Identification

Title
EQ-AF-USGS-PGA-500
Abstract
"Earthquakes represent a serious threat to the people and institutions of Afghanistan. As part of a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) effort to assess the resource potential and seismic hazards of Afghanistan, the Seismic Hazard Mapping group of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has prepared a series of probabilistic seismic hazard maps that help quantify the expected frequency and strength of ground shaking nationwide. To construct the maps, we do a complete hazard analysis for each of ~35,000 sites in the study area. We use a probabilistic methodology that accounts for all potential seismic sources and their rates of earthquake activity, and we incorporate modeling uncertainty by using logic trees for source and ground-motion parameters. See the Appendix for an explanation of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and discussion of seismic risk. Production of the seismic hazard maps is challenging because the geological and seismological data required to produce a seismic hazard model are limited. The data that are available for this project include historical seismicity and poorly constrained slip rates on only a few of the many active faults in the country. Much of the hazard is derived from a new catalog of historical earthquakes: from 1964 to the present, with magnitude equal to or greater than about 4.5, and with depth between 0 and 250 kilometers. We also include four specific faults in the model: the Chaman fault with an assigned slip rate of 10 mm/yr, the Central Badakhshan fault with an assigned slip rate of 12 mm/yr, the Darvaz fault with an assigned slip rate of 7 mm/yr, and the Hari Rud fault with an assigned slip rate of 2 mm/yr. For these faults and for shallow seismicity less than 50 km deep, we incorporate published ground-motion estimates from tectonically active regions of western North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Ground-motion estimates for deeper seismicity are derived from data in subduction environments. We apply estimates derived for tectonic regions where subduction is the main tectonic process for intermediate-depth seismicity between 50- and 250-km depth. Within the framework of these limitations, we have developed a preliminary probabilistic seismic-hazard assessment of Afghanistan, the type of analysis that underpins the seismic components of modern building codes in the United States. The assessment includes maps of estimated peak ground-acceleration (PGA), 0.2-second spectral acceleration (SA), and 1.0-second SA, with return periods of about 500 years (equal to a 10-percent probability in 50 years), 1000 years (equal to a 5-percent probability in 50 years), and 2,500 years (equal to a 2-percent probability in 50 years) "
License
Public Domain (PD)
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Publication Date
May 1, 2007, 9:41 a.m.
Type
Raster Data
Keywords
Category
Geoscientific Information
information pertaining to earth sciences. Examples: geophysical features and processes, geology, minerals, sciences dealing with the composition, structure and origin of the earth s rocks, risks of earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides, gravity information, soils, permafrost, hydrogeology, erosion
Regions
Afghanistan
Approved
Yes
Published
Yes
Featured
No
DOI
None
Attribution
None
Responsible

Name
usgs
email
Position
None
Organization
USGS
Location
Voice
None
Fax
None
Information

Identification Image
Spatial Extent
---
Projection System
EPSG:4326
Extension x0
54.232680538650804
Extension x1
80.76731946134919
Extension y0
23.5495104039881
Extension y1
43.45048959601189
Features

Maintenance Frequency
There Are No Plans To Update The Data
Purpose
For use in the ThinkHazard! (THOR) project
Language
English
Supplemental Information
Source data url: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/hazards/products/foreign/afghanistan/data/
Spatial Representation Type
grid data is used to represent geographic data
Contact Points

Name
Brenden Jongman (brenden)
email
Position
None
Organization
None
Location
Voice
None
Fax
None

References

Link Online
/layers/pga10p50:hazard:pga10p50
Metadata Page
/layers/pga10p50:hazard:pga10p50/metadata_detail

Thumbnail
EQ-AF-USGS-PGA-500.png
Original Dataset
EQ-AF-USGS-PGA-500.zip
JPEG
EQ-AF-USGS-PGA-500.jpg
PDF
EQ-AF-USGS-PGA-500.pdf
PNG
EQ-AF-USGS-PGA-500.png
GeoTIFF
EQ-AF-USGS-PGA-500.geotiff
Legend
EQ-AF-USGS-PGA-500.png
Thumbnail
EQ-AF-USGS-PGA-500.png

OGC WMS: hazard Service
Geoservice OGC:WMS
OGC WCS: hazard Service
Geoservice OGC:WCS
Metadata Author

Name
Andy (andy)
email
Position
Organization
Location
Voice
Fax