Utah State Geologists Present at 2002 Fall AGU Meeting

Utah State University geologists Dawn Martindale and Jim Evans presented their research on the 1857 Ft. Tejon earthquake along the San Andreas Fault in a press conference at the American Geophysical Union’s 2002 Fall Meeting in San Francisco. The presentation was titled "Historigraphical analysis of the 1857 Ft. Tejon earthquake, San Andreas Fault, California Preliminary Results."

 

Martindale said that because modern instrumental seismology is scarcely a century old, the database of historic earthquakes represents an extremely important, and in many cases underexploited, resource. Using modern techniques to analyze old earthquakes, scientists are able to learn about not only the earthquakes themselves, but also to address issues at the forefront of both earthquake science and hazard assessment.

 

Panelists along with Martindale and Evans will discuss recent results that give the public a better understanding of past earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault as well as studies that contribute to the understanding of hazard in two regions, India and Japan. These heavily urbanized areas are both exposed to very high earthquake hazard Martindale said.