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Seismograph Stations
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Urban Strong-Motion Network

Through partnerships with the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) and the U.S. Geological Survey National Strong-Motion Project, the University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) monitors close to 100 strong-motion instruments in Utah's urban areas. These instruments will record earthquake ground motions in moderate to large earthquakes and provide:

  1. emergency responders with information to evaluate response needs and allocate resources following a damaging earthquake, and
  2. the engineering community with data to improve building codes and structural design practices.

Together, Utah's modernized real-time Regional Seismograph and Urban Strong-Motion networks provide:

  1. automated broadcasts of the location and size of a potentially disruptive earthquake within a few minutes of its occurrence, and
  2. automated computed maps showing the geographic distribution and severity of ground shaking, called ShakeMaps, available within several minutes of any significant earthquake.

Utah's Urban Strong-Motion Network was built with seed-funding for ANSS, a large-scale initiative funded by Congress (see U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1188).

 

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