Nicolas Luco
Nico is a Research Civil Engineer in the Earthquake Hazards Program.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 52
U.S. Geological Survey National Strong-Motion Project strategic plan, 2017–22
The mission of the National Strong-Motion Project is to provide measurements of how the ground and built environment behave during earthquake shaking to the earthquake engineering community, the scientific community, emergency managers, public agencies, industry, media, and other users for the following purposes: Improving engineering evaluations and design methods for facilities and systems;Provi
Authors
Brad T. Aagaard, Mehmet Çelebi, Lind Gee, Robert Graves, Kishor Jaiswal, Erol Kalkan, Keith L. Knudsen, Nicolas Luco, James Smith, Jamison Steidl, Christopher D. Stephens
Considerations in comparing the U.S. Geological Survey one‐year induced‐seismicity hazard models with “Did You Feel It?” and instrumental data
The recent steep increase in seismicity rates in Oklahoma, southern Kansas, and other parts of the central United States led the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to develop, for the first time, a probabilistic seismic hazard forecast for one year (2016) that incorporates induced seismicity. In this study, we explore a process to ground‐truth the hazard model by comparing it with two databases of obse
Authors
Isabel White, Taojun Liu, Nicolas Luco, Abbie Liel
Development of the next generation of seismic design value maps for the 2020 NEHRP Provisions
During the period January 2015 through August 2018, a joint committee of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) representatives and National Institute of Building Sciences Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) volunteers and staff formed a committee to conduct Project 17. The purpose of Project 17 was to formulate recommendations for the rules by which next-generation seismic design value maps, derived fr
Authors
Ronald Hamburger, David Bonneville, C.B. Crouse, James D. Dolan, Ben Enfield, Julie Furr, Robert Hanson, James A. Harris, John Heintz, William Holmes, Jon Hooper, Charles Kircher, Nicolas Luco, Steven McCabe, Robert Pekelnicky, Jon Siu, Sanaz Rezaeian, Philipp Schneider, Jonathan P. Stewart, Siamak Sattar, Mai Tong, Jiqiu Yuan
Development and utilization of USGS ShakeCast for rapid post-earthquake assessment of critical facilities and infrastructure
The ShakeCast system is an openly available, near real-time post-earthquake information management system. ShakeCast is widely used by public and private emergency planners and responders, lifeline utility operators and transportation engineers to automatically receive and process ShakeMap products for situational awareness, inspection priority, or damage assessment of their own infrastructure or
Authors
David J. Wald, Kuo-wan Lin, C. A. Kircher, Kishor Jaiswal, Nicolas Luco, L. Turner, Daniel Slosky
Get your science used—Six guidelines to improve your products
Introduction
Natural scientists, like many other experts, face challenges when communicating to people outside their fields of expertise. This is especially true when they try to communicate to those whose background, knowledge, and experience are far distant from that field of expertise.
