The Earthquake

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Earthquake DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE PREDICTION EVALUATION COUNCIL JUNE 11-12, 1991 ALTA, UTAH by Virgil A. Frizzell, Jr. Open-File Report 92-249 This report is preliminary and has not been edited or reviewed for conformity with U.S.G.S. publication standards. 1992 REPRODUCED FKOK OUST A * » " * * TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Preface v Current Membership of National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council vii Proceedings of the meeting 1 References cited 33 Appendices 35 PREFACE The National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council (NEPEC) was established in 1979 pursuant to the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977 to advise the Director of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) about issuing any formal predictions or other information pertinent to the potential for the occurrence of a significant earthquake. The Director of the USGS is responsible for deciding whether and/or when to issue predictions or other information pertinent to a prediction. A prediction is defined as a statement on the time of occurrence, location, and magnitude of a future significant earthquake including an analysis of the uncertainty of those factors. NEPEC advises the Director concerning the completeness and scientific validity of the available data and on related matters. Duties include the evaluation of predictions made by other scientists, from within or outside of government, rather than issuance of predictions based on data gathered by NEPEC itself. According to its charter, NEPEC, also referred to in this document as the Council, is comprised of a Chairman, Vice Chairman and from 8 to 12 other members appointed by the Director of the USGS. The Chairman may not be a USGS employee and at least one-half of the membership must be other than USGS employees. NEPEC generally functions through the use of working groups organized by the USGS at the request of NEPEC. Working groups often include representatives from private industry, academia, and the USGS. Members of NEPEC who participate in a working group do not vote during NEPEC's evaluation of the results of the working group. After concluding its evaluation, NEPEC presents its recommendations to the Director, who bears ultimate responsibility for a decision concerning issuance of a prediction or other information. The USGS has published the proceedings of previous NEPEC meetings as open-file reports; these reports are available from the USGS Open-File Distribution Center in Denver, Colorado. CP. NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE PREDICTION EVALUATION COUNCIL September 1991 Thomas V. McEvilly, Chairman University of California Robert L. Wesson, Vice-Chairman USGS, Reston Keiiti Aki University of Southern California William H. Bakun USGS, Menlo Park John N. Davies University of Alaska James F. Davis California Division of Mines and Geology James H. Dieterich USGS, Menlo Park Thomas H. Heaton USGS, Pasadena Arch C. Johnston Memphis State University Hiroo Kanamori California Institute of Technology William H. Prescott USGS, Menlo Park Kaye M. Shedlock USGS, Golden Joann Stock Harvard University Ray J. Weldon University of Oregon Virgil A. Frizzell, Jr., Executive Secretary USGS, Reston vii NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE PREDICTION EVALUATION COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS OF THE MEETING OF JUNE 11-12, 1991 Alt a, Utah Council Members Present Thomas McEvilly, Chairman University of California Robert Wesson, Vice-Chairman USGS, Reston William Bakun USGS, Menlo Park John Davies University of Alaska James Dieterich USGS, Menlo Park Thomas Heaton USGS, Pasadena Arch Johnston Memphis State University Hiroo Kanamori California Institute of Technology William Prescott USGS, Menlo Park Kaye Shedlock USGS, Golden Joann Stock Harvard University Virgil Frizzell, Executive Secretary, USGS, Reston Participating Guests M. Lee Allison Utah Geological Survey Walter J. Arabasz University of Utah Ronald L. Bruhn University of Utah Gary Johnson Federal Emergency Management Agency John 0. Langbein USGS, Menlo Park William R. Lund Utah Geological Survey Michael N. Machette USGS, Golden Stuart P. Nishenko USGS, Golden David P. Schwartz USGS, Menlo Park Robert B. Smith University of Utah JUNE 11, 1991 Morning Session T.McEVILLY, Chairman of the National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council (NEPEC) , opened the Council meeting by asking members, participants, and guests, to introduce themselves and by outlining the meeting's agenda (see Appendices A and B) . All Members were in attendance except K. Aki, J. Davis, and R. Weldon. R.WESSON, Vice-Chairman of NEPEC, presented an overview of Council activities with an emphasis on the transition from the Chairmanship of Lynn Sykes to that of McEvilly. At the termination of Sykes 1 tenure, NEPEC had completed a probabilistic assessment of the San Francisco Bay Region and had visited a number of areas of the country (Northern California, Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska) that had been perceived as having a level of