CALIFORNIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY HELPS UET ESTABLISH
EARTHQUAKE MONITORING PROGRAM
News Issue Date: 20.11.2007
Dr. Anthony Shakal, Head of California Geological Surveys Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP) visited Pakistan in March, 2007 and met with counterparts at the Earthquake Engineering Center (EEC) of UET as part of series of individual exchange visits to Pakistan, arranged by the US National Academies of Sciences (NAS) in collaboration with USAID.
The objective of Dr. Shakals visit was to help UET in the establishment of Pakistan Motion Instrumentation Program (PKSMIP), a major component of the EEC, which aims to establish a strong motion instrumentation network that will be installed on selected structures to study their response during earthquakes.
He also visited earthquake affected areas of Pakistan, organized by UET that included Muzafarabad, Balakot, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Havelian, and Khairabad to see the typical construction in these parts. In the end, Dr. Shakal delivered presentation at UET to share his experience of CSMIP and its main functions. He said CSMIP was established in 1970 at University of California after the devastating San Fernando Earthquake in order to obtain vital data for the engineering and scientific communities through a statewide network of instruments, when activated by earthquake shaking, these accelerographs produce a record from which the critical characteristics of ground motion-acceleration, velocity and displacement-can be calculated, he informed.
Dr. Shakal also spoke on the CSMIP instrumentation in California, regarding selection of instruments, selection of potential structures, issues in selecting sensor locations for installation within a structure, safety of instruments against environmental effects and vandalism, and finally issues such as data recovery and instrument maintenance. He also briefed the university about the Safer Cities project and its significance, and urged UET to get this project from COSMOS to acquire analog strong motion instruments.
In this connection, Mr. Muhammad Ali, Assistant Prof. Civil Engineering visited USA in December, 2006 and met with officials from the California Institute of Technology and the US Geological Survey, UC Berkeley & California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program.
Mr. Ali was briefed about the policies and procedures used in California and setting up a monitoring system to know about buildings response to earthquakes and how the ground shaking is affected by distance from the epicenter so that engineers use the seismic safety measures in their designs.
Dr. Shakal appreciated Pakistans commitment to improve seismic safety and efforts of dedicated professionals in the field of earthquake engineering to keep the country safe from disasters in future.
