Issues
Opinion
LOOKING BACK FROM THE YEAR 3,000
LOOKING BACK FROM THE YEAR 3,000 Many people have asked me how I can justify living with the earthquake threat in the Los Angeles area. My answer is usually that we have some reasonably strict building codes and that the threat of earthquakes to life safety is minimized if our buildings survive our coming quakes. The current building code calls for buildings to sustain at most repairable damage from the strongest shaking that is anticipated with a 10% probability in 50 years. If the building is a critical structure, such as a hospital, then the requirement is increased to 10% in 100 years. Furthermore, buildings of both classes should not collapse for the strongest ground shaking that can be anticipated at the location of the building. If the building code works as it's supposed to, then we endure far greater risks from other factors than from earthquakes. Although it is...
News & Notes
News & Notes
KIYOO WADATIIS DEAD AT AGE 92 Kiyoo Wadati, Former Director of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the 1980 winner of the Seismological Society of America Medal, died on January 5, 1995 in Japan at age 92. Among his many contributions to the field of seismology, Wadati (his name is also sometimes given as Wadachi) is credited with establishing the existence of deep-focus earthquakes and with studies that contributed to the development of the first earthquake magnitude scale by Charles Richter. He also helped to modernize Japan's meteorological observation systems. Wadati formerly held the posts of president of the Japan Academy and president of the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior (IASPEI) in addition to being the Director of the JMA. In 1975 Wadati was named an Honorary Member of the SSA. He received the SSA Medal in 1980, and in 1985 he received Japan's Order...
The Kobe (Hyogo-ken Nanbu), Japan, Earthquake of January 16, 1995
The Kobe earthquake of January 16, 1995, is one of the most damaging earthquakes in the recent history of Japan. This earthquake is also called “The Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Southern part of Hyogo prefecture) earthquake,” and the disaster caused by it is referred to as “Hanshin Daishinsai (A major earthquake disaster in the Osaka-Kobe area).” As of January 29, 1995, the casualty toll reached 5,094 dead, 13 missing and 26,798 injured. This article presents some background on the earthquake and its setting and a summary of some preliminary seismological results obtained by various investigators. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) located this earthquake at 34.60°N, 135.00°E, depth=22 km, origin time=05:46:53.9, 1/17/1995 JST, (20:46:53.9, 1/16/1995 GMT) with a JMA magnitude Mj=7.2 (Figure 1). The epicenter is close to the city of Kobe (population, about 1.4 million), approximately 200 km away from the Nankai trough (the major plate boundary between the Philippine Sea and...
The Mw 6.7 Arthur's Pass Earthquake in the Southern Alps, New Zealand, June 18, 1994
At 0325 on 18 June 1994 (UT) an Mw 6.7 earthquake occurred in the central South Island of New Zealand (Table 1), the largest event in the region for 65 years. The epicentre is about 25 km southeast of the major strike-slip Alpine Fault, which marks the boundary between the obliquely converging Pacific and Australian plates (Figure 1). Just to the north the northeast striking Alpine Fault divides into a number of splay faults (the Marlborough Fault System). However, the aftershock zone of this event strikes NNW and does not correspond to any known fault. There was one immediate foreshock (ML 2.6 21 hours prior) and a well-developed aftershock sequence with 3 large events (ML 5.5 to 5.8) within the first few days following the main shock. Because of the remote location of the event local damage was confined mainly to roading, with the major transAlpine State Highway 73 being...
Seismological Notes
This report includes hypocenters for seismic events that occurred in May and June 1994 as published in the Preliminary Determination of Epicenters (PDE) Monthly Listing, U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center. It is limited to three types of events: (1) earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or more, (2) earthquakes causing substantial damage, and (3) events of special interest. Time is given in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), unless otherwise specified. Latitude and longitude are given to hundredths of a degree for all locations except for events at the Nevada Test Site, which are given to hundredths of a second of arc. Depths constrained to “normal” (33 km) or other assigned depths are indicated by “constrained.” Those made to agree with depth phases are marked “depth phases.” Reports followed by (GS) are taken from the PDE Monthly Listing. All reported intensities correspond to the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale or other...
ANNUAL MEETING
ANNUAL MEETING
SSA '95 Chairperson Diane Doser, University of Texas at El Paso Technical Program Committee Richard Aster, New Mexico Tech Susan Beck, Univ. of Arizona Hans Hartse, Los Alamos National Lab Tom Hearn, New Mexico State Univ. Leigh House, Los Alamos National Lab G. Randy Keller, Univ. Texas at El Paso Kate Miller, Univ. Texas at El Paso Terry Wallace, Univ. of Arizona Special Events Tuesday, March 21 9:00 a.m.—6 p.m. meeting of the Council of the National Seismic System, Room l23,Geology Building, UTEP campus 10 a.m. SSA Board Meeting,Geology Building Reading Room (Room 310), UTEP campus 2:00–4:00 p.m. Registration, Camino Real Hotel 6:00–7:30 p.m. Icebreaker and Registration, Geology Building, UTEP campus Thursday, March 23 11:45 a.m.–l:45 p.m., SSAAnnual Luncheon. Topic of President Tom Heaton's speech: “Urban Earthquakes”, UTEP student union, second floor 6:00 p.m.–l0:00 p.m., “Fiesta Mexicana”, Dinner and Entertainment at Solar de la Paloma, Juarez, Mexico, subsidized by Teledyne-Geotech...
MEETING CALENDAR
MEETING CALENDAR
MARCH, 1995 March 22–24 Seismological Society of America El Paso, TX. (Conference Services, Division of Professional and Continuing Education, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 West University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968. Phone 915-7475142. Fax 915-747-5538.) APRIL, 1995 April 2–7 Third International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics St. Louis, MO. (Shamsher Prakash, University of Missouri—Rolla. Phone 314-341-4489. Fax 314-341-4729/4992. E-mail prakash@Novell.Civil.UMR.Edu) April 3–7 European Geophysical Society XX General Assembly Hamburg, Germany, (EGS Office, Postfach 49, Max-Palnck-Str, 1,37189 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany. Phone 49-5556-1440. Fax 49-5556-4709. E-mail egs@linaxl.dnet.gwdg.de.) April 9–13 European Union of Geosciences Symposium, Strasbourg, France (EUG VIII, E.O.P.G., 5 Rue Rene Descartes, Strasbourg Cedex 67084, France.) MAY 1995 May 15–17 SEE-2 Second International Conference on Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Teheran, Iran. May 24-26 Cordilleran section Meeting, Geological Society of Americ Fairbanks, AK. (Jeanine Schmidt/Christina Neal, U.S. Geological Survey, Anchorage, AK 99508-4667. Phone 907-786-7494/907-786-745. Fax...
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