Stanford Geophysicists Map What Lies Beneath Southern California Using High-Resolution Sensors

BY ZACHARY ROMANO
Researchers at Stanford University are identifying hidden dangers beneath Earth’s surface in Southern California by measuring body waves from human activity on city streets and sidewalks. Body waves are the seismic waves that only move through the interior of a solid, as opposed to “surface waves,” which only move on the surface. Throughout Long Beach, seismic sensors had been placed around the area for routine monitoring of earthquake and tremor activity. Using these devices, the researchers calibrated them to filter out background noise waves and hone in on these body waves. The maps generated from the seismic data visualize more than half a mile beneath the Earth’s surface.

For nearly 15 years, scientists have worked towards developing the technology that could effectively filter out the unwanted background noise. Previously the technology was quite costly and the seismic sensors lacked the precision to measure the low amplitudes of body waves, especially against the interfering noise. Body wave tomography itself, however, has been used for decades to track earthquakes and explosions. With the help of geospatial and GIS technologies, the maps visualizing these body waves are quite insightful. In Long Beach, the maps accurately show the location of the Newport-Inglewood Fault. The research team also discovered the rock types adjacent to the fault line which could be useful information to certain practitioners.

THOUSAND OF SEISMIC SENSORS (RED DOTS) WERE PLACED AROUND LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA FOR THE STUDY. THE BLUE STAR INDICATES THE REFERENCE RECEIVER. MAP: NAKATA ET AL, 2015.

Southern California can certainly benefit from this new tool to understand the subsurface of the Earth. Two large seafloor faults, the Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge and Ferrelo Fault, are presently shifting and have the ability to create an 8.0 earthquake with tsunami potential 90 miles of the coastline. The DailyMail reported that “the ridges, valleys and other signs they found along the Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge Fault suggest that the fragmented, blocky crust has been lifted upward, while also slipping sideways like the plates along the San Andreas Fault do.” Researchers can create noise images in real-time and use time-series analysis of these images to have a more detailed knowledge of fault lines and their movement, even on a small-scale.

BY MAPPING OUT THE SEISMIC WAVES GENERATED BY HUMAN ACTIVITY, RESEARCHERS ARE ABLE TO CREATE A MAP OF UNDERGROUND CONDITIONS. IMAGE: NAKATA ET AL, 2015.

Another practical application deals with the observation of sinkholes. This can allow researchers to see what areas are at high risk of sinkholes and, in turn, minimize the destruction and number of victims. With a very dynamic crust in California, this higher resolution seismic sensor can now inform emergency preparedness strategies and allow experts to better understand the timeline of a major earthquake.

More:


Nakata, N., Chang, J. P., Lawrence, J. F., & Boué, P. (2015). Body wave extraction and tomography at Long Beach, California, with ambient‐noise interferometry. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 120(2), 1159-1173. Retrieved from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015JB011870/full

Source: GIS Lounge - Maps and GIS

Mapping Europe’s earthquake risk

by Christian Du Brulle




The rubble of a building destroyed by the earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy, in 2009. © Shutterstock/Fotografiche

The Balkan and Mediterranean countries as well as Turkey are all at higher risk of earthquakes than many other Europeans, according to a map produced by EU researchers.


Researchers at the EU-funded SHARE project have produced a map displaying which parts of Europe are most at risk from an earthquake, and it shows that Italy, the Balkans, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey are among the most exposed regions of the continent.


‘Europe has a long history of destructive earthquakes,’ said Professor Domenico Giardini, coordinator of the SHARE project. ‘We all remember the tragic events of Izmit (Turkey) in 1999 and L’Aquila (Italy) in 2009.’ In Izmit, a strong earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale killed 17 000 people, while in L’Aquila a moderate 5.9 magnitude quake killed more than 300 people and destroyed much of the city.

To produce the map, researchers from the SHARE project combined data from more than 30 000 European earthquakes with a magnitude larger than or equal to 3.5 on the Richter scale since the year 1 000, and factored in their damaging effects. To gather data they used data from the AHEAD interactive map of earthquakes in Europe.

They then cross-referenced this data with over 1 100 active faults in Europe, which have a combined length of 64 000 kilometres.

The European Seismic Hazard Map. Blue colours indicate comparatively low hazard areas, yellow to orange colours indicate moderate hazard areas, and red colours indicate high hazard areas.© SHARE

All the information was combined on a single map that shows thick purple zones running through the areas of south-east Europe where earthquakes are more likely, and where they can cause the greatest damage to society. It shows the areas where there is a 10 % or larger probability of experiencing the mapped level of ground shaking within 50 years.

‘It is the first state-of-the-art reference hazard model for Europe,’ said Dr Artur Pinto, the head of the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment at the Joint Research Centre, the EU’s in-house science service, in Ispra, Italy. ‘It can be useful for future policies regarding different kinds of buildings and infrastructure such as dams, tall buildings or even bridges.’

