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.

Level thesis:degree_level

Master’s Degree

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Dills, Carter Wayne

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Trugman, Daniel T

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Koehler, Richard D
• Feldman, Chris R

• Earthquake
• Ground Motion Model
• Mount Rose
• NGA-West2
• Paleoseismology
• Reno

Language dc:language.iso

en_US, English

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://scholarwolf.unr.edu/handle/11714/11871

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarwolf.unr.edu:11714/11871