Learning From Earthquakes
Recordings and Q&A from the Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes Reconnaissance Briefing Webinars
In May, Learning From Earthquakes (LFE) hosted a weekly webinar series featuring briefings from the three LFE teams that traveled to Turkey to collect reconnaissance data on the impacts to lifelines, hospitals, and buildings from the February 6 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence. A fourth webinar featured members of the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association's reconnaissance teams and focused on geotechnical impacts. Video recordings of all the webinars, as well as the March webinar with members of the joint LFE-GEER advance reconnaissance team, are now available as a playlist on EERI's YouTube account here. Copies of the written questions and speaker responses from each webinar are also available on the LFE virtual clearinhouse website in the Resources section (select a webinar recording entry and click on the "Read webinar Q&A" link below the embedded video for a PDF of the Q&A).
Thank you to all the speakers, team leads, team members, and moderators for contributing to this series! LFE is planning an additional webinar later this summer focusing on the impacts of the earthquakes in Syria. Stay tuned for announcements in future editions of the Pulse.
Back to top >Awards
Nominate a Fellow Member for EERI's Awards and Honors!
The 2023 EERI Honors Committee encourages you to nominate a fellow member for one of EERI's prestigious awards and honors! These awards recognize a wide range of achievements, as well as a commitment to the Institute.
The nomination process is very straightforward and is completed online. All nominations and applications are due June 18, 2023. Click here to access the nomination form.
The awards that the committee will be considering and then recommending to the EERI Board of Directors are:
- The George W. Housner Medal: awarded to members of the institute who have made extraordinary and lasting contributions to public earthquake safety through the development and application of earthquake hazard reduction, practices, and policies.
- The Alfred E. Alquist Special Recognition Medal: awarded to an individual or company for substantial contributions to the field of seismic safety and earthquake risk reduction.
- The EERI Annual Distinguished Lecture Award: awarded to communicate developments on topics of major significance for earthquake hazard mitigation.
- EERI Honorary Membership: awarded to recognize members who have made sustained and outstanding contributions to the field of earthquake engineering and/or EERI.
- The EERI Younger Member Award - awarded to younger members that have made outstanding contributions to EERI and the pursuit of its objectives in the early stages of their career. Younger members apply for this award directly. If you or someone you know is deserving of this award we encourage you to apply. Apply here for the Younger Member Award.
Visit the honors and awards page on the EERI website to read more about these awards. If you have any questions about the nomination process, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The committee looks forward to reviewing your nominations!
Nominate an Early-Career Colleague for the Shah Prize!
Do you know a young academic or professional making a difference in reducing global earthquake risk? EERI members are encouraged to nominate candidates from government, private firms, academia, and the international community for the 2022 Shah Family Innovation Prize.
The selection process recognizes a combination of past accomplishments and future potential, emphasizing creative and innovative thinkers who have demonstrated at early stages in their careers the potential to make major contributions. EERI membership is not required for either the nominator or candidate, although it is strongly encouraged. Candidates must be born on or after January 1, 1989 to be eligible.
Please review the award description and required nomination materials and submit the nomination form here. The nomination deadline is June 18, 2023 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time. Note that the nomination form requires a google account to complete. If you do not have/can not make a google account but would like to submit a nomination, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Thank you to the Haresh C. Shah family of Stanford, California who provided a substantial gift to the EERI Endowment Fund to establish the Shah Family Innovation Prize. We also extend our appreciation to the Shah Family Innovation Prize Selection Committee.
Nominate a Colleague for the 2024 Bruce Bolt Medal!
The Bruce Bolt Award Selection Committee is now accepting nominations for the 2024 Bruce Bolt Medal! The Bruce A. Bolt Medal is a distinguished honor awarded jointly by COSMOS, EERI, and SSA to recognize individuals worldwide whose accomplishments involve the promotion and use of strong-motion earthquake data and whose leadership in the transfer of scientific and engineering knowledge into practice or policy has led to improved seismic safety.
