[CEUS-earthquake-hazards] Revised seismic design criteria for New Madrid

[Seth Stein]

Readers may be interested in the latest proposal for seismic building
design criteria. In it "the 2008 USGS hazard maps should not be
substituted for the model building code design maps nor should they be
used with ASCE/SEI 41 or 31 for seismic rehabilitation or evaluation."

Specifically, there are a set of scale (risk) factors to apply to the
2008 USGS hazard maps to produce design maps: "Resulting risk
coefficients are generally 0.85-1.15, but as low as 0.7 near New Madrid
and Charleston".

The USGS disclaimer

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/hazmaps/products_data/2008/disclaimer.php 


gives  information about how the hazard maps are modified to
produce design maps. For additional information, see

http://bssconline.org/2008AnnualMeeting/080910--Luco1@BSSC_Annual_Mtg(Posted).pdf
http://bssconline.org/2008AnnualMeeting/08MeetingRecap.html
-- 
Seth Stein
William Deering Professor
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
1850 Campus Drive
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208
(847) 491-5265 FAX: (847) 491-8060 E-MAIL: seth at earth.northwestern.edu
http://www.earth.northwestern.edu/people/seth