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Teaching Active Fault Mapping and Applications Towards Developing New Fault Displacement Hazard Datasets

Session: Fault Displacement Hazard: New Data and Modeling Advances [Poster]

Type: Poster

Date: 4/22/2021

Presentation Time: 03:45 PM Pacific

Description: 

A reasonable assumption in fault displacement hazard assessment is that future coseismic surface-fault ruptures will coincide with fault traces that can be mapped from geologic and geomorphic data. The extent to which this is true on a site-specific basis, however, is a current gap in probabilistic fault displacement hazard (PFDHA) models. Whereas some current PFDHA models have terms for aleatory variability in surface-fault rupture location, a goal for the next-generation PFDHA models is to develop statistical models for how the conditional probability of rupture may depend on the location, distribution, and quality of fault traces identified through or near a site. To develop new datasets applicable to these rupture probability models, we developed a course to teach fault zone mapping techniques to undergraduate and graduate students. The jointly offered course (ASU and UNR) focused on documenting tectonic features along fault zones. Instruction included demonstration of the geomorphic expression of faults in a range of environments. Students produced digital maps of Quaternary geology and fault traces using imagery and topographic datasets that predated historic ruptures. The pre-rupture mapping was performed for the 1983 Borah Peak, 1966 and 2004 Parkfield, 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah, 2011 Fukushima, 2013 Balochistan, 2014 Napa, 2016 Kaikoura, 2016 Kumamoto, and 2020 Monte Cristo events. The student maps, which include qualitative uncertainty in fault trace line work, represent a relatively unbiased indication of mappable fault trace locations and provide new comparison datasets to evaluate the uncertainties and relationships between pre-rupture fault mapping and post-earthquake surface rupture distribution. Our intention for these maps is to inform next-generation PFDHA models that may explicitly account for pre-rupture fault trace information and lead to improved site-specific rupture probability and fault displacement hazard characterization.

Presenting Author: Richard D. Koehler

Student Presenter: No

Authors