Exhibit on Northwest earthquakes opens

NIELS NOKKENTVED, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Friday, February 29, 2002

SEATTLE -- Take a look inside a van crushed by bricks in Seattle, and learn why earthquakes are inevitable in the Puget Sound region.

An exhibit called "The Big One: Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest" at the University of Washington's Burke Museum opened Thursday, the anniversary of the Nisqually Earthquake.

A traveling version opens in The Dalles, Ore., at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, and will travel the region for the next two years.

Both versions feature graphics, photos and text as well as hands-on models showing how earthquakes work, the types of earthquakes common in the Pacific Northwest, and how scientists use seismographs to record, measure and interpret the earth's movements.

"The Big One" also tracks devastating earthquakes in history, why earthquakes are inevitable here, what hazards they present and what people can do to prepare.

The exhibit includes classroom study kits and a computer CD with historic photos of Washington earthquakes, and animations of buildings shaking, ground motion, and tsunamis washing over the land.

The version at the Burke Museum's temporary gallery runs through Sept. 2. In addition to all of the elements from the traveling exhibit, it includes:

- Displays from the 2001 earthquake, including audio and video recordings, photos and reconstructed scenes.

- A quake-ready house, where visitors can examine correct ways of strapping down a water heater, bolting a home to its foundation and other mitigation techniques.

- Information on scientific research and what it's telling us about earthquakes of the past, present and future.

- A reading and study room with resources to explore.

The Burke Museum is on the UW's main campus, near the corner of 17th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 45th Street in Seattle. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day and until 8 p.m. Thursdays. Admission is $6.50; $5 for seniors; and $3 for children ages 6-18.

For information, call 206-543-5590 or visit the Internet at www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/.

For information on the traveling exhibit's stay at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, contact the center at 541-296-8600.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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