The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) The state’s major metropolitan areas are subject to potentially devastating large magnitude earthquakes and earth scientists estimate that there is a high probability that one or more large earthquakes will occur in California between now and the end of the century.

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(b) Loss of life and property damage resulting from a damaging earthquake could be substantially reduced if there existed a reliable short-term earthquake prediction system capable of providing public warning of the size and location of a damaging earthquake within a timeframe of a few weeks to a few hours.

(c) While earth scientists are not in full agreement about the feasibility of short-term earthquake prediction, there is increasing interest in the possibility that precursory geochemical and geophysical phenomena can be identified within short timeframes and that these precursory events can become the basis for timely and reliable warnings of damaging earthquakes.

(d) California currently has a unique opportunity to assess the feasibility of short-term earthquake prediction by joining the United States Geological Survey in a study of the Parkfield section of the San Andreas fault in Monterey County. This section has, between 1857 and 1966, produced almost identical earthquakes of about 5.6 magnitude on the average of every 22 years. Another earthquake probably will occur in January of 1988, plus or minus four years. If adequate instrumentation is in place by the time the earthquake occurs, it may be possible to identify specific precursory phenomena. However, at present, the instrumentation is not considered adequate to fully monitor precursory events and, because of anticipated federal budget cuts, additional instrumentation is unlikely to be installed unless the state is able to participate in the Parkfield study. State participation would also allow the United States Geological Survey to share its data from Parkfield and permit the state to independently analyze and evaluate this data specifically for earthquake prediction and response purposes.

(e) If precursory earthquake phenomena are identified as a result of the Parkfield study, there is a need to assess the feasibility of establishing a statewide earthquake prediction system and to develop a short-term response plan which, among other things, would include development of procedures for verifying the predicted event and guidelines for taking state action in response to anomalous precursory phenomena.

(Added by Stats. 1985, Ch. 1198, Sec. 1. Effective September 29, 1985.)