hazard that warranted attention. NEPEC had intended to visit the Wasatch area, but the press of business in California precluded such a visit. At the outset of McEvilly's tenure, NEPEC prioritized areas needing attention, and the Wasatch area remained a high priority region. The present meeting at Alta, Utah, was delayed because of the need to reevaluate the San Francisco Bay Region in light of the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 as well as the need to address the so-called "Browning prediction." T.McEVILLY and R.WESSON agreed that several options were available and suggested that Council Members and guests consider various options during the day's presentation and what sort of document might be used to present NEPEC's response to the Wasatch front, as well as options that would allow NEPEC to help focus attention on the other issues under consideration. R.WESSON also noted that Randall Updike completed his term as Executive Secretary of NEPEC and that an open-file report entitled "1990 Proceedings of the National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council" (Updike, 1990) resulted from his efforts. Several Members joined Wesson by congratulating Updike for a job well done. R. SMITH of the University of Utah (UU) presented an overview of the seismotectonics, seismicity, and paleoseismicity of the Intermountain Seismic Belt (ISB) as a background to discussion of the Wasatch front of central Utah (Smith and Arabasz, 1991; See Appendix C) . He described the ISB as a six state region with a linear zone of intraplate tectonism on faults dominated by normal deformation (App. C, fig. 1) . The 7.3 magnitude Borah Peak earthquake, which had scarps 3 to 3.5 m high, focused National attention on the importance of normal faulting earthquakes. The Hegben Lake, Montana, earthquake of 1955, demonstrated that active normal faults may be located along preexisting structures, in that case a Laramide thrust fault. The structures at mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, the location of the current meeting, were postulated by G.K. Gilbert to be responsible for the uplift of the Wasatch Range. Those same young structures trend through Salt Lake City. Large earthquakes occurring in populated areas along the Wasatch front would have catastrophic effects on the population and economy of the entire state, as well as throughout the surrounding six state region. The ISB occupies a large part of the w astern U.S., forms a arcuate region 1000 km by 400 km, and is comprised of southern, central, and northern portions (App. C, fig. 1). Earthquakes are generally shallow, occurring less than about 20 km in depth, and are diffusely located without obvious correlation to mapped Quaternary or Holocene faults. The earthquakes are the result of differential strain between a more stable part of the North America plate and the Great Basin. Since with the Borah Peak earthquake of 1983, much has been learned about structures responsible for normal faulting events in the region. Aftershocks were not located along the scarps, but instead on a zone displaced 15 km to :he southwest (App. C, figs. 10, 11) , implying substantial dip to the fault. The main shock occurred in the same zone at about 16+4 km depth. Leveling data is compatible with a dipping planar structure Data from several other areas indicate that such structures become listric at depth. Our model for earthquake hazard analysis is one of planar structures with large events nucleating at crustal depths (App. C, fig. 21), so not only do we have to be aware of the possible effects that may extend to adjacent mountain blocks, but we must carefully consider hazards associated with structures that surface somewhat more distally from the population centers. Quaternary faults, including six historic earthquakes have been scaled comparing Ms versus fault surface length and maximum surface displacement. The scaling law for maximum surface displacement is the same as that of Bonilla and others (1984) and DePolo (1990) (See App. C, refs) . The second law, that of Ms versus surface length, is quite different. If one compares the length of Quaternary faults and fault segments in the ISB to determine possible (magnitudes that might be generated by movement on the faults, one finds that the Wasatch fault zone dominates with post-glacial earthquakes in the magnitude 7.2 to 7.3 range. If our maximum surface displacement scaling law is used, larger events are possible along the Wasatch, with magnitudes of 7.4 to 7.5. This [presents an enigma in some areas which have large scarps with short surface length displacement. Smith emphasized thatj the detailed information needed to analyze faults in this manner! is quite limited. In summary, the model appears to be one of earthquakes nucleating at the brittle/ductile transition along planar structures that are connected to relatively shallow low angle detachments. The uniform pattern of coseismic strain must result from long-term interseismic strain. W.ARAB AS Z of UU presented information on seismic hazards along the Wasatch front. Normalized seismicity rates of earthquake occurrence by area in the ISB is lower by a factor of 4 when compared to the plate boundary in California.
