The Berkeley Seismological Laboratory conducts essential research on earthquakes and solid earth processes while collecting and delivering high quality geophysical data.
We provide robust earthquake and hazard information including real-time alerts to the public, in collaboration with our partners.
We enable the broad consumption of earthquake information by everyone while educating and training students at all levels and from all backgrounds.
How San Francisco was devastated by the 1906 earthquake
On April 18, 1906, an earthquake and the fires that followed leveled San Francisco. But from the rubble came advancements in earthquake science and preparedness.
Meet the BSL Postdocs!
What unites them is a common goal to innovate and push boundaries. The Berkeley Seismological Laboratory is honored to welcome these burgeoning scientists on their research journeys.
Join UC Berkeley's Earth & Planetary Science Community for a Morning in the Field
Enjoy the scenic landscape of Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve with students and professors from UC Berkeley's Earth and Planetary Science Department. Register now to attend October 2nd or October 30th from 9 AM to 12 PM. We hope to see you there!
Is Earth's Core Lopsided? Strange Goings-on in Our Planet's Interior
For reasons unknown, Earth’s solid-iron inner core is growing faster on one side than the other, and it has been ever since it started to freeze out from molten iron more than half a billion years ago, according to a new study by seismologists at the University of California, Berkeley. The faster growth under Indonesia’s...
Widespread Deep Seismicity in the Delaware Basin, Texas, Is Mainly Driven by Shallow Wastewater Injection
Industrial activity away from plate boundaries can induce earthquakes and has evolved into a global issue. Much of the induced seismicity in the United States' midcontinent is attributed to a direct pressure increase from deep wastewater...
Alerts for the Whole West Coast
It was a decade in the making, but on Tuesday it became reality. The whole US West Coast is now covered by a single, uniform early warning system against the devastating effects of earthquakes. Washington was the last of the three states along the Pacific Coast to join the system dubbed “ShakeAlert”, which can give up to 60 seconds, or even more, of warning before strong seismic...
Peggy Hellweg Elected SSA President-Elect
Peggy Hellweg, operations manager for the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory (BSL) at the University of California, Berkeley, was elected president-elect by the Board of the Seismological Society of America on 14 April. Hellweg previously served as SSA Secretary and co-chaired the 100th Anniversary Earthquake Conference, SSA’s joint meeting with...
For Researchers: Upcoming NCEDC Outage Jan 1-4, 2021
The Northern California Earthquake Data Center (NCEDC) is the permanent archive and distribution center for various types of digital data relating to earthquakes in central and northern California. Of importance to researchers in seismology, between January 1, 2021 00:00:00 PST to January 4, 2021 23:59:59 PST the NCEDC will have reduced services or be offline. During that time, availability of the NCEDC web site and web services will also be affected. For several days after the outage, some requests for recent data may fail or return incomplete data, as BSL staff restore systems and archive missing data as it becomes available. This planned NCEDC outage is due to upgrades on the power systems at the UC Berkeley data center. This data center outage will not affect real-time earthquake location or earthquake early warning.
An Explosion in Beirut heard all over the Middle East
The terrible explosion which devastated the port of Beirut and large parts of the downtown area of the Lebanese capital on Tuesday sent shock waves through the Middle East and parts of southeastern Europe. Seismometers as far away as 600 miles from the blast site recorded the seismic waves it produced...
ERC Interviews Professor Barbara Romanowicz
Barbara Romanowicz, geophysicist and expert on imaging the earth's interior, has been a member of the ERC’s Scientific Council since 2016. She explains the nature of her research, its reach across the planet and also updates us on gender issues developments at the ERC....
(Read more at ERC)
