An earthquake hitting Utah is inevitable.
But the fear of one striking without warning is going to fade soon, thanks to a donation from the Kennecott Utah Copper organization.
The company has donated $600,000 to house the Kennecott Earthquake Information Center at the U, a regional earthquake-monitoring hub that will track local seismic activity in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming.
The facility will also report the activity and alert local emergency response teams, the media and the public.
The center will be housed in the Frederick Sutton Building, which is now under construction for the department of geology and geophysics.
“We are immensely grateful,” said Frank Brown, dean of the College of Mines and Earth Sciences.
In addition to the center’s function of tracking seismic activity, it will also serve as a state-of-the-art research and education facility.
William Champion, president of Kennecott Utah Copper, said he was “pleased to provide support to further the tradition of excellence in this important area of scientific endeavor.”
The center is scheduled to be finished in February 2009.