Earthquake Hazard: A Primer
by
Muawia Barazangi and Christopher Harig
Institute for the Study of the Continents
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853

(30 July 2004)

This document describes comprehensive guidelines to address all issues related to an Earthquake Hazard program. These guidelines are designed to be relatively simple, but also accurate and complete. Initially we searched both printed references and Internet sites looking for such a complete document, but without any success. Of course, we did find numerous documents and publications that discuss different aspects of earthquake hazard. We have extensively used different elements from these available publications while developing our own guidelines (see references at the end of this document). This document represents an earthquake hazard framework that we have developed that makes use of abundant available literature and is time-based. That is, we discuss the different components of an earthquake hazard program based on how far or close a particular component is from the origin time of an earthquake.

Needless to say, this document will be revised and updated as we receive comments and suggestions from the readers. Please send your comments and suggestions to Muawia Barazangi (mb44@cornell.edu)