Where can I find seismic hazard maps?
FEMA uses seismic hazard maps as part of its earthquake mitigation program:
The USGS is actively involved in a national seismic hazard mapping project. The final versions of the 1996 maps are now available:
Here are examples of these maps for peak acceleration (%g) with 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years for the United States, California/Nevada, and the central/eastern United States. This USGS web site also allows you to make custom maps and to search for maps by zipcode. Very nice!
On the state level, the California Division of Mines and Geology is working to develop a statewide Probablistic Seismic Hazards Map for California:
A draft map from this effort, showing peak horizontal acceleration with a 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years, is available for the state of California. Also on the state level, the California Department of Transportation has developed a seismic hazard map available as a PDF file:
In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Association of Bay Area Governments, working with the USGS, has developed Shaking Hazard Maps, entitled "On Shaky Ground":
This methodology has been used to generate "predictive intensity maps" for the 1868 and 1906 Bay Area earthquakes:
In other regions, there are maps for Canada from the Geological Survey of Canada:
Finally, you can also refer to sources of other geologic and seismic maps.
