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About Earthquakes
Earthquake impacts are many and varied, ranging from minor structural damage to a few buildings to complete devastation over huge areas. At their most powerful, earthquakes are capable of annihilating major urban centres and severely disrupting the social and economic fabric of nations. As a consequence, the range of earthquake phenomena and impacts are of concern to a broad spectrum of professions including insurance, construction, engineering, land-use planning, and disaster managementIn recent years, large earthquakes have caused two of the most costly natural disasters of all time - the 1994 Northridge quake in southern California, and the Kobe earthquake that rocked Japan in 1995. This last event resulted in over six thousand deaths and economic losses estimated at around 100 billion US dollars. Such devastation and loss can be significantly mitigated through advance assessment of seismic hazard and risk and the implementation of appropriate land-use, construction codes, and emergency plans. Together such initiatives can substantially reduce the level of death and injury, dramatically diminish the economic impact, and limit the exposure of insurance companies.
Seismic hazard and risk research and consultancy at the BHRC is undertaken within the Seismic Risk Group - an ad hoc consortium of experts affiliated through the Centre. Members of the group provide research-led expertise and advice on the complete range of phenomena related to seismic hazard and risk. Current research focuses on the use of geological fault-slip data to construct better seismic risk maps; seismic hazard in the South China region and earthquake mechanisms. Consultancies have addressed seismic hazard and risk in Israel, Peru, Iceland, the Caribbean and China.
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