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A helping hand | Those in need of a Quite a finish | The Liberty girls Thanksgiving dinner found one at the Salvation soccer team finished second in the 3A state tournament [15] REPORTER NEWSLINE 425.255.3484 Army Renton Rotary Food Bank [3]
whole lotta SHAKING
Volunteers offering someplace solid to help monitor earthquakes, routine ground shaking BY DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
An earthquake isn’t an equal-opportunity shaker. So to determine how a quake’s power differs across the Puget Sound region, scientists are setting up sensitive monitoring equipment in someplace solid, such as a house basement, to track that power as part of the NetQuakes project. A handful of seismographs have been installed in Renton and Kent, where soils, topography and the ground rupture itself all play a role in how a quake affects buildings. “We discovered in the Nisqually quake and other quakes around the world that ground motion can vary pretty dramatically from neighborhood to neighborhood,” said Bill Steele, Seismology Lab coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network. SAFETY+PREP Monitoring of the State Route INSIDE 167 corridor has RENTON REPORTER been emphasized, because of a lack of monitoring stations to track ground motion, he said. There were some ground-motion stations in 2001 that monitored the Nisqually quake, but not in Renton and Kent, he said. In that quake, a production building at the Boeing plant in Renton was red-tagged, he said. But scientists didn’t have a direct measurement of the ground motion there. “We want to begin filling in so that doesn’t happen again,” he said. The network, run out of the UW Seismology Lab, is looking for volunTWO THOUSAND ELEVEN
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All eyes now turned to 737 future in Renton Historic multibillion-dollar order from Lion Air raises ante BY DEAN A. RADFORD dradford@rentonreporter.com
Douglas Gibbons, NetQuakes coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, installs a blue seismograph in a home in Renton. Pacific Northwest Seismic Network Geological Survey facility in California, then almost immediately to the UW lab in Seattle. The USGS oversees the NetQuakes program nationally and provides the equipment. Ideally, scientists would like one of the strong-motion monitors every kilometer or roughly every two-thirds of a mile in the urban Puget Sound region. A national plan calls for 600 strong-motion monitors in then Puget Sound region; right now there are About 100 monitoring sites take measurements of ground motion about 100. throughout the Puget Sound region. The goal is to have about 600 to “We have a long monitor this earthquake-prone area. Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network ways to go,” Steele said. Each year the teers in the Auburn area, where there network is allocated a are currently no NetQuakes seismocertain number of seismographs. graphs. NetQuakes continues to look for The equipment uses a wireless router [ more QUAKES page 18 ] to send the measurements to a U.S.
Boeing’s workforce in Renton and elsewhere in the state, plus an unrivaled network of suppliers, are key reasons to keep the production of the new 737 MAX in Washington state. Those are two key conclusions of an Aerospace Competitiveness Study commissioned by the Washington Aerospace Partnership. “Washington currently holds an advantage in the 737 MAX competition due to the high productivity and knowledge of its workforce,” according to the Accenture study. Accenture tested the state’s strengths and weaknesses against 14 cities in eight states, including The 737 MAX will offer a highly fuelCalifornia, efficient engine; it’s drawing hundreds of New Mexico, orders for Boeing. Boeing Texas, Kansas, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina. San Antonio, Texas, is a particularly tough competitor because Texas already has a highly developed aerospace industry, in part because Boeing has a defense presence there, according to the study. Boeing is expected to make its decision in the next few months. But Washington has a distinct advantage because of its network of aerospace suppliers, about 650 throughout the state – the largest concentration in [ more 737 page 4 ]
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FRIDAY NOVEMBER 25/11
CURVECARD | Here’s where you can launch your holiday shopping right here in Renton [9]