ELLENSBURG, Wash. -- Central Washington University geological science Professor Tim Melbourne recently received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Geological Survey.

The grant will further Melbourne’s work monitoring plate tectonics and crustal deformation throughout the Pacific Northwest. It will be spent on upgrading a network of Global Positioning System sensors, receivers and antennas. The equipment, with the assistance of more than 140 GPS stations, will increase the accuracy of Melbourne’s research.

Melbourne, director of Central’s Pacific Northwest Geodetic Array (PANGA), has dedicated his career to measuring future natural disasters before they strike, using the GPS to measure the location and size of inevitable future earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and landslides.

— Erin Snelgrove