A quake data clearinghouse
Within hours of Japan’s disastrous earthquake and tsunami, Harvard’s Center for Geographic Analysis was working to help, creating a web-based portal for information that acts as a clearinghouse for disaster responders and academics alike. The Japan Sendai Earthquake Data Portal was created by research manager Merrick Lex Berman at the center, based on templates developed in prior earthquakes, the 2008 one in China and last year’s in Haiti and Chile. While it took weeks to create the first site, each subsequent one went live more quickly. For the Japan quake, it took just about an hour to create the site and another hour to begin populating it with data. The site features a bright orange and blue “energy propagation map” of the Pacific Ocean basin, a map created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The site includes news feeds from various sources, a link to the main Japanese government disaster web...