At a recent workshop, experts in risk communication offered insights into the communication challenges of prob
Authors
Suzanne C. Perry, Michael L. Blanpied, Erin R. Burkett, Nnenia M. Campbell, Anders Carlson, Dale A. Cox, Carolyn L. Driedger, David P. Eisenman, Katherine T. Fox-Glassman, Sherry Hoffman, Susanna M. Hoffman, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Lucile M. Jones, Nicolas Luco, Sabine M. Marx, Sean M. McGowan, Dennis S. Mileti, Morgan P. Moschetti, David Ozman, Elizabeth Pastor, Mark D. Petersen, Keith A. Porter, David W. Ramsey, Liesel A. Ritchie, Jessica K. Fitzpatrick, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Timothy L. Sellnow, Wendy L. Vaughon, David J. Wald, Lisa A. Wald, Anne Wein, Christina Zarcadoolas
Earthquake probabilities for the Wasatch front region in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming
In a letter to The Salt Lake Daily Tribune in September 1883, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologist G.K. Gilbert warned local residents about the implications of observable fault scarps along the western base of the Wasatch Range. The scarps were evidence that large surface-rupturing earthquakes had occurred in the past and more would likely occur in the future. The main actor in this drama is t
Authors
Ivan G. Wong, William R. Lund, Christopher DuRoss, Patricia Thomas, Walter Arabasz, Anthony J. Crone, Michael D. Hylland, Nicolas Luco, Susan S. Olig, James C. Pechmann, Stephen Personius, Mark D. Petersen, David P. Schwartz, Robert B. Smith, Steve Rowman
Earthquake ground motion
Most of the effort in seismic design of buildings and other structures is focused on structural design. This chapter addresses another key aspect of the design process—characterization of earthquake ground motion into parameters for use in design. Section 3.1 describes the basis of the earthquake ground motion maps in the Provisions and in ASCE 7 (the Standard). Section 3.2 has examples for the de
Authors
Nicolas Luco, Charles A. Kircher, C. B. Crouse, Finley Charney, Curt B. Haselton, Jack W. Baker, Reid Zimmerman, John D. Hooper, William McVitty, Andy Taylor
Seismic hazard in the Nation's breadbasket
The USGS National Seismic Hazard Maps were updated in 2014 and included several important changes for the central United States (CUS). Background seismicity sources were improved using a new moment-magnitude-based catalog; a new adaptive, nearest-neighbor smoothing kernel was implemented; and maximum magnitudes for background sources were updated. Areal source zones developed by the Central and Ea
Authors
Oliver S. Boyd, Kathleen Haller, Nicolas Luco, Morgan P. Moschetti, Charles Mueller, Mark D. Petersen, Sanaz Rezaeian, Justin L. Rubinstein
The 2014 United States National Seismic Hazard Model
New seismic hazard maps have been developed for the conterminous United States using the latest data, models, and methods available for assessing earthquake hazard. The hazard models incorporate new information on earthquake rupture behavior observed in recent earthquakes; fault studies that use both geologic and geodetic strain rate data; earthquake catalogs through 2012 that include new assessme
Authors
Mark D. Petersen, Morgan P. Moschetti, Peter M. Powers, Charles Mueller, Kathleen Haller, Arthur Frankel, Yuehua Zeng, Sanaz Rezaeian, Stephen Harmsen, Oliver S. Boyd, Edward H. Field, Rui Chen, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Nicolas Luco, Russell Wheeler, Robert Williams, Anna H. Olsen
Updates to building-code maps for the 2015 NEHRP recommended seismic provisions
With the 2014 update of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) as a basis, the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) has updated the earthquake ground motion maps in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures, with partial funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Antic
Authors
Nicolas Luco, Robert Bachman, C.B Crouse, James R. Harris, John D. Hooper, Charles A. Kircher, Phillp Caldwell, Kenneth S. Rukstales
Aftershock collapse vulnerability assessment of reinforced concrete frame structures
