Collapse of masonry buildings still accounts for most earthquake casualties in developing countries, even though effective earthquake-resistant building techniques are available. The amateur builders and local contractors who are responsible for most housing and small-scale commercial construction are typically unaware of these techniques, or they believe that prohibitively expensive engineering design and materials are required. However, the principal technique—confined masonry—is highly effective for nonengineered buildings of less than three stories, and it involves only modest changes in customary building practices. I developed a 2 hour workshop to teach local builders in Guatemala earthquake-resistant construction techniques. Simple graphics with minimal captions and photographs of local buildings were used to show basic design principles, and to illustrate best versus poor practices. Printed manuals (in Spanish and illustrated for a low-literacy audience) were provided, for later reference and the possibility of wider dissemination. The most challenging aspect of this project was developing a working relationship with a local organization willing and able to assist with scheduling, publicity, and generally connecting me with appropriate audiences. My experience suggests that effective teaching is the most critical tool for providing meaningful assistance with a range of geologic and environmental challenges. Expert knowledge, fluency in local languages, and years of local experience are all useful but can be provided or developed through relationships with local partners. Targeted education addressing specific community needs can be highly effective for increasing resilience to natural hazards, and it represents a more-efficient and lower-cost alternative to many other forms of development aid.

Abstract Rocks in the major roof pendants of the eastern Sierra Nevada have been mapped in various degrees of detail to better understand their stratigraphy, internal structure, and geologic history, and their relationships to other rock assemblages in the region. Ten formations ranging in age from Middle(?) Cambrian to Middle(?) Permian are recognized in these pendants, which along with other minor pendants, constitute a tectonostratigraphic unit called the Morrison block . Rocks of the Morrison block were first deformed by north-northwest-trending thrust faults and footwall syn-clines involving strata as young as Early or Middle Permian. We designate this event, which correlates with a similar pre-middle Early Triassic event recognized in rocks near Tinemaha Reservoir, the Morrison orogeny. Structures produced during this orogeny include a probable cryptic thrust fault separating rocks assigned to the Morrison block from those in the Big Pine Creek pendant, which may belong to the White-Inyo block, and the Nevahbe thrust, which separates lower from upper Paleozoic rocks in the eastern part of the Mount Morrison pendant and may separate the Pine Creek and Bishop Creek pendants. In the Mount Morrison pendant structures produced during the Morrison orogeny apparently were later refolded twice prior to sinistral displacement on the Laurel-Convict fault, which cross-cuts older structures and is intruded by a pre-latest Late Triassic dike . Other thrust faults in the eastern Sierra Nevada include the Golconda thrust of early Middle Triassic age and the Lundy Canyon thrust of Late Triassic age. The Golconda thrust system apparently overprints the Roberts Mountains thrust and separates rocks of the Morrison block from those of the Golconda and Roberts Mountains allochthons in the Saddlebag Lake pendant, and perhaps from those of the Roberts Mountains allochthon in the Northern Ritter Range and Log Cabin Mine pendants . After thrust-faulting, but prior to intrusion of the Late Triassic Wheeler Crest Granodiorite, dextral movement on the Tinemaha fault displaced Paleozoic facies and structural belts in the Sierra Nevada northward, producing most of the present complicated paleogeographic patterns apparent in the region. Other less important structures, such as the Laurel-Convict fault, have further complicated the geology of the Morrison block .