Recommended publications
  • In Memory of Keiiti Aki, 1930–2005
    Ó Birkha¨user Verlag, Basel, 2006 Pure appl. geophys. 163 (2006) 617–618 0033–4553/06/030617–3 Pure and Applied Geophysics DOI 10.1007/s00024-005-0028-4 In Memory of Keiiti Aki, 1930–2005 While editing this volume in honor of Kei Aki, we were greatly saddened to receive the news that he passed away on May 17, 2005, in La Re´union, a French Island in the Indian Ocean. According to Thomas Staudacher, the Director of the Observatoire volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise, Aki fell in the street coming home from a grocery store on May 13. The next day, he was disoriented and X-rays revealed bleeding in the brain. Aki was sent to the hospital where doctors performed two surgeries to stop the bleeding without success. He fell into a coma, died on May 17, and was buried in the cemetery of the town of Le Tampon on May 18. Keiiti Aki was born on March 3, 1930, in Yokohama, Japan to a family of engineers with a 100-year tradition of education and openness to the west. Various aspects of his family history, upbringing and scientific influences on his career, described by Kei to one of us, are given in the introduction to the 2003 Pageoph Aki Volume. Here we provide complementary details that shed additional light on his life and career. When Aki was 19 years old, he was among the 12 students admitted to the Department of Geophysics of the University of Tokyo. It was a very exciting place with world class professors in both Solid and Fluid Earth, including Chuji Tsuboi, Takeshi Nagata, Takeo Matuzawa, and Koji Hidaka.
    [Show full text]
  • 1995 Annual Meeting 90089-0740
    0 V Southern California Earthquake Center Science Director Keiiti Aid Southern California Earthquake Center Administration John McRaney, Director Education Curt Abdouch Director Knowledee Transfer Jill Andrews, Director Engineering Applications Geoffrey Martin, Director Southern California Earthquake Center thAeng=University of 1995 Annual Meeting 90089-0740 Institutional Representatives Robert Clayton Seismological Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 91125 David Jackson arthaDepartment of September 17-19, 1995 UCLA Los Angeles, CA 90024-1567 Ralph Archuleta Institute for Crustal Studies UCSB Santa Barbara, CA 93106-1100 Bernard Minster Scripps Institution of Oceanography Ojai Valley Inn LaJolla,CA • • 92093-0225 Ojai, California Leonardo Seeber t,amont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University Palisades, NY 10964 James Mon USGS - OEVE 525 S. Wilson Ave. Pasadena, CA 91106 Telephone (213) 740-5843 FAX (213) 740-0011 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1995 SCEC Annual Meeting Agenda 1 1994 SCEC Schedule 4 Participants 5 Field Trip Participants 9 SCEC Organization - 1995 11 SCEC Advisory Council 13 1995 Senior Research liwestigators 14 1994-95 Post-Doctoral Fellows and Visitors 18 1995 SCEC Funding Sources 19 199 1-1995 SCEC Budgets 20 1991-1995 SCEC Science Budgets by Task 21 1995 SCEC Program 23 Reports from Directors Why Fundamental Earthquake Science? 29 Highlights of the Education Program 36 Highlights of the Knowledge Transfer Program 41 1995 Abstracts for the Annual Meeting 46 1995 SCEC ANNUAL MEETING AGENDA Sunday, September 17 10:00 a.m. Field Trip led by Tom Rockwell and Gary Huftile 7:00 p.m. Poster Session and Icebreaker 9:00 p.m. SCIGN Meeting 9:30 p.m.
    [Show full text]
  • ROBERT L. NOWACK Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Purdue University 550 Stadium Mall Drive West Lafayette, in 47907-2051 Phone: (765) 494-5978
    ROBERT L. NOWACK Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Purdue University 550 Stadium Mall Drive West Lafayette, IN 47907-2051 Phone: (765) 494-5978 EDUCATION: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts) Ph.D. Geophysics, 1985. Advisor: Keiiti Aki Stanford University (Stanford, California) M.S. Geophysics, 1977. Beloit College (Beloit, Wisconsin) B.A. Physics, with Honors, 1975. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: 1998-Present Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN Professor of Geophysics 1990-1998 Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN Associate Professor of Geophysics 1985-1990 Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN Assistant Professor of Geophysics 1985 Earth Resources Laboratory, MIT, Cambridge, MA Post-Doctoral Research Scientist 1978-1980 U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA Seismologist 1977-78 Woodward Clyde Geotechnical Consultants (URS/AECOM), San Francisco, CA, Engineering Seismologist PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES: American Geophysical Union (AGU) Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Seismological Society of America (SSA) Insitute of Physics (IOP) London PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: 2012-2016 –Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth 2 2009-2012 – Co-Chief Editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth 2012 Panel Member for DOE (Airforce Research Laboratory and National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA). 2010 – External Academic Review Committee, Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University. 2009 Panel Member for DOE (Airforce Research Laboratory and National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA). 2008 Panel Member for DOE (Airforce Research Laboratory and National NuclearSecurity Administration, NNSA). 2007 Panel Member for NEHRP (National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program). 2005-2009 – Associate Editor, Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth. 2004-2011 – Associate Editor, Journal of Geophysics and Engineering. 1999-2009 – Associate Editor for Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica.