However, the map also shows earthquake hotspots near Brussels in Belgium, Lisbon in Portugal, near Budapest in Hungary and along the Pyrenees mountain range. The hotspots near Brussels, Budapest and Lisbon are because a number of earthquakes have happened in the past, while the hotspot in the western Pyrenees is because of the geological make-up of the area, the project said.

Seismic hazard

‘Seismic hazard is not just about calculating the probability of an event occurring somewhere in Europe in a certain period of time,’ said Prof. Giardini.

‘Europe has a long history of destructive earthquakes.’

Professor Domenico Giardini, the coordinator of SHARE   

‘In our project, seismic risk refers to the likelihood of damages and loss that seismic events can induce to our economic and human environment,’ he said. ‘A moderate earthquake in a densely populated part of Europe, or in an area that hosts critical infrastructures, like a pipeline, can have an enormous impact.’

This was examined in more detail by the EU-funded project SYNER-G, which developed an open-source software tool to analyse vulnerability and work out the social and economic impacts of earthquakes in specific urban areas, like the port of Thessaloniki in Greece, by the time it finished in 2013.

Part of this knowledge is now also being used by geologists, seismologists and engineers as part of the STREST project, which by the time it finishes in 2016 hopes to have developed a common way of evaluating the risk to critical infrastructure, and have identified the key buildings, bridges, roads and pipelines that would have the greatest impact on our society if they were damaged during an earthquake.

All SHARE products, data and results, are freely available and provided through the projectwebsite and the European Facility for Earthquake Hazard and Risk. The map shown in the figure can be ordered from the project website.

Source: Horizon Magazine

Seismic hazard around the World!

This map shows the most hazardous areas all over the world regarding seismic activity! One of the most affected industries is the mining industry, so this spatial analysis presents also some of the mines at a very high risk, with most of the clustering around the Pacific Rim and in a band through Central Asia.

Follow the link here, for more interesting risk maps on the mining industry and critical ecosystems.

Intermap Technologies® Makes Earthquake Data Available for Risk Scoring via InsitePro™

Intermap Technologies (TSX:IMP), (ITMSF: BB), a leading provider of location-based solutions, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Atkins, one of the world's most respected design, engineering, and project management consultancies, to include their natural catastrophe risk and hazard data archives, including North American earthquake data, in its InsitePro software product.


InsitePro is Intermap's cloud-based risk assessment software designed to help property insurance underwriters assess location-based risk. With its configurable analytic engine, InsitePro allows users to design risk scoring analytics that address specific business needs. InsitePro applies reliable peril and geospatial data in a way that fits a carrier's approach to risk.

"InsitePro's flood analytics are changing the way flood insurance is priced and delivered," stated Product Manager Ivan Maddox. "With the Atkins agreement, Intermap will be offering risk scores for all natural perils, including earthquake, hail, tornado, and wind (straight-line and hurricane). InsitePro can now replicate the innovation brought to flood risk assessment across these other perils, delivering custom analytics to underwriters that are based on dependable data and their own view of risk."

Using InsitePro, carriers can automate the risk pricing activities that they are comfortable with and identify risks that need further analysis by an underwriter. It offers fast answers for most properties and allows the carrier to add value where appropriate. Including all perils will enable a carrier to write complete property coverage for homes and businesses to differentiate themselves from carriers that only offer standard coverage.

For more information, please visithttp://www.intermap.com/software/insitepro.

Register for Intermap News Alerts athttp://www.intermap.com/pressreleases.

About Atkins 

Atkins ( www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies, employing some 18,000 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Europe. They build long-term trusted partnerships to create a world where lives are enriched through the implementation of their ideas.

About Intermap Technologies 

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap Technologies is an industry leader in geospatial solutions on demand with its secure, cloud-based Orion Platform®. Through its powerful suite of software applications and proprietary development of contiguous databases that fuse volumes of geospatial data into a single source, the Orion Platform is able to provide location-based solutions for customers in diverse markets around the world. For more information please visit www.intermap.com.

Intermap Reader Advisory 

Certain information provided in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate", "expect"," project", "estimate", "forecast" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Although Intermap believes that these statements are based on information and assumptions which are current, reasonable and complete, these statements are necessarily subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties. You can find a discussion of such risks and uncertainties in our Annual Information Form and other securities filings. While the Company makes these forward-looking statements in good faith, should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary significantly from those expected. Accordingly, no assurances can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that the Company will derive therefrom. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Intermap or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements made herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities law.
SOURCE Intermap Technologies Corporation
Contact:
Intermap Technologies Corporation
Intermap Technologies, Ivan Maddox, InsitePro Product Manager
Email Contact +1 (303) 708-0955

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