| State-of-the-art earthquake
engineering of facilities relies on the most up-to-date information about
seismic conditions and the tools to interpret it. A main goal of
the NSF-funded Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), headquartered
at University of California at Berkeley, is to provide engineering professionals
around the world with the most current information and tools available.
The Center’s Next Generation
Attenuation (NGA) program gathered data over ten years on how earthquake
ground motions varied with distance from the epicenter of the earthquake.
The program simulated earthquake recordings analytically where data gaps
existed and, in a community effort, developed new ground motion models.
The U.S. Geological Survey
has adopted the results of the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) program,
using them to develop the 2008 U.S. National Seismic Hazard Maps that serve
as the basis for design of buildings, lifelines, and other facilities nationwide.
The new maps will significantly affect seismic design of most constructed
facilities in the entire western U.S. |
