Sizing up Earthquake Damage: Differing Points of View When a
catastrophic event strikes an urban area, many different
professionals hit the ground running. Emergency responders
respond, reporters report, and scientists and engineers collect
and analyze data. Journalists and scientists may share interest
in these events, but they have very different missions. To a
journalist, earthquake damage is news. To a scientist or
engineer, earthquake damage represents a valuable source of data
that can help us understand how strongly the ground shook as
well as how particular structures responded to the shaking.
Media reports and private accounts can provide important
information about an earthquake’s impact. But a recent study co-
authored by Prabhas Pande, director of the Earthquake Geology
Division of the Geological Survey of India, and Susan Hough,
published in the April issue of the Bulletin of the
Seismological Society of America, illustrates how scientists can
potentially be led astray by failing to recognize that