Roland Burgmann of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory (BSL) will give the annual Lawson Lecture on Wednesday, April 9 at 3pm in Sibley Auditorium at the Bechtel Engineering Center on the UC Berkeley campus.

This year's lecture, "A tectonic time bomb in our backyard: Earthquake potential of the Hayward fault" will discuss the Hayward fault and its impact on the surrounding areas.

From the BSL Lawson Lecture site: "Since 2003, the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory has been hosting public lectures, the Lawson Lectures, on earthquakes and earthquake science. This year's lecture highlights the fault in "our backyard", the Hayward Fault. Its last major earthquake occurred on Oct. 21, 1868, almost 140 years ago. Although prior earthquakes occurred before the arrival of the Spanish to the Bay Area in 1776, recent research has found that the average time between large events on this fault is 140 years! Roland Burgmann will present what we know about the Hayward fault and discuss the threat it poses to those who live, work and play along it."

You can find a list of past Lawson Lectures, from 2003 on, many with links to presentation material and a webcast of the lecture itself, on the BSL site.