In a seismically active region, structures may be subjected to multiple earthquakes, due to mainshock–aftershock phenomena or other sequences, leaving no time for repair or retrofit between the events. This study quantifies the aftershock vulnerability of four modern ductile reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings in California by conducting incremental dynamic analysis of nonlinear MDOF analyti
Authors
Meera Raghunandan, Abbie B. Liel, Nicolas Luco
Collapse risk of buildings in the Pacific Northwest region due to subduction earthquakes
Subduction earthquakes similar to the 2011 Japan and 2010 Chile events will occur in the future in the Cascadia subduction zone in the Pacific Northwest. In this paper, nonlinear dynamic analyses are carried out on 24 buildings designed according to outdated and modern building codes for the cities of Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The results indicate that the median collapse capacity
Authors
Meera Raghunandan, Abbie B. Liel, Nicolas Luco
New USGS map shows where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur in US
USGS scientists and our partners recently revealed the latest National Seismic Hazard Model, showing that nearly 75% of the United States could experience a damaging earthquake, emphasizing seismic hazards span a significant part of the country.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 52
U.S. Geological Survey National Strong-Motion Project strategic plan, 2017–22
The mission of the National Strong-Motion Project is to provide measurements of how the ground and built environment behave during earthquake shaking to the earthquake engineering community, the scientific community, emergency managers, public agencies, industry, media, and other users for the following purposes: Improving engineering evaluations and design methods for facilities and systems;Provi
Authors
Brad T. Aagaard, Mehmet Çelebi, Lind Gee, Robert Graves, Kishor Jaiswal, Erol Kalkan, Keith L. Knudsen, Nicolas Luco, James Smith, Jamison Steidl, Christopher D. Stephens
Considerations in comparing the U.S. Geological Survey one‐year induced‐seismicity hazard models with “Did You Feel It?” and instrumental data
The recent steep increase in seismicity rates in Oklahoma, southern Kansas, and other parts of the central United States led the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to develop, for the first time, a probabilistic seismic hazard forecast for one year (2016) that incorporates induced seismicity. In this study, we explore a process to ground‐truth the hazard model by comparing it with two databases of obse
Authors
Isabel White, Taojun Liu, Nicolas Luco, Abbie Liel
Development of the next generation of seismic design value maps for the 2020 NEHRP Provisions
During the period January 2015 through August 2018, a joint committee of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) representatives and National Institute of Building Sciences Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) volunteers and staff formed a committee to conduct Project 17. The purpose of Project 17 was to formulate recommendations for the rules by which next-generation seismic design value maps, derived fr
Authors
Ronald Hamburger, David Bonneville, C.B. Crouse, James D. Dolan, Ben Enfield, Julie Furr, Robert Hanson, James A. Harris, John Heintz, William Holmes, Jon Hooper, Charles Kircher, Nicolas Luco, Steven McCabe, Robert Pekelnicky, Jon Siu, Sanaz Rezaeian, Philipp Schneider, Jonathan P. Stewart, Siamak Sattar, Mai Tong, Jiqiu Yuan
Development and utilization of USGS ShakeCast for rapid post-earthquake assessment of critical facilities and infrastructure
The ShakeCast system is an openly available, near real-time post-earthquake information management system. ShakeCast is widely used by public and private emergency planners and responders, lifeline utility operators and transportation engineers to automatically receive and process ShakeMap products for situational awareness, inspection priority, or damage assessment of their own infrastructure or
Authors
David J. Wald, Kuo-wan Lin, C. A. Kircher, Kishor Jaiswal, Nicolas Luco, L. Turner, Daniel Slosky
Get your science used—Six guidelines to improve your products
Introduction
Natural scientists, like many other experts, face challenges when communicating to people outside their fields of expertise. This is especially true when they try to communicate to those whose background, knowledge, and experience are far distant from that field of expertise.
