Arthur Frankel will discuss 'Progress and Controversy in Seismic Hazard Mapping' on Sept. 29

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 7-8:30 p.m,
Lucy Cuddy Hall

The Dept. of Geomatics in the School of Engineering welcomes guest speaker Arthur Frankel from the Seattle, WA U.S. Geological Survey to UAA on Wednesday, Sept. 29. The lecture will take place from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Lucy Cuddy Hall.

Probabilistic seismic hazard maps translate what we know about earthquake sources, faulting, crustal deformation, and strong ground motions into a form that can be used by engineers to design structures.

Frankel will discuss three examples that illustrate how seismic hazard maps are developed and applied:

• Production of the 1996 national seismic hazard maps that were directly used in building codes
• Controversy involving the seismic hazard in the New Madrid region of the central U.S.
• Construction of detailed urban seismic hazard maps for Seattle using three-dimensional ground-motion simulations

Frankel will also describe research on the scaling of earthquake ground motions with magnitude, in light of a recent compilation of strong-motion data. To get a better understanding of the earthquake processes and how it can improve estimates of seismic hazard please join the lecture.

There will be light refreshments provided. For information, please contact Susan K. Dickerson at anskd@uaa.alaska.edu.