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Deterministic seismic hazard assessments for Taiwan considering non-controlling seismic sources

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Abstract

The region around Taiwan is known for active seismicity, and a few studies have reported a high seismic hazard in this region, including a deterministic seismic hazard analysis (DSHA) study. Essentially, DSHA is to estimate earthquake ground motions considering the worst-case earthquake size and location, but without considering the seismic hazards from non-controlling sources. Understandably, when many non-controlling sources are present, the original DSHA framework could be insufficient. Therefore, using the extreme probability theory, this study introduces a new DSHA framework taking non-controlling seismic sources into account during DSHA calculations. The new method was applied to a seismic hazard assessment for Taiwan, showing that near the conjunctions of seismic source zones, the increase in seismic hazard could be substantial after considering a total of 19 non-controlling sources. More importantly, like other seismic hazard assessments for Taiwan, this study conveys the same alarming message that a high level of seismic hazard should be present around the region.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate the valuable comments from reviewers making this article much improved in many aspects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    J. P. Wang & Duruo Huang

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  1. J. P. Wang
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  2. Duruo Huang
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Correspondence to J. P. Wang.

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Wang, J.P., Huang, D. Deterministic seismic hazard assessments for Taiwan considering non-controlling seismic sources. Bull Eng Geol Environ 73, 635–641 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-013-0491-6

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