At a recent workshop, experts in risk communication offered insights into the communication challenges of prob
Authors
Suzanne C. Perry, Michael L. Blanpied, Erin R. Burkett, Nnenia M. Campbell, Anders Carlson, Dale A. Cox, Carolyn L. Driedger, David P. Eisenman, Katherine T. Fox-Glassman, Sherry Hoffman, Susanna M. Hoffman, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Lucile M. Jones, Nicolas Luco, Sabine M. Marx, Sean M. McGowan, Dennis S. Mileti, Morgan P. Moschetti, David Ozman, Elizabeth Pastor, Mark D. Petersen, Keith A. Porter, David W. Ramsey, Liesel A. Ritchie, Jessica K. Fitzpatrick, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Timothy L. Sellnow, Wendy L. Vaughon, David J. Wald, Lisa A. Wald, Anne Wein, Christina Zarcadoolas
Earthquake probabilities for the Wasatch front region in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming
In a letter to The Salt Lake Daily Tribune in September 1883, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologist G.K. Gilbert warned local residents about the implications of observable fault scarps along the western base of the Wasatch Range. The scarps were evidence that large surface-rupturing earthquakes had occurred in the past and more would likely occur in the future. The main actor in this drama is t
Authors
Ivan G. Wong, William R. Lund, Christopher DuRoss, Patricia Thomas, Walter Arabasz, Anthony J. Crone, Michael D. Hylland, Nicolas Luco, Susan S. Olig, James C. Pechmann, Stephen Personius, Mark D. Petersen, David P. Schwartz, Robert B. Smith, Steve Rowman
Earthquake ground motion
Most of the effort in seismic design of buildings and other structures is focused on structural design. This chapter addresses another key aspect of the design process—characterization of earthquake ground motion into parameters for use in design. Section 3.1 describes the basis of the earthquake ground motion maps in the Provisions and in ASCE 7 (the Standard). Section 3.2 has examples for the de
Authors
Nicolas Luco, Charles A. Kircher, C. B. Crouse, Finley Charney, Curt B. Haselton, Jack W. Baker, Reid Zimmerman, John D. Hooper, William McVitty, Andy Taylor
Seismic hazard in the Nation's breadbasket
The USGS National Seismic Hazard Maps were updated in 2014 and included several important changes for the central United States (CUS). Background seismicity sources were improved using a new moment-magnitude-based catalog; a new adaptive, nearest-neighbor smoothing kernel was implemented; and maximum magnitudes for background sources were updated. Areal source zones developed by the Central and Ea
Authors
Oliver S. Boyd, Kathleen Haller, Nicolas Luco, Morgan P. Moschetti, Charles Mueller, Mark D. Petersen, Sanaz Rezaeian, Justin L. Rubinstein
The 2014 United States National Seismic Hazard Model
New seismic hazard maps have been developed for the conterminous United States using the latest data, models, and methods available for assessing earthquake hazard. The hazard models incorporate new information on earthquake rupture behavior observed in recent earthquakes; fault studies that use both geologic and geodetic strain rate data; earthquake catalogs through 2012 that include new assessme
Authors
Mark D. Petersen, Morgan P. Moschetti, Peter M. Powers, Charles Mueller, Kathleen Haller, Arthur Frankel, Yuehua Zeng, Sanaz Rezaeian, Stephen Harmsen, Oliver S. Boyd, Edward H. Field, Rui Chen, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Nicolas Luco, Russell Wheeler, Robert Williams, Anna H. Olsen
Updates to building-code maps for the 2015 NEHRP recommended seismic provisions
With the 2014 update of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) as a basis, the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) has updated the earthquake ground motion maps in the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures, with partial funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Antic
Authors
Nicolas Luco, Robert Bachman, C.B Crouse, James R. Harris, John D. Hooper, Charles A. Kircher, Phillp Caldwell, Kenneth S. Rukstales
Aftershock collapse vulnerability assessment of reinforced concrete frame structures
In a seismically active region, structures may be subjected to multiple earthquakes, due to mainshock–aftershock phenomena or other sequences, leaving no time for repair or retrofit between the events. This study quantifies the aftershock vulnerability of four modern ductile reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings in California by conducting incremental dynamic analysis of nonlinear MDOF analyti
Authors
Meera Raghunandan, Abbie B. Liel, Nicolas Luco
Collapse risk of buildings in the Pacific Northwest region due to subduction earthquakes
Subduction earthquakes similar to the 2011 Japan and 2010 Chile events will occur in the future in the Cascadia subduction zone in the Pacific Northwest. In this paper, nonlinear dynamic analyses are carried out on 24 buildings designed according to outdated and modern building codes for the cities of Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The results indicate that the median collapse capacity
Authors
Meera Raghunandan, Abbie B. Liel, Nicolas Luco
New USGS map shows where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur in US
USGS scientists and our partners recently revealed the latest National Seismic Hazard Model, showing that nearly 75% of the United States could experience a damaging earthquake, emphasizing seismic hazards span a significant part of the country.