USGS Earthquake Hazards Program-About Us

U.S. Geological Survey
Earthquake Hazards Program - Central & Eastern U.S.
*The information presented on this web page is preliminary and should not be used for any official or unofficial purposes.*

Research

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Memphis, Shelby County Urban Hazard Maps

Non-technical Documentation

Technical Documentation

Ground Shaking Maps
Geologic Maps
Liquefaction Susceptibility Maps

Memphis has a dense urban population near faults capable of producing major earthquakes, a high probability of a moderate earthquake in the near future (e.g., a 25-40% probability of a magnitude 6.0 or greater in the next 50 years), and relatively low regional attenuation (in other words, seismic waves do damage over a greater area in this region than for the same magnitude earthquake in the west). Memphis lies within the New Madrid seismic zone, which is the most well studied earthquake-prone region in the Central and Eastern U.S.

Memphis Queen Riverboat in front of downtown Memphis.

The Memphis Queen Riverboat & downtown Memphis.

The U.S. Geological Survey is completing a large-scale urban seismic hazard mapping project in Memphis, Tennessee, one of three urban areas chosen nationally to launch this new focus on reducing earthquake risk in the nation's most vulnerable areas - our urban areas. Memphis was selected as typical of the central and eastern U.S., having few seismically engineered buildings and an infrastructure mostly built without earthquake shaking in mind.

Products

Probabilistic seismic hazard map showing ground motions with a 2% probability of being exceeded in 50 years. Motions are accelerations with oscillation periods of 1 second. Inset map of the Memphis area includes site amplification effects, superimposed on the national seismic hazard map, which does not account for local geologic structure.	Probabilistic ground shaking maps Technical documentation explains how the maps were made, with details and terminology meant for readers with engineering and/or scientific expertise. (under revision) Non-technical documentation explains how the maps were made, in plain English and without lots of the nitty-gritty details and technical jargon. Probabilistic ground motion maps show the ground shaking for various probability levels and types of motions.
Databases The Shelby County Subsurface database contains information about geological, geotechnical, and hydrological subsurface properties. It is maintained by the Ground Water Institute at the University of Memphis.	Map of Memphis and vicinity with locations of subsurface logs (red dots) and shear-wave velocity profiles (green labels) collected for seismic hazard maps of the six quadrangles outlined. Major waterways (dark lines) and interstate highways (thick dashed lines) are labeled.
The seismic shear-wave velocity profile database contains maps and newly measured profiles.
Surficial geologic maps (in progress)
Liquefaction susceptibility maps (in progress)
Related Publications Journal articles (technical information) Fact sheets (general information)	Collapsed houses in the town of Ratnal, in the epicentral region of the 2001 M7.7 Bhuj, India earthquake. From USGS Fact Sheet 0007-02 "East Meets West: An Earthquake in India Helps Hazard Assessment in the Central United States".

Meetings and Workshops

The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (EHP) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is part of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) lead by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

U.S. Geological Survey, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior
This page is brought to you by the Earthquake Hazards Program
URL: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/about_us/
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Last modification:Tuesday, 23-Jul-2002 15:43
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