Geology Reports⌕ Search
Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · 70234115

Seismic design provisions and guidelines in the United States: A prologue

Roger D. Borcherdt·Ronald O. Hamburger·Charles A. Kircher
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Seismic design provisions and guidelines are the basis for reduction of potentially devastating losses of life and property from earthquakes. Six tragic earthquakes since 1985, affecting Mexico, Armenia, the United States, Japan, Turkey, and Taiwan, caused combined property losses exceeding $320 billion and loss of lives exceeding 143,900. These losses emphasize the need to improve the earthquake resistance of the built environment in zones of high seismic risk. With present population exceeding 290 million in major earthquake zones and world population expected to increase by 2 to 4 billion people in the next 50 years, losses from future earthquakes can be expected to reach even greater levels if worldwide improvements in earthquake resistance are not made.

Explore related subjects

International GeophysicsArticle
90° N90° S · 180° W ← longitude → 180° E
Source-reported bounding extent: 17.94655° to 71.35776° latitude; -171.79111° to -65.591° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Roger D. Borcherdt, Ronald O. Hamburger, Charles A. Kircher. 2003. Seismic design provisions and guidelines in the United States: A prologue. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0074-6142(03)80182-1

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2009

Chapter 7 using liquefaction‐induced and other soft‐sediment features for paleoseismic analysis

This chapter focuses on the methodology for determining whether observed sediment deformation had a seismic shaking or a nonseismic origin. The chapter emphasizes features developed from the process of liquefaction, which is the transformation of a granular material from a solid state into a liquefied state as a consequence of increased pore-water pressure. Geophysical methods including electrical resistivity and electromagnetic induction and ground-penetrating radar are refined sufficiently to be used with some success to locate buried liquefaction features. Paleoliquefaction investigations are useful to engineers and planners because of the high shaking threshold required to develop liquefaction features. The threshold is a horizontal acceleration on the order of 0.1 g for strong earthquakes, even in highly susceptible sediment. Features having a liquefaction origin can be developed at earthquake magnitudes as low as about 5 but a magnitude of about 5.5–6 is the lower limit at which liquefaction effects become relatively common. Seismic liquefaction effects described in the chapter are caused mainly by cyclic shaking of level or nearly level ground. Primary seismological factors contributing to liquefaction are the amplitude of the cyclic shear stresses and the number of applications of the shear stresses.

International Geophysics↗
USGS2003

The IASPEI Seismological Software Library

Since computers became widely available in the early 1960s, seismologists have been using them for data acquisition, processing, and analysis, as well as theoretical computation and modeling. For example, the book by Doornbos (1988) contains a collection of seismological algorithms with the corresponding computer programs available on tape or disk from the World Data Center A for Solid Earth Geophysics. The introduction of personal computers in the early 1980s further revolutionized the use of computers for scientific research. Instead of expensive mainframe computers that required a large staff to operate, inexpensive personal computers allowed creative applications to be implemented by individuals with a shoestring budget.

International Geophysics↗