Karen Cook McNally

Karen Cook McNally (1940 – December 20, 2014) was an American seismologist and earthquake risk expert. and helped establish a seismology research program at the university.

Seismic gaps as an earthquake precursor One of her areas of interest was the study of seismic gaps as precursors of disaster-prone area of an impending earthquake. One of these seismic gaps at the time was the area south of Oaxaca along the western coast of Mexico. After geophysicists from Texas and Japan had warned that the area is mature for a big earthquake, McNally and her group from the National University of Mexico deployed there several mobile seismometers. That array was ready on November 1, 1978. Over the next few weeks, abundance of micro and small earthquakes were recorded, and on November 29 early evening, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the area where the epicenter was in a distance of 50 kilometers from the mobile seismometer's array. These seismometers recorded a well understood picture of that seismic event and its foreshoks and aftershocks. about 3 years later, McNally and her group summarized their conclusions from that event in a scientific article.

A year later, she tried to analyze the data from that earthquake and from others that occurred during the 1960s and published a report concerning the implementation of these data for earthquakes prediction, including 86 relevant references that published since 1978 earthquake.

Within 2 more years, she summarized her conclusions for earthquakes prediction in Southern California in a final technical report with Karen Ward from the U.S.G.S. as her Government Technical Officer. Her work in predicting and helping prepare Mexico for the 1985 Michoacán earthquake, also earned her a spotlight in Time Magazine.

Seismic risk in Costa Rica McNally with student and later colleague: Marino Protti, from the National University of Costa Rica. In 1984, McNally joined a modern geophysical observatory (the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica, Universidad Nacional (OVSICORI-UNA)) and helped to establish a national seismographic network in Costa Rica,

Personal life McNally was born in Clovis, California on January 26, 1940. She married at a young age and had two daughters, Kim and Meredith. The couple divorced in 1966.