(Press-News.org) A new study evaluates the seismic hazards for the entire Central America, including specific assessments for six capital cities, with the greatest hazard expected for Guatemala City and San Salvador, followed by Managua and San José, and notably lower in Tegucigalpa and Panamá City.
The study, published in the April issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA), included input from seismic hazard experts from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, Norway and Spain. All seismic experts from Central American countries, except Belize, agree with the study's assessments.
The paper outlines the work carried out as part of the cooperation project named RESIS II, under the auspices of the Norway Cooperation Agency (NORAD), with a contribution of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). A new regional seismic catalog and a strong motion database updated up to December 2010 have been developed.
A seismogenic zonation has been proposed for the entire region, considering the three tectonic settings (crust, subduction interface and inslab), with zones defined at a national level and coherent at a regional scale, avoiding discontinuities along the national boundaries.
This is the first study developed in Central America at a regional scale this century and the first done in terms of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and different spectral acceleration values for the entire region. The study provides new information that is being considered in the revision of national seismic codes and it is also supported by the Coordination Centre for Natural Disasters Prevention in Central America (CEPREDENAC).
###
"A New Evaluation of Seismic Hazard for the Central America Region," by M. B. Benito, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain; C. Lindholm, NORSAR, Oslo, Norway; E. Camacho, Universidad de Panamá (UPA), Panamá ; Á. Climent, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) , San José, Costa Rica; G. Marroquín, Servicio Nacional de Estudios Territoriales (DGSNET), San Salvador, El Salvador; E,
Molina, Instituto de Sismología, Vulcanología, Meteorología e Hidrología (INSIVUMEH), Guatemala; W, Rojas, Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR); J.J. Escobar, Universidad de Honduras; E. Talavera, Instituto Nacional de Estudios Territoriales (INETER), Managua, Nicaragua; G.E. Alvarado, Red Sismológica Nacional de Costa Rica; Y. Torres, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.
Corresponding author: Maria Belen Benito, Technical University of Madrid, SPAIN. She can be reached at mariabelen.benito@upm.es.
END
Idan Ginsburg, a graduate student in Dartmouth's Department of Physics and Astronomy, studies some of the fastest moving objects in the cosmos. When stars and their orbiting plants wander too close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, their encounter with the black hole's gravitational force can either capture them or eject them from the galaxy, like a slingshot, at millions of miles per hour.
Although their origin remains a mystery and although they are invisible, black holes found at galaxy centers make their presence known through the effects ...
Greater lifetime exposure to the stress of traumatic events was linked to higher levels of inflammation in a study of almost 1,000 patients with cardiovascular disease led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.
In the first study to examine the relationship between cumulative traumatic stress exposure and inflammation, the scientists found that the more traumatic stress a patient was exposed to over the course of a lifetime, the greater the chances the patient would have elevated levels of inflammatory markers ...
Exlar Corporation announces its innovative line of Tritex II DC actuators are now CSA certified and in compliance with CSA 139 (Valve Actuator Standard). The actuators accommodate applications requiring CSA Class I, Division 2 Groups A, B, C and D certification--making them suitable for hazardous location operation.
Tritex II DC actuators integrate a servo drive, digital position controller, brushless motor and linear or rotary actuator in one compact, sealed package. Linear actuators employ Exlar's patented inverted roller screw mechanism, seamlessly converting rotary ...
DALLAS (SMU) – SMU Geothermal energy expert David Blackwell gave a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday, March 27, on the growing opportunities for geothermal energy production in the United States, calling "unconventional" geothermal techniques a potential game changer for U.S. energy policy.
Blackwell's presentation outlined the variety of techniques available for geothermal production of electricity, the accessibility of unconventional geothermal resources across vast portions of the United States and the opportunities for synergy with the oil and gas industry. Also speaking ...
Some people like company. Others prefer to be alone. The same holds true for the particles that constitute the matter around us: Some, called bosons, like to act in unison with others. Others, called fermions, have a mind of their own.
Different as they are, both species can show "collective" behavior -- an effect similar to the wave at a baseball game, where all spectators carry out the same motion regardless of whether they like each other.
Scientists generally believed that such collective behavior, while commonplace for bosons, only appeared in fermions moving in ...
Specialty Hospital Of Washington (SHW) began its second Registered Nurse Internship Program earlier this year. Like most prominent hospitals, SHW saw the need to assist graduating nurses make the transition from school to professional clinical settings.
SHW's innovative approach is designed to prepare nurses for rewarding careers. The Internship Program assists nurses with the mastery of clinical skills, as well as managing and organizing increased and complex patient care assignments, communicating with physicians and delegating tasks during the transition period from ...
Imagine being able to use electricity to power your car — even if it's not an electric vehicle. Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have for the first time demonstrated a method for converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuel isobutanol using electricity.
Today, electrical energy generated by various methods is still difficult to store efficiently. Chemical batteries, hydraulic pumping and water splitting suffer from low energy-density storage or incompatibility with current transportation infrastructure.
In a study published ...
PITTSBURGH—Sooner than later, robots may have the ability to "feel." In a paper published online March 26 in Advanced Functional Materials, a team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstrated that a nonoscillating gel can be resuscitated in a fashion similar to a medical cardiopulmonary resuscitation. These findings pave the way for the development of a wide range of new applications that sense mechanical stimuli and respond chemically—a natural phenomenon few materials have been able to mimic.
A team ...
A short new video takes viewers behind the scenes with the MIRI or the Mid-Infrared Instrument that will fly on-board NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. MIRI is a state-of-the-art infrared instrument that will allow scientists to study distant objects in greater detail than ever before.
The three minute and 19 second video called "The MIRI Has Two Faces" is part of an on-going video series about the Webb telescope called "Behind the Webb." It was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md. and takes viewers behind the scenes with scientists ...
System 96W intensified overnight and became Tropical Storm Pakhar during the morning hours on March 29. NASA's TRMM satellite measured rainfall rates within the storm, and noticed areas of heavy rain west of the center as the storm continued to strengthen.
NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Pakhar on March 29, and saw that it was generating mostly light to moderate rainfall around the entire system, with areas of heavy rain in the southwestern and northeastern quadrants. Light to moderate rainfall rates were between .78 to 1.57 inches ...
