The Lake Tahoe area has a new high definition camera network to detect and monitor emergencies.
The University of Nevada Reno has installed high-definition cameras at its earthquake monitoring stations in North Star and Sand Harbor. Two more will go in this month at Heavenly Valley and Cave Rock. The network capability at the moment is limited to monitoring storms and fires. But Director of the UNR Seismology Lab, Graham Kent, says just monitoring fires provides useful information and practice.
“But we get to practice through these fires and there are a lot more fires than big earthquakes," says Kent. "And so that is kind of the hidden gem that we didn’t even realize when we started.”
Kent has funding for four more cameras in Reno and Carson City and wants another four around Lake Tahoe. Planned enhancements to the network will allow monitoring of wind, humidity, water clarity and ground deformation which can help predict earthquakes.
The Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno is capturing dramatic high-definition video of the Bison Fire progress with a newly installed camera as part of its development of a multi-hazard mountaintop monitoring network. This video is a short time-lapse from the evening of July 6 just before switching to infrared mode. University of Nevada, Reno / Youtube
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