About Us
Earthquake Hazards Program Offices
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This web site is provided by the United States Geological Surveys
(USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program as part of our effort to reduce earthquake
hazard in the United States. We are part of the USGS Hazards Mission Area and
are the USGS component of the congressionally established, multi-agency
National Earthquake Hazards
Reduction Program (NEHRP). The USGS participates in the NEHRP with the
Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA), the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the
National Science Foundation
(NSF). In the 2004 reauthorization of NEHRP by Congress, NIST has been
given the lead role to plan and coordinate this national effort to mitigate
earthquake losses by developing and applying earth science data and
assessments essential for land-use planning, engineering design, and
emergency preparedness decisions.
Earthquakes pose significant risk to 75 million Americans in 39 States. The
USGS is the only Federal agency with responsibility for recording and
reporting earthquake activity nationwide. Citizens, emergency responders, and
engineers rely on the USGS for accurate and timely information on where an
earthquake occurred, how much the ground shook in different locations, and
what the likelihood is of future significant ground shaking.
The USGS estimates that several million earthquakes occur in the world each
year, but many go undetected because they occur in remote areas or have very
small magnitudes. The USGS now locates about 50 earthquakes each day; 20,000
a year.
The USGS is working to improve its earthquake monitoring and reporting
capabilities through the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS). In the past three years the
USGS has installed approximately 300 new earthquake monitoring instruments in
the San Francisco, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Anchorage, Reno, Las Vegas, and
Memphis areas. Full implementation of ANSS will result in 6000 new
instruments on the ground and in structures in at-risk urban areas, as well
as a backbone of modern seismic instruments for the entire Nation. Once in
place, the ANSS will provide emergency response personnel with real-time
(within 5-10 minutes of an event) information on the intensity and
distribution of ground shaking that can be used to guide emergency response
efforts. Similarly, information on building "shaking" will equip
engineers with the data they need to improve building designs in the future.
USGS External Earthquake Research Support
In addition to activities performed by USGS staff, expertise in earthquake
studies that exist outside the federal government is applied through a
substantial program of grants, cooperative agreements and/or contracts with
universities, state, regional and local government agencies, and private
industry. The USGS invites research proposals to develop information,
knowledge and methods that will assist in achieving the goals of the
National Earthquake Hazards
Reduction Program (NEHRP).
See External Research Support.