About Us
PNSN seismologists monitoring ground motion on Mount Saint Helens in May 1980.
PNSN Mission
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) seeks to reduce risk within the states of Washington and Oregon by:
Monitoring ground motions within the region in order to better understand earthquake and volcano hazards and their impacts on the physical, economic, political, and social environment;
Providing the most accurate information about earthquakes and volcanoes as rapidly as possible to public officials, the public, and for education; and
Advocating comprehensive and cost-effective measures for reducing the harmful effects of earthquakes and volcanoes.
About PNSN
PNSN is the Advanced National Seismic Network's (ANSS) regional seismic network that covers Washington and Oregon. PNSN is headquartered in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington (UW), and PNSN’s Director serves as the designated Washington State Seismologist. More than 700 seismograph stations and an extensive data telemetry network are collaboratively operated and maintained by UW and the Oregon Hazards Lab at the University of Oregon (UO), with additional support from the U.S. Geological Survey staff at the Earthquake Science Center in Seattle (USGS ESC-Seattle). PNSN provides seismic waveforms, metadata, and expertise to the ANSS; the University of Washington operates the algorithms and computer infrastructure to detect seismic events and generates key ANSS information products, such as authoritative earthquake locations and magnitudes, earthquake early warning alerts, and ground motion estimates (including ShakeMaps). UO contributes waveforms to PNSN headquarters at UW. The PNSN is a partner in the USGS ShakeAlert system.
Our work benefits the inhabitants of Oregon and Washington (and adjacent states and provinces), the emergency management state agencies, any private or public entity wishing to determine their risk from earthquake and volcanic hazards, and researchers who wish to study the tectonic setting, crustal structure, earthquake hazard, volcanic hazard, and episodic tremor and slow-slip in the Pacific Northwest region. The mission of the PNSN aligns with and complements that of the U.S. Geological Survey.
The work is funded by the states of Washington and Oregon, the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazards Program and Volcano Hazards Program, and the Department of Energy via a subcontract with Hanford Mission Integrated Solutions. We have also received significant donations from philanthropic organizations, such as the M.J. Murdoch Charitable Trust, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Significant support is provided by a wide variety of land-owners, site hosts, and infrastructure parters in the Pacific Northwest.