Authors / CoAuthors
Allen, T. | Leonard, M. | Ghasemi, H. | Gibson, G.
Abstract
The 2018 National Seismic Hazard Assessment (NSHA18) is a flagship Geoscience Australia product, used to support the decisions of the Australian Building Codes Board and Standards Australia to ensure buildings and infrastructure are built to withstand seismic events in Australia. It is also important for the insurance sector and provides a baseline for setting national reinsurance premiumsguides the level of reinsurance premiums. The National Seismic Hazard Assessment Earthquake Epicentre Catalogue (NSHA18-Cat) of historical earthquakes is the authoritative catalogue underpinning the NSHA18. The NSHA18-Cat is compiled from Australian and international sources and combines the highest quality epicentres and magnitudes for the assessment of earthquake hazard in Australia. For the first time in an Australian national seismic hazard assessment, earthquake magnitudes are uniformly expressed in the moment magnitude MW scale, using Australian-specific magnitude conversion equations appropriate for several common magnitude types. The magnitude harmonisation represents a significant advance in our ability to represent earthquake hazard in a uniform manner throughout the country. Key points and advances on the NSHA18-Cat include: - The addition of almost three decades worth of additional earthquake data gathered by seismic networks across the Australian continent, relative to hazard assessments from the early 1990s. - The use of the International Seismological Centre-Global Earthquake Model Catalogue (Version 5) for regional plate boundary source zones; - An improved methodology for revising local magnitudes due to the historical use of inappropriate magnitude attenuation formulae using a consistent and objective methodology; - The development of conversion equations from original magnitude types to MW specific for the Australian earthquake catalogue. This ensures consistency between rates of earthquake recurrence and ground-motion models in hazard calculations; - The development of new magnitude completeness models in terms of MW. The combination of these new data and advances demonstrates global best practice and evidence based science for undertaking national-scale earthquake hazard assessments. The earthquake epicentre solutions are provided in simple comma separated value and shapefile formats and are attached to this report.
Product Type
document
eCat Id
123041
Contact for the resource
Point of contact
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Resource provider
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Digital Object Identifier
Keywords
- ( Discipline )
-
- earthquake hazard
- ( Product )
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- Published_External
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- HVC_144647
Publication Date
2018-10-10T03:58:21
Creation Date
2018-09-18T00:00:00
Security Constraints
Legal Constraints
Status
final
Purpose
This Record is the fourth in the series of Records and datasets that support the release of the NSHA18 (overarching overview provided at ecat 123020)
Maintenance Information
asNeeded
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Record 2018/030
Lineage
Geoscience Australia develops the National Seismic Hazard Assessment (NSHA) for Australia. The NSHA defines the level of earthquake ground shaking across Australia that has a given likelihood of being exceeded in a given time period. Knowing how the ground-shaking hazard varies across Australia allows higher hazard areas to be identified and prioritised for the development of mitigation strategies so communities can be more resilient to earthquake events. The NSHA also provides key information to the Australian Government Building Codes Board, so buildings and infrastructure design standards can be updated to ensure they can withstand earthquake events in Australia. Geoscience Australia schedules the update to the NSHA with the update to the earthquake loading standard, so the committee can consider any changes to the seismic hazard risk of Australia, and whether the code needs to be amended to reflect this. The 2018 update was scheduled to inform the 2017 revision of the earthquake loading standard. Promotion of project via http://www.ga.gov.au/about/projects/safety/nsha
Parent Information
Extents
[-44, -9, 112, 154]
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
Service Information
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