The Berkeley Seismological Laboratory conducts essential research on earthquakes and solid earth processes while collecting and delivering high quality geophysical data.

We provide robust and real-time earthquake and hazard information on Northern California earthquakes, in collaboration with our partners.

We enable the broad consumption of earthquake information by the general public while educating and training students at all levels.

DIY Seismograph

Build your own seismograph with stuff you have around the house in our latest Seismo Vlog...

Today in Earthquake History: Oldest Seismogram 1881

Seismograms are at the heart and soul of earthquake science. Generated by sensitive instruments, they show how the ground or a building wiggles in response to seismic shaking...

The Strongest Quake in a Remote Mountain Range

When the blogger once visited the giant Ok Tedi gold and copper open pit mine in the remote highlands of Papua-New Guinea, the chief geologist of the mine uttered a seemingly abstract statement...

McCone Henge

Sara Beroff takes us on a guided tour of the sculptural rock garden outside of McCone Hall. Watch and discover different rock types that have been important to California's past....

OSPA Winner Robert Martin-Short

BSL graduate student Robert Martin-Short was the Outstanding Student Paper Award winner in Seismology at AGU this year for his work on imaging the Alaskan subduction zone with joint inversion of ambient noise and teleseismic surface waves...

OSPA Winner William Hawley

BSL graduate student William Hawley was the Outstanding Student Paper Award winner in Tectonophysics at AGU this year for his work on S-wave tomography of the Cascadia Subduction Zone...

Tiny Changes Make a Great New Tool

Seismic waves, it is often said, are the messengers which earthquakes send around the world. Generated at or very near a temblor's source, they contain information about the goings-on during an earthquake rupture. If the quake from which they originate is strong enough, seismic waves may also bring with them destruction and mayhem when they hit populated areas...

Research Update: Aseismic Creep on the Mendocino Fault Zone

Continuing their research on repeating earthquakes at the Mendocino Triple Junction, the place where the Pacific, North American, and Gorda plates collide, BSL researchers Kathryn Materna, Taka'aki Taira, and Roland Bürgmann have further characterized the "creep" on the Mendocino Fault Zone...

Danger Lurking under the East Bay

When an earthquake struck the Northern Hayward Fault in the wee hours of Thursday morning, it was literally a wake-up call for thousands of residents of the Bay Area...