Earthquakes can’t be predicted—but they’re inevitable. Sheri Molnar believes preparation is our best defence.

A big part of that readiness is understanding the nature of the rocks and soil beneath where people live. And that’s how Sheri is making an impact. She’s leading a 10-year project analyzing the geology of numerous locations in Vancouver, B. C. – one of the world’s most earthquake-prone zones.

“How you experience or feel an earthquake strongly depends on the ground conditions you're on or the geology beneath your feet,” says Sheri, an Earth sciences professor at Western University. 

The Metropolitan Vancouver Seismic Microzonation Mapping Project was launched in 2017. Sheri leads the project, working with her team and partner organizations, including Western’s Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, the B. C. Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness and local municipalities in the Vancouver region.

The project creates detailed maps of specific micro neighbourhoods showing the composition of the ground and the earthquake hazard level for each location. Sheri points out the ground conditions can vary widely from one region to the next, which is why these maps are so important.

“If you’re on soft, thick ground material, you would experience long-period shaking, like a swaying type of motion. You might feel a little sick. But if you’re on something stiff, like rock, you would experience shaking very rapidly.”  

So far, the team has produced 29 maps for western metro Vancouver. Maps for the whole region will be completed by the end of 2026.  

The project is already making a difference. The cities of Vancouver and Surrey, for example, are using its data to guide improvements in community planning.  

“There will be a lot of end users,” says Sheri. “Emergency managers and other decision-makers in cities, insurers, catastrophe modellers and real estate agents who need to communicate with their clients.”

Sheri knows the consequences of inaction are too great to ignore.

“I don’t want to walk across the city after an earthquake and see damage and think it could have been prevented. We can safely keep people inside of buildings if we understand the forces those structures will undergo during an earthquake. So it’s on seismologists to make sure we accurately measure and predict those forces the best we can.”