David P. Schwartz

After more than a century of research, geologists and other scientists have increased their understanding of the tectonic processes at work in the Wasatch Front and are now beginning to answer the questions about the seismicity and tectonics of the Wasatch Front that Gilbert and others first posed Scientists, engineers, architects, urban planners, and emergency managers are not waiting for a major earthquake disaster to learn that measures must be implemented to mitigate an earthquake's effects.

Paleoseismological data for the Wasatch and San Andreas fault zones have led to the formulation of the characteristic earthquake model, which postulates that individual faults and fault segments tend to generate essentially same size or characteristic earthquakes having a relatively narrow range of magnitudes near the maximum.

Media Point of Contact

Susan Blake
susan.blake@usda.gov

Apache Leap Special Management Area
Apache Leap SMA website