About LFE

LFE responds to earthquakes worldwide by conducting earthquake reconnaissance and disseminating products and lessons learned. LFE’s earthquake response consists of:

• Establishing Virtual Clearinghouse Websites: Reconnaissance products, including webinar recordings, reports, journal papers, data, and photos, are compiled on virtual earthquake clearinghouse websites. These websites serve as a long-term archives of lessons learned from earthquakes. View sites for over 300 earthquakes in the LFE Reconnaissance Archive.
• Activating the Virtual Earthquake Response Team (VERT): Beginning in 2015, LFE formalized a virtual earthquake reconnaissance program aimed at rapidly assessing impacts of damaging earthquakes through review of news articles and social media. The Virtual Earthquake Reconnaissance Team (VERT) provides opportunities for graduate students, early career professionals, and young faculty to be involved in post-earthquake reconnaissance. Learn More about the Virtual Earthquake Reconnaissance Team.
• Sending EERI reconnaissance teams to investigate earthquakes: Through LFE, EERI sends multi-disciplinary reconnaissance teams of earthquake risk mitigation experts to investigate earthquake impacts. Reconnaissance teams travel to earthquake-impacted areas, document important observations, and identify topics in need of follow-up research. Increasingly, LFE has focused on capturing lessons for community resilience through earthquake reconnaissance. LFE has developed a framework for resilience reconnaissance and has begun conducting follow-up reconnaissance trips months and years after damaging earthquakes. 
• Coordinating international reconnaissance teams: In addition to the LFE program, there are many related organizations and private firms that also conduct earthquake reconnaissance programs. As the number of organizations that conduct reconnaissance continue to increase, EERI has led the coordination of international reconnaissance efforts. This coordination fosters collaboration, reduces duplication of efforts, and helps to minimize the burden of international reconnaissance teams on local contacts in earthquake-impacted areas.
• Participating in physical clearinghouses: For earthquakes in the US, EERI provides staffing support to operate a physical clearinghouse. A physical clearinghouse is a place where field investigators can gather to share observations and coordinate with others.