Engineer pushed for seismic safety in Alaska ahead of 2018 earthquake

摘要

The son of a pioneer bush pilot in Alaska, structural engineer John Aho spent decades working toward earthquake preparedness. He helped found a key seismic safety commission in the state, and serves on the City of Anchorage's geotechnical advisory group. The fruits of his labor were clearly demonstrated on the morning of Nov. 30, when the magnitudes 7.0 and 5.7 earthquakes that struck the city caused limited structural damage, partly due to stringent building requirements. Aho also played a vital role in securing funding for Anchorage's dense network of strong-motion seismometers, most of them installed by 2002. "We were trudging around Washington, D.C., in 100° heat trying to convince congressional reps and senators to fund this network," says John Filson, scientist emeritus with the U. S. Geological Survey. Aho also worked with building owners to allow the sensors' installation and helped raise addi- pects in that field in the early 1970s shifted his energies to seismic resilience.