March 19, 2001

Contact: Robert Lowery (509-963-1487/fax 509-963-2301/ email loweryr@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash. -- On the heels of last month's Nisqually earthquake, Dr. Meghan Miller, a Central Washington University geological sciences professor, has been invited to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Research, Wednesday (March 21) in Washington, D.C.

Based on Miller's earthquake research expertise, U.S. Representative Brian Baird (D-Vancouver), a member of the House subcommittee, extended the invitation to her to make the presentation.

"I'm very pleased that Dr. Miller will be able to attend this hearing," Baird says, "and I look forward to listening to what she will report during her appearance on Wednesday." Representing the "scientific investigator community," she will discuss the federal funding response to the temblor.

"The focus will be on PANGA (Pacific Northwest Geodetic Array) and the new deployment of additional continuous GPS (Global Positioning System) monitoring receivers around the Puget lowlands," says Miller, who will be making her first appearance before the U.S. House.

Through PANGA, Miller determined that the entire western and central portions of Washington state moved during the 6.7 magnitude earthquake. It was the first opportunity scientists had to use GPS receivers to study an earthquake in the Pacific Northwest.

Central is the lead agency in PANGA, a collaborative earthquake studies project also involving the University of Washington, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Geological Survey of Canada.

Last week, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced plans to fund a $60,000 augmentation of the PANGA system, which will allow about seven new continuous GPS stations to be placed around Puget Sound.

"The focus is to study crustal faults in the Puget lowlands," Miller adds. "This initiative is directly responsive to the seismic risk there and mitigation against future hazards. The federal funding agencies have been very responsive in a time of need."

During her testimony on Capitol Hill, at a hearing titled "Life in the Subduction Zone: The Recent Nisqually Quake and Federal Efforts to Reduce Earthquake Hazards," Miller will discuss those PANGA enhancements.

The new monitoring sites are near Eatonville, Monroe, Issaquah, Seattle, Tumwater, the Kitsap Peninsula and along the eastern edge of the Olympic Peninsula.

"Two of the new sites are operational," Miller says, "and at least three others we believe to be very close in the permit negotiations."

Representatives of NSF, USGS, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Washington Department of Natural Resources will join Miller in providing Congressional testimony on Wednesday.