CONNECTIONS The EERI Oral History Series Robert E. Wallace CONNECTIONS The EERI Oral History Series Robert E. Wallace Stanley Scott, Interviewer Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Editor: Gail Hynes Shea, Albany, CA ([email protected]) Cover and book design: Laura H. Moger, Moorpark, CA Copyright ©1999 by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. No part may be reproduced, quoted, or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the executive director of the Earthquake Engi- neering Research Institute or the Director of the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the oral history subject and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute or the University of California. Published by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute 499 14th Street, Suite 320 Oakland, CA 94612-1934 Tel: (510) 451-0905 Fax: (510) 451-5411 E-Mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.eeri.org EERI Publication No.: OHS-6 ISBN 0-943198-99-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wallace, R. E. (Robert Earl), 1916- Robert E. Wallace / Stanley Scott, interviewer. p. cm – (Connections: the EERI oral history series ; 7) (EERI publication ; no. OHS-6) Includes index. ISBN: 0-943198-99-2 1. Wallace, R. E. (Robert Earl), 1916- -Interviews. 2. Earthquake hazard analysis–United States–History. 3. Earthquake engineering–United States–History. I. Scott, Stanley, 1921- II. Title. III. Series. IV. Publication (Earthquake Engineering Research Institute) ; no. OHS-6. QE22.W18 A3 1999 363.34'95'0973–dc21 99-054560 Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 iv Acknowledgments The help, encouragement, and editorial feedback of EERI Executive Director Susan K. Tubbesing and the EERI Board of Directors were instrumental in both establishing Connections: The EERI Oral History Series and in bringing this volume to publication. EERI also gratefully acknowledges partial funding of this project by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). v Table of Contents Acknowledgments v The EERI Oral History Series ix Personal Introduction, by Roger Borcherdt xi Notes on My Interviews, by Robert E. Wallace xv Chapter 1 Early Years 1 Chapter 2 The USGS and Alaska 11 Chapter 3 Teaching and Fieldwork 23 Chapter 4 Full Time Again with USGS 31 Chapter 5 Mapping Nevada 39 Chapter 6 Formulating a National Earthquake Program 51 Chapter 7 The USGS Program 73 Chapter 8 Other USGS Programs 91 Chapter 9 Efforts of Others 109 Chapter 10 Stories and Adventures 117 Chapter 11 More Memorable Trips 129 Chapter 12 USGS Directors: My Recollections 145 Chapter 13 Retirement and Reflections 159 Photographs 163 Index 173 vii The EERI Oral History Series This is the sixth volume in Connections: The EERI Oral History Series. The Earthquake Engi- neering Research Institute initiated this series to preserve the recollections of some of those who have pioneered in earthquake engineering and seismic design. The field of earthquake engineering has undergone significant, even revolutionary, changes since individuals first began thinking about how to design structures that would survive earthquakes. The engineers who led in making these changes and shaped seismic design theory and practice have fascinating stories. Connections: The EERI Oral History Series is a vehicle for transmitting their impressions and experiences, their reflections on the events and individ- uals that influenced their thinking, their ideas and theories, and their recollections of the ways in which they went about solving problems that advanced the practice of earthquake engineering. These reminiscences are themselves a vital contribution to our understanding of the development of seismic design and earthquake hazard reduction. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute is proud to have part of that story be told in Connections. The oral history interviews on which Connections is based were initiated and are being carried out by Stanley Scott, formerly a research political scientist at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, who has himself for many years been active in and written on seismic safety policy and earthquake engineering. A member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute since 1973, Scott was a commissioner on the California State Seismic Safety Commission for 18 years, from 1975 to 1993. In 1990, Scott received the Alfred E. Alquist Award from the Earthquake Safety Foundation. Recognizing the historical importance of the work that earthquake engineers and others have been doing, Scott began recording interviews in 1984 with Henry Degenkolb. The wealth of information obtained from these interviews led him to consider initiating an oral history project on earthquake engineering and seismic safety policy, and in due course, the Regional Oral History Office of the Bancroft Library approved such an oral history project on a continuing, but unfunded, basis. First undertaken while Scott was employed by the Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California at Berkeley, the effort has continued following his retirement ix in 1989. For a time, modest funding for some expenses was provided by the National Science Foundation. Scott has attempted to include a selection of senior earthquake engineers who have been active observers of and participants in the earthquake safety effort. In addition, he has included nonengineering professionals in related fields (geology and geophysics) who have made significant contributions to the body of knowledge in earthquake engineering. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute learned of Scott’s interview series, and reviewed of a number of the early interview transcripts. EERI’s interest in preserving these recollections led to publication of this Oral History Series. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute was established in 1949 as a membership organization to encourage research, investigate the effects of destructive earthquakes and the causes of building failures, and bring research scientists and practicing engineers together to solve challenging engineering problems through exchange of information, research results, and theories. In many ways, the development of seismic design is part of the history of EERI. EERI Oral History Series Henry J. Degenkolb1994 John A. Blume 1994 Michael V. Pregnoff and John E. Rinne 1996 George W. Housner 1997 William W. Moore 1998 Robert E. Wallace 1999 Nicholas F. Forell 2000 Interviews completed or nearing completion include: Clarence Allen Charles DeMaria John F. Meehan Henry J. Brunnier Roy G. Johnston Earl Schwartz LeRoy Crandall Ralph McLean George A. (Art) Sedgewick Work on several other interviews is in progress. x Personal Introduction I met Bob Wallace in 1966, when I was a student employee of the USGS. I arrived as part of a small group from Denver to conduct seismological studies of earthquakes under the short-lived banner National Center for Earthquake Research (NCER). At that time Bob’s career was well established as both a structural geologist and a fine administrator. He was well known as a leading expert on the San Andreas fault. He was actively involved in studies of the North Anatolian fault system in Turkey and the San Andreas fault system in California. The recent Turkish earthquake disaster and its implications for urban areas along the San Andreas system attest to Bob’s insight at the time as to important priorities for research and public safety. I first became aware of Bob’s interest in earthquake hazard reduction shortly after arriving in California. We were conducting a spectral comparison of ground shaking on soft bay mud with that on nearby rock. The results were pretty dramatic. Some frequencies of shaking on soft soil were so large as to cause instruments of the day with standard settings to go off scale, while others with the same settings on rock were recorded at low resolution. Bob and his colleague George Gates were quick to see that the results held public safety implications for new communities—such as Foster City and Redwood Shores in California, both of which are built on reclaimed lands on the margins of San Francisco Bay. They encouraged reviews of the results by the late Harry Seed of UC Berkeley, Bill Moore of Dames and Moore, Earl Jones of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and others. Their support and interest helped trigger my return to the life of a student at U.C. Berkeley with a sudden interest in studying nonlinear soil response using a new shake table under construction at the Earth- quake Engineering Research Center. Bob’s scientific accomplishments and over 150 publications speak for themselves, but his contributions to one particular area merits special mention. Although not the first to observe the occurrence of earthquakes in the geologic record, Bob’s contributions to the subject have led some to refer to him as the “father” of paleoseismology. He xi encouraged the use of the term to refer to the history of earthquake faulting, as inferred from geologic evidence. He was quick to understand its importance as a scientific basis for assess- ments of earthquake potential and, in turn, as a tool for earthquake prediction. Geologic evidence (collected largely through trenching) provides a major database for the inference of prehistoric earthquake recurrence times and associated slip rates. The data are a basis for the National Seismic Hazard Maps and for assessing earthquake probabilities for use in modern building codes. Paleoseismology is indeed a legacy from Bob that represents an important first step in quantifying the risk from future earthquakes.