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Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 308-314).

Earthquake impacts are widely studied across numerous disciplines. However, no systematic approach to quantify the "size" of an earthquake for impact research exists. This work provides the first comprehensive discussion and empirical study on how to measure the natural hazard of an earthquake for application in the social sciences. A data set consisting of all relevant global ground shaking from 1973 to 2015 combined with population exposure data and impact data is constructed based on 14,608 ShakeMaps. The empirical work shows that magnitude is not a good proxy for shaking and that measures of total earthquake size based on ground motion parameters perform better in explaining impacts than magnitude. In particular peak ground acceleration (PGA) performs well and is applied for two separate impact analyses. First, the relationship between earthquake ground shaking and public health related variables in California is investigated. Second, the global impact of earthquake ground shaking on long-run economic growth is studied. Furthermore, this work introduces the concept of a shaking center as well as a shaking centroid and provides the first global statistics on the area exposed to strong ground shaking for a given earthquake.

This thesis examines disaster policy at the local government level. Specifically, earthquake preparedness planning in three British Columbia school districts is examined. The disaster policy cycle and seismic risk in British Columbia are also addressed. Prior to the late 1980's, the Vancouver, Coquitlam and Langley school districts had not adopted specific measures to prepare for an earthquake. The Loma Prieta earthquake in California in 1989 increased earthquake awareness in British Columbia substantially. Thus, the Vancouver, Coquitlam and Langley school districts were faced with the same problem: the formulation and development of earthquake preparedness plans. One might expect that since all three school districts were faced with the same problem that a convergent approach to earthquake preparedness planning would be taken. However, the case studies reveal significant divergence in terms of earthquake preparedness. In relation to earthquake preparedness planning in the three school districts case studies, four factors are analyzed: amount of money spent, centralized approach versus decentralized approach, reliance on external expertise and thoroughness of the plan. Four possible explanations for the divergence of earthquake preparedness plans at the school district level are discussed in this thesis. These explanations are influence of interest groups, influence of key personnel, availability of community wealth, and magnitude of risk. The data base of for this thesis consists of the earthquake preparedness planning experience in the Vancouver, Coquitlam and Langley school districts. Relevant school district managers, staff, teachers, school administrators and parents were interviewed. Interviewees were chosen to represent departments or committees that were directly responsible for disaster preparedness or had some stake, direct or indirect, in the issues posed by earthquake preparedness. Documentary sources, government reports and statistics and newspaper articles were also used. Several conclusions can be drawn regarding emergency preparedness at the school district level. First, if magnitude of risk is significant and recognized, then the natural disaster problem has a greater chance of being addressed in an adequate manner. Second, if interest groups focus on a natural disaster problem, then there is more likelihood of more thorough action being taken than if interest groups were not involved. Third, current fiscal restraint indicates that funding, both public and private, will affect the thoroughness of emergency preparedness planning. Fourth, the preferences and actions of government officials cannot be ignored in regard to emergency preparedness planning. The degree to which natural disaster problems occupy the scope of government officials' preferences and actions will determine the extent to which disaster policy receives attention in many instances.

Thesis (Ph. D.). UM #9842342. / Title from document title page. Includes bibliographical references. Available in PDF format via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity International University, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-135).

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity International University, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-135).

This thesis examines disaster policy at the local government level. Specifically, earthquake preparedness planning in three British Columbia school districts is examined. The disaster policy cycle and seismic risk in British Columbia are also addressed. Prior to the late 1980's, the Vancouver, Coquitlam and Langley school districts had not adopted specific measures to prepare for an earthquake. The Loma Prieta earthquake in California in 1989 increased earthquake awareness in British Columbia substantially. Thus, the Vancouver, Coquitlam and Langley school districts were faced with the same problem: the formulation and development of earthquake preparedness plans. One might expect that since all three school districts were faced with the same problem that a convergent approach to earthquake preparedness planning would be taken. However, the case studies reveal significant divergence in terms of earthquake preparedness. In relation to earthquake preparedness planning in the three school districts case studies, four factors are analyzed: amount of money spent, centralized approach versus decentralized approach, reliance on external expertise and thoroughness of the plan. Four possible explanations for the divergence of earthquake preparedness plans at the school district level are discussed in this thesis. These explanations are influence of interest groups, influence of key personnel, availability of community wealth, and magnitude of risk. The data base of for this thesis consists of the earthquake preparedness planning experience in the Vancouver, Coquitlam and Langley school districts. Relevant school district managers, staff, teachers, school administrators and parents were interviewed. Interviewees were chosen to represent departments or committees that were directly responsible for disaster preparedness or had some stake, direct or indirect, in the issues posed by earthquake preparedness. Documentary sources, government reports and statistics and newspaper articles were also used. Several conclusions can be drawn regarding emergency preparedness at the school district level. First, if magnitude of risk is significant and recognized, then the natural disaster problem has a greater chance of being addressed in an adequate manner. Second, if interest groups focus on a natural disaster problem, then there is more likelihood of more thorough action being taken than if interest groups were not involved. Third, current fiscal restraint indicates that funding, both public and private, will affect the thoroughness of emergency preparedness planning. Fourth, the preferences and actions of government officials cannot be ignored in regard to emergency preparedness planning. The degree to which natural disaster problems occupy the scope of government officials' preferences and actions will determine the extent to which disaster policy receives attention in many instances. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

