USGS SEISMIC HAZARD AND RISK MITIGATION EFFORTS ACCROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION

The 2008 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Maps (Petersen et al., 2008) are applied in seismic provisions of building codes, insurance rate structures, risk assessments, and other public policy decisions for the Rocky Mountain region. The USGS mapping project developed these maps by incorporating information on potential earthquakes and associated ground shaking obtained from interaction in science and engineering workshops involving hundreds of participants, review by several science organizations and State surveys, and advice from two expert panels. The National Seismic Hazard Maps represent the USGS assessment of the “best available science” in earthquake hazards estimation for the United States (maps and data are available on our Web site at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/hazmaps/). The updated maps incorporate new findings on earthquake ground shaking, faults, and seismicity and point to important research that will reduce uncertainties. The engineering community uses these seismic hazard results to develop design maps that maximize safety and minimize costs associated with overdesign of buildings. The USGS, UGS, University of Utah, and collaborators from industry and academia are now in the process of developing urban hazard maps for the Wasatch Front region based on a new community velocity model, 3-d kinematic and dynamic waveform simulations, non-linear site response calculations, and the National Seismic Hazard Map models. These maps will give more detail on levels of shaking that can be used for planning and risk mitigation efforts across the region.