Liquefaction Loss Estimation in the United States

Session: Forthcoming Updates of the USGS NSHMs: Hawaii, Conterminous U.S. and Alaska [Poster]
Type: Poster
Date: 4/28/2020
Time: 08:00 AM
Room: Ballroom
Description: 

Liquefaction is a secondary hazard that occurs during earthquakes and can cause severe damage to overlaying infrastructure. As a result, liquefaction can be a significant contributor to loss due to earthquakes. A geospatial liquefaction model developed by Zhu et al. 2017 and implemented by the USGS as part of the Ground Failure module on the earthquake overview page can be used to estimate liquefaction extent after an earthquake. The geospatial liquefaction model estimates liquefaction spatial extent (LSE) using globally available parameters as a percent area immediately after an earthquake. The geospatial liquefaction model, however, does not predict infrastructure or economic loss, as needed by the USGS Pager System. We present a liquefaction loss database based on 17 events causing liquefaction damage in the United States. Liquefaction loss varied greatly across our database from a few thousand dollars, such as in the 2011 Mineral, Virginia, earthquake, to hundreds of millions of dollars, such as in the 1989 Loma Prieta, California, earthquake. Using this database, we relate economic loss to LSE from the geospatial liquefaction model. We use population density to normalize loss across regions.

Presenting Author: Alexander Chansky

Authors