    [Show full text]
  • Zachary E. Ross 1200 E
    Zachary E. Ross 1200 E. California Blvd., MS 252-21 Pasadena, CA 91125-2100 Phone: (626) 395-6958; E-mail: [email protected] Education 2016 Ph.D., Geophysics, University of Southern California 2011 M.S., Civil Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 2009 B.S., Physics, University of California, Davis Professional Appointments 2019- Assistant Professor of Geophysics, California Institute of Technology 2016-2019 Postdoctoral Scholar in Geophysics, California Institute of Technology 2011-2016 Graduate Student Researcher, University of Southern California Honors and Awards 2019 Keiiti Aki Early Career Award, American Geophysical Union 2019 AGU Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing 2019 High Performance Computing Innovation Excellence Award, Hyperion Research 2016 University Ph.D. Achievement Award, University of Southern California 2011 Graduation with Distinction, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Special Volumes Hough, S. E., Ross, Z. E., and T. Dawson, Editors, 2020. Special Section: 2019 Ridgecrest, California, Earthquake Sequence, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am, 110 (4). Publications Legend: †Undergraduate, *Ph.D student, ^Postdoctoral Scholar In review: [56] *Atterholt, J. and Z. E. Ross. Bayesian framework for inversion of second-order stress glut moments: application to the 2020 Mw 7.7 Caribbean Earthquake. [55] *Gao, A., Castillo, J., Yue, Y., Ross, Z. E., and K. L. Bouman. DeepGEM: Generalized Expectation-Maximization for Inverse Problems with Model Mismatch. [54] *Liu, Y.-K., Ross, Z. E., Cochran, E. S., and N. Lapusta. A unified perspective of seismicity and fault coupling along the San Andreas Fault. [53] ^Florez, M. A., Caporale, M., Buabthong, P., Ross, Z. E., Asimaki, D., and M.-A. Meier. Data-driven Accelerogram Synthesis using Deep Generative Models, [arXiv:2011.09038] Published: [52] ^Li, B.
    [Show full text]
  • The Keiiti Aki Volume II
    Ó Birkha¨user Verlag, Basel, 2006 Pure appl. geophys. 163 (2006) 259–266 0033–4553/06/030259–8 Pure and Applied Geophysics DOI 10.1007/s00024-005-0029-3 Introduction During the December 2004 annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Professor Keitii (Kei) Aki was awarded the Bowie Medal, which is the highest honor bestowed annually by the AGU. To celebrate this occasion, a scientific symposium in honor of Kei was organized by Yehuda Ben-Zion, Eystein Husebye, John McRaney, Haruo Sato, and Willie Lee under the title ‘‘Quantitative Seismology: Advances in Studies of Fine-scale Heterogeneities in a Deforming Earth’’. Since Kei studied (and was instrumental in developing) most aspects of quantitative seismology, including source, propagation and site effects over the entire range of observed frequencies, it was difficult to pick a subset of topics that would form a reasonably focused scientific session. The title was finally chosen to reflect a set of problems that was central to Kei’s interests, while having a somewhat different focus than those of two earlier 2000 symposia that commemorated Kei’s retirements from academia. The description of the 2004 AGU session in honor of Aki is as follows: In the past 25 years, there have been tremendous advances in many aspects of quantitative seismology using physics-based approaches. New fronts were made possible by many factors: Large data sets with unprecedented resolution and bandwidth; innovative computational techniques; new theoretical models for seismic phenomena; and integrative research accounting for broad ranges of space and time scales. These advances were stimulated by many pioneering papers, and were aided strongly by the publication of the two-volume treatise ‘‘Quantitative Seismology: Theory and Methods’’ by Keiiti Aki and Paul Richards in 1980.
