Improving Reno Earthquake Hazard Assessment Through a Ground-Motion Model Analysis and Paleoseismic Study
We present the results of two complimentary methods to assess earthquake hazards around Reno, Nevada. First, we evaluate the performance of the four NGA-West2 (2014) Active Crustal models, which are trained on a global dataset of ground motion recordings, in the context of the Reno area. We compare the NGA-West2 model estimates with a new dataset of ground motion measurements derived from seismic recordings for 512 earthquakes near Reno. This comparison identifies various source, site, and path residuals between the estimated and observed ground-motions. Second, we present age constraints on two surfaces near the Mt. Rose range-bounding fault using Optically Stimulated Luminescence to date soil samples from paleoseismic pits. The age constraints are used with topographic offset to constrain the fault slip rate and earthquake recurrence interval. The two approaches can be used to conduct more accurate assessments of seismic hazard risk to Reno and facilitate future hazard mitigation.
Earthquake, Ground Motion Model, Mount Rose, NGA-West2, Paleoseismology, Reno
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