Accession Number:
ADA023967
Title:
State of the Art for Assessing Earthquake Hazards in the United States. Report 5. Plate Tectonics and Earthquake Assessment,
Descriptive Note:
Corporate Author:
ARMY ENGINEER WATERWAYS EXPERIMENT STATION VICKSBURG MISS
Personal Author(s):
Report Date:
1976-03-01
Pagination or Media Count:
106.0
Abstract:
The emerging theory of plate tectonics, embodying continental drift, seafloor spreading, transform faults, subduction of lithospheric plates, and other basic tenets, provides earth scientists with a reasonably coherent and workable explanation of the occurrence and distribution of earthquakes. It explains the tectonic origin of belts of major seismic activity throughout the United States and provides a consistent pattern into which focal mechanisms of major earthquakes can be fitted. It provides a framework into which a wide variety of observations of geology and geophysics can be assimilated. In short, it is a unifying concept long sought by earth scientists.
Descriptors:
Subject Categories:
- Seismology