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:
- emergency responders with information to evaluate response needs and allocate resources following a damaging earthquake, and
- 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:
- automated broadcasts of the location and size of a potentially disruptive earthquake within a few minutes of its occurrence, and
- 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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