Thursday, November 1, 2007

Highlights of October BSSA

I get this journal from the Seismological Society of America. This month two articles stand out for me. First there is an article on the Seattle Basin. That is one heck of a basin! This article is unusual in that it says the basin amplifies ground motions by a factor of 10, in general! I've always know that, and if you add soft soil on top of that, you get a factor of 100! Anyway they have a nice picture of the basin.

Another paper tells all about California, and how the hills are composed of harder rock that is basically extruding over the softer, younger basin deposits. This causes general slumping and landslides, and gives an impression on the gps that the overall seismic deformation is larger than it should be (since everything is moving!). They had a nice picture, as well.

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