just get them off Saturday television. It's Navy, the UConn, then some other...

The region 2 coaches got together and voted on the team for Region 2. We...

Prep boys basketball top 20

GO WASATCH!!!

BYU says Hall incident resolved

An apology for comments that were premeditated? I think NOT. These comments...

Jazz clobber Grizzlies

so are we really believing that this is the Jazz team that will play...

Hall reprimanded by MWC

I think we, the self-righteous and perfect people who write on this comment...

Hall reprimanded by MWC

Hall's comments, strictly at face value, are not that big of a deal and would...

Prep boys basketball top 20

Deseret News, would you please post the boys' basketball all-state 2008-09...

I hope the judge and the grand jury do what the public has been demanding for...

If the PC politicians don't want to fight wars to win, then lets just get the...

Advertisements