SCEC INSTANeT News
	Global Seismic Hazard Map Available

The U.S. Geological Survey and the Swiss Seismological Service have released the first quantitative map of global seismic hazard. The Global Seismic Hazard Map is a product of the Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP), launched in 1992 and terminated last year, which was part of the United Nations International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction.   Hundreds of scientists from most of the world's countries cooperated to produce the map. The Global Seismic Hazard Map depicts a common, quantitative hazard, the peak ground acceleration that has a 10 percent chance of being exceeded in the next 50 years. Peak ground acceleration can be applied to building codes, and the map was created in part as a tool for planning land use and designing buildings around probable earthquake hazards. The International Lithosphere Program started the Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program with support from the International Council of Scientific Unions as a demonstration project of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. Support for the map also came from NATO, UNESCO, the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth Interior, the European Council, the European Union, the International Geological Correlation Program, INTAS (an association of the European Community for promoting science), ETH Hoenggerberg, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, the China Seismological Bureau, the Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica, and the U.S. Geological Survey. The GSHAP map and all associated documentation, including regional reports, maps of seismicity, source characterization information, and GSHAP yearly reports are available via the Internet through the GSHAP homepage, http://seismo.ethz.ch/GSHAP/. The December 1999, issue of Annali di Geofisica contains all of the GSHAP reports. Copies of the Annali di Geofisica volume may be obtained from: Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica via di Vigna Murata 605 00143 Roma - Italy chiodetti@ingrm.it or Swiss Seismological Service ETH Hoenggerberg 8093 Zurich - Switzerland sed@seismo.ifg.ethz.ch   While supplies last, free copies of the Global Seismic Hazard Map may be obtained from: USGS/CRGHT MS 966 Box 25046 Denver, CO 80225 USA gshapmap@usgs.gov Please include your mailing address in your correspondence.   OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF

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