    [Show full text]
  • 1994 Annual Meeting
    /1 S IC Southern California Earthquake Center 1994 Annual Meeting September 23-25, 1994 Temecula Creek Inn Temecula, California 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1994 SCEC Annual Meeting Agenda 1 1994 SCEC Schedule 3 Participants 4 Field Trip Participants 7 Poster Session Participants 9 SCEC Organization - 1994 13 SCEC Advisory Council 15 Report on the Spring 1994 Meeting of the Advisory Council 16 1994 Senior Research Investigators 19 1994-95 Post-doctoral Fellows and Visitors 22 SCEC Research Tasks with Matrix 23 1994 SCEC Funding 25 1991-94 SCEC Budgets 26 1995-98 Proposed Budgets (from 1993 Renewal Proposal) 27 Projects Funded by SCEC in 1994 29 SCEC Education Activity Summary 35 1994 Activity Summary for Knowledge Transfer Program 39 Phase II Report: Preface; NEPEC/CEPEC Commentary; Executive Summary 43 Phase Ill Report Proposed Chapters and Authors 52 GPS Initiative Summary 53 1 1994 SCEC ANNUAL MEETING AGENDA Friday, September 23 9:00 a.m. Field Trip to Pinon Flat, San Jacinto Fault and Garner Valley Field Trip Leaders: Duncan Agnew Frank Wyatt Tom Rockwell Ralph Archuleta 7:30 p.m. Poster Session and Icebreaker Saturday, September 24 7:30 p.m. Breakfast Meeting of Advisory Council and Steering Committee 9:00 a.m. Session I: Plenary Session Welcome and Introduction Henyey Statement from NSF Whitcomb Statement from USGS Mon Phase Il/Phase Ill Report Aid Phase IV Jackson GPS Initiative Henyey Los Angeles Basin Earthquake Scenarios Sieh Education and Outreach Developments Abdouch/Johnson We will break for lunch @ noon. 2 Session H: Working Group Meetings 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
    [Show full text]
  • Southern California Earthquake Center
    Southern California Earthquake Center Final Technical Report USGS Cooperative Agreement 02HQAG0008 I. Introduction The Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) is a regionally focused organization with a tripartite mission to • gather new information about earthquakes in Southern California, • integrate this information into a comprehensive and predictive understanding of earthquake phenomena, and • communicate this understanding to end-users and the general public in order to increase earthquake awareness and reduce earthquake risk. SCEC was founded in 1991 as a Science and Technology Center (STC) of the National Science Foundation (NSF), receiving primary funding from NSF’s Earth Science Division and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). SCEC graduated from the STC Program after a full 11-year run (SCEC1). It was reauthorized as a free-standing center on February 1, 2002 (SCEC2) with base funding from NSF and USGS. In addition, the Center was awarded major grants from NSF’s Information Technology Research (ITR) Program and its National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Digital Library (NSDL) program. This report highlights the Center’s research activities during the five-year period (2002- 2007), with emphasis on the fifth and final year of SCEC2. The report is organized into the following sections: I. Introduction II. Planning, Organization, and Management of the Center III. Research Accomplishments IV. Communication, Education, and Outreach Activities V. Director’s Management Report VI. Advisory Council Report VII. Financial Report VIII. Report on Subawards and Monitoring IX. Demographics of SCEC Participants X. Report on International Contacts and Visits XI. Publications II. Planning, Organization, and Management of the Center The transition from SCEC1 to SCEC2 involved considerable planning and restructuring.
    [Show full text]
  • Published in Seismological Review Letters, 76, 551–553, Issue of Sept/Oct 2005
    Published in Seismological Review Letters, 76, 551–553, issue of Sept/Oct 2005. Obituary Keiiti Aki (1930 – 2005) Seismologist and leader Everyone called him Kei, the intellectual leader who for forty years brought new methods to a more quantitative understanding of dynamic processes within the Earth. Kei Aki died on May 17 this year on Réunion Island, the “hot spot” in the Indian Ocean that had been his home since retirement from academic life in the United States. He will be known for his many research results in seismology as well as for his team leadership in developing probabilistic estimates of seismic hazard. Kei was born in Japan to a family of engineers with a 100-year tradition of education and openness to the west, but then, as he wrote: “When I was 19 years old, I applied to the Department of Geophysics of the University of Tokyo, partly because of the simplest entrance examination, only on three subjects, English, Mathematics and Physics.” He continued there to a Ph. D. thesis on spectra of stationary stochastic seismic waves and briefly held a fellowship at the California Institute of Technology in the early 1960s — where he greatly impressed Charles Richter and Frank Press before returning to the University of Tokyo in 1963. When Press left Caltech to head Earth Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he recruited Kei to the MIT faculty in 1966 and thus to an American academic career. His scientific achievements include some of the earliest studies interpreting the radiation pattern of seismic surface waves to estimate fault orientation and direction of slip at the earthquake source.
    [Show full text]