The California Information Clearinghouse was formally established in a directive signed by governor Ronald Reagan following the magnitude 6.5 San Fernando earthquake in 1971. The purpose of the clearinghouse is to systematize the collection of critical, often ephemeral, data from field investigations to promote its use by emergency managers during the response and recovery phases following damaging earthquakes and to archive this data for use by researchers in producing a more methodical analysis of earthquakes and their impacts.