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Prepare UtahUtah household readiness

All hazards

Earthquake

Utah is earthquake country. The good news: the most useful steps are cheap, and you can do most of them this weekend.

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Most Utahns live near the Wasatch Fault. A large earthquake would come with no warning, so preparation happens beforehand: secure heavy things, know how to Drop, Cover, and Hold On, and be ready to manage without water, power, or sewer for a while.

Why it matters in Utah

Show the science
  • Liquefaction. Loose, water-saturated sandy soil can behave like a liquid during strong shaking. UGS says Wasatch Front valleys are especially vulnerable because of susceptible soils and shallow groundwater; the most susceptible soils are generally along rivers, streams, and lake shorelines. UGS (opens source in a new tab)
  • Basin shaking. After Magna, researchers analyzing thousands of recordings found that sites on deep Salt Lake basin sediments shook roughly 3 to 10 times more than thin-sediment sites at longer periods, which matters most for taller buildings. That range compares groups of sites; it is not a forecast for any one address. Moschetti et al. 2021 (opens source in a new tab)
  • Fault geometry. Research on Magna suggests the Wasatch fault may flatten with depth, which could mean stronger shaking in Salt Lake City than earlier estimates. This is an active research result, not settled consensus. Pang et al. 2020 (opens source in a new tab)
  • Scenario modeling. UGS cites scenario modeling for a major M7.0 earthquake on the Salt Lake City segment of 2,000 to 2,500 deaths, 55,400 buildings completely damaged, and $33.2 billion in short-term direct losses. Scenarios are planning tools, not predictions. UGS (opens source in a new tab)
  • The national expert hazard model (USGS 2023) now includes basin-specific data for Salt Lake City. USGS (opens source in a new tab)

Who's most affected

  • People in unreinforced masonry (URM) brick buildings. URM buildings are more likely than modern structures to collapse during an earthquake; Utah building codes outlawed new URM construction in the 1970s. Utah DEM (opens source in a new tab)
  • Households on valley floors near rivers, streams, and old lakeshores (liquefaction). UGS (opens source in a new tab)
  • Anyone who depends on power, pharmacies, or home care, because services may be out for days or longer.
Look up your own address. Our sister site, FaultLine Utah (opens in a new tab), shows the nearby faults, liquefaction, and building-code shaking for any Utah address, in plain language. It also has a statewide fault map (opens in a new tab), an Is It Brick? (opens in a new tab) self-check for older homes, and the story of the 2020 Magna earthquake (opens in a new tab).

What to do

1 Before

2 During

3 After

Is my building unreinforced masonry (URM)?

Utah DEM lists exterior signs that a building might be URM. None of them alone proves it, so treat them as reasons to ask a professional: Utah DEM (opens source in a new tab)

  • Rows of bricks turned endways (you see the short end) every five to six rows.
  • Deeply recessed windows set into thick walls.
  • Rows of bolt heads or rosettes on the exterior walls.

Salt Lake City's Fix the Bricks program helps low-income SLC owners of brick homes built before 1975, but it is closed to new applicants with a stated wait of more than 10 years; its page lists an average retrofit cost of $20,000. Salt Lake City (opens source in a new tab) Renters: you can still ask your landlord whether the building is URM and whether it has been retrofitted (see your personalized plan).