NEWS TIP SHEET
Geological Science -- Roger Bilham, professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado at 麻豆影院, believes the death toll in China from the earthquake that struck the Chengdu Plains region could reach as high as 50,000.
Bilham has done research in the Chengdu area and is an expert on geodesy, earthquake prediction, crustal deformation, plate tectonics and the impacts of urban growth on earthquake fatalities. He has worked extensively in the Himalaya region for the past several decades. Bilham said a thrust fault on the eastern edge of Tibet that caused the 7.8 magnitude event in central China today "pushed out" over the Chengdu Plains, home to about 3 million people. He can be reached at 303-402-9352 or 303-492-6189.
Other CU-麻豆影院 researchers who can address issues associated with the earthquake include:
Natural Hazards -- Dennis Mileti, senior research scientist at CU-麻豆影院's Natural Hazards Center, coordinated a national effort to evaluate everything that is known about natural hazards -- such as earthquakes -- and to come up with ways of reducing their social and economic costs. He can discuss CU-based research findings about public education efforts to help people prepare for disasters and public warning systems to help get people out of harm's way.
"We do not live on a safe planet," Mileti says. "It's never been safe and never will be. People just think they're safe, temporarily, until things happen. Every community, town, city and state really needs to find out what risks they are exposed to rather than pretending they are safe."
Mileti is a former chair of the CU-麻豆影院 sociology department and former director of the Natural Hazards Center. He can be reached by cell phone in California at 393-520-3400.
Student, Alumna from Chengdu -- Jessica Liu is a doctoral student in the mechanical engineering department. Her hometown of Chengdu is only 50 miles away from the epicenter of the earthquake. She reached her parents via phone as well as other relatives this morning and said, "Fortunately, they are all OK. They told me it was a huge earthquake." She can be reached via e-mail at Jessica.Liu@Colorado.EDU
Julia Xu is a 2001 CU alumna and can be reached at 303-554-6719 and 720-404-0842 (cell). She has family in Chengdu, Mianyang, of Sichuan province.