An earthquake swarm occurring on a segment of the ocean rise system in the northeast Pacific Ocean is considered. The data are in the form of standard seismograph records from the western portion of British Columbia, covering the period August 27 to September 1, 1967. The study follows two lines of investigation. Five seismograph stations in western British Columbia are considered as an array and 19 of the larger magnitude events located with respect to this array. The closest station to the swarm is on the northern end of Vancouver Island about 180 km from the source area. This station recorded 217 distinct arrivals in the 5-day period. Statistical properties of the swarm plus the magnitude-frequency relationship can thus be estimated. The Pn and Sn arrivals in western British Columbia show the following time-distance relationships: T[subscript Pn] = (5.51±0.38) + Δ/(7.69±0.03) T[subscript Sn] = (10.16±1.25) + Δ/(4.45±0.03) These travel times are consistent with a crust on Vancouver Island greater than 50 km thick. The epicenters for events in the swarm are associated with two distinct tectonic features in the northeast Pacific Ocean - the Explorer Trench and the Queen Charlotte Island Fracture Zone. The events in the swarm show a non-random distribution in time and the polarity of the first arrival varies with station and with event. These facts suggest a generating process involving strain release by movement on a fault or faults coupled with some sort of triggering mechanism. The magnitude-frequency relationship is determined as Log₁₀N = (4.07±0.50) - (1.10±0.20)M[subscript L] for 2.0 < M[subscript L] < 4.0. The value for the slope (-1.10) is characteristic of earthquake swarms generated as a result of volcanic activity. The apparent paradox concerning the source mechanism is reconciled in the idea of "The New Global Tectonics" that extension across ridge crests (involving generation of new crustal material by diapiric intrusions) and transform faulting of the off-setting fracture zones will occur together. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

Volcanic earthquakes can provide significant insight into physical processes acting at volcanoes, such as magma accumulation and the mechanisms of deformation of the volcanic edifice. At the same time a statistical analyses of volcanic seismicity prior to an eruption (for example variations in the Gutenberg-Richter b-value – a measure of the proportion of large and small events) are a key component of the practical problem of forecasting eruptions. This thesis aims to tackle two key areas of research that are closely related to these important overall goals, by comparing seismic data obtained from currently-active volcanoes with direct field observation of faulting and fracturing from an exhumed extinct volcano. First I introduce a new approach that improves the accuracy and reliability of calculating spatial and temporal variations of the seismic b-value for frequency-magnitude distributions at active volcanoes, and apply it to several test cases. An extensive literature review highlights a large variability and lack of standardisation of methodology used to analyse frequency-magnitude distributions in the past. Motivated by this, I introduce and test a new workflow to standardise calculating completeness magnitudes of seismic catalogues. The review also highlights the fact that uncertainties in estimating the threshold magnitude of complete reporting have been ignored to date. Here I use synthetic catalogues to quantify this previously unidentified source of error, and provide a template to estimate the total error in b-value. In standard analysis it is also common to sample time windows subjectively, although this can introduce bias. Here I develop a new objective, iterative sampling method that calculates the b-value as a full probability density function which need not have a Gaussian error structure. Application of this method reveals ‘mode-switching’ behaviour for the first time in volcanic seismic catalogues. The results also show b-values often do have a value indistinguishable from that of tectonic seismicity (b=1 within error). Nevertheless there are also several robust examples of real high b-values, as high as 3.3. The second part of the study is based on a field campaign to investigate the fracture zones from an exhumed volcanic setting on the Isle of Rum, NW Scotland. Lithological and structural mapping is used to collect structural data that is then used to quantify and explain complex fracture patterns and the underlying intra-magma chamber processes that occurred there in the geological past. In particular I identify a singular collapse event within the youngest volcanic unit, the Central Intrusion. This is responsible for forming the observed igneous breccias and the lineaments on satellite images that I interpret as contemporaneous faults. Using appropriate scaling relations, I infer the b-value for the Rum lineaments data. This would have been relatively high, at a value of approximately 1.9. The final part of the study compares the fracture data on Rum to earthquake distributions at El Hierro volcano, Canary Islands. Here I show the level of fractal clustering is similar in both an extinct (60 Ma) and a currently active volcano. Both show similar high levels of clustering. However, in both cases there is a difference between the capacity and correlation dimensions (D₀≠D₂), implying the set of rupture sources or mapped fault traces form a multi-fractal set. Broadly, the scaling of fracture sets in an ancient volcano has similar properties to those observed in a modern volcano, except that the Rum data imply a greater absolute degree of spatial clustering of deformation than that for the recent unrest at El Hierro.