“As far as earthquakes go, for everyone in Alaska, there is someone looking out for you 24/7,” said Ken Macpherson, who manages the Alaska Earthquake Center’s data analyst team. Most of the center’s staff take turns being the “on-duty” seismologist, which means being on call around the clock for a week. 

A dedicated smartphone sounds an alarm when an earthquake over a threshold magnitude occurs, and the clock starts ticking. The center’s protocol requires the on-duty person to review and report on the earthquake within 20 minutes, which includes travel time if that person is away from a computer or wifi. When asked to pick one word to describe being on duty, center staff responded: important, exciting, nonstop, stressful, triage, and responsibility.