Nomination Process
COSMOS, EERI, and SSA members are encouraged to nominate a colleague or peer for this prestigious honor. Please first carefully review the nomination and selection process. Complete nomination packages should be submitted using this form.
The deadline to submit nominations is June 30, 2023 at 11:59pm Pacific Time. Incomplete nomination packages will not be considered by the Joint Selection Committee.
Nominations will be reviewed in confidence by a six-person Joint Selection Committee formed by two representatives from each of the three sponsoring organizations. The recommended nominee will be considered in confidence by each organization’s Board of Directors for their approval and joint selection of the medalist.
Selection Criteria
In the spirit of Bruce Bolt’s contribution to the science, the chosen recipient must meet all of the below three (3) criteria:
- Promotion of strong-motion instrumentation or advancing strong-motion data processing or publicly-available data utilization;
- Technical contributions in earthquake engineering or engineering seismology; and
- Leadership in the transfer of knowledge into practice or policy that has led to improved seismic safety.
Please note: the nomination form requires a google account to submit. If you do not have a google account, you can submit your materials by sending them in an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Any questions regarding this award should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
SSA Now Accepting Nominations for the Joyner Lecture!
Nominations are open for the William B. Joyner Memorial Lecture Award! The award was established by the Seismological Society of America (SSA) in cooperation with EERI to honor Bill Joyner’s distinguished career at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and his abiding commitment to the exchange of information at the interface of earthquake science and earthquake engineering.
Current EERI and SSA members are encouraged to nominate a colleague who meets the following criteria:
- Membership in SSA or EERI.
- A demonstrated professional commitment to the exchange of information at the interface of earthquake science and earthquake engineering.
- A demonstrated professional history of strengthening the interface of earthquake science and earthquake engineering, by either making significant contributions from earthquake science to earthquake engineering or significant contributions from earthquake engineering to earthquake science.
Nominations should be submitted to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by June 30, 2023. Click here for additional award details, including what must be included in your nomination package.
Back to top >Webinars
YMC Webinar: Training and Communication for Earthquake Risk Assessment Project and Applications for Urban Risk Assessment
Wednesday June 7, 2023
10:00-11:30 AM Pacific Time
REGISTER HERE
EERI’s Younger Members Committee (YMC) invites you to a FREE webinar on the the Training and Communication for Earthquake Risk Assessment (TREQ) project and urban risk assessment. Experts from GEM, PartnerRe, and USGS will introduce TREQ, which aims to demonstrate how earthquake hazard and risk assessment can inform decision-makers in the development of risk reduction policies, as well as how earthquake risk can be properly communicated to stakeholders and the public in general. The project is organized into two main parts. The first one aimed to develop capacity for urban earthquake hazard and risk assessment in Latin America, Quito (Ecuador), Cali (Colombia), and Santiago de los Caballeros (Dominican Republic); while the second part developed training, educational and communication material to enhance the understanding of earthquake risk worldwide.
Moderator: Prajakta Jadhav, University of British Columbia
Speakers:
- Catalina Yepes-Estrada, Senior Risk Scientist, GEM Foundation
- Kendra Johnson, Seismic Hazard Analyst, GEM Foundation
- Robin Gee, Seismic Hazard and Risk Modeler, PartnerRe
- Alejandro Calderón, Seismic Risk Engineer, GEM Foundation
- Kishor Jaiswal, Research Civil Engineer, USGS
- Robert Chase, Research Civil Engineer, USGS
Back to top >
Member Spotlight
Yousef Bozorgnia Receives UCLA Public Impact Research Award
Yousef Bozorgnia (M.EERI 1986), professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, will be honored with a 2023 UCLA Public Impact Research Award on June 2. These awards, presented annually by the UCLA Office of Research and Creative Activities, recognize sustained efforts to translate research findings into positive public action. Read the full announcement from UCLA here. EERI congratulates Professor Bozorgnia on this honor!
Back to top >Regional Chapters
Ken Elwood Distinguished Lecture: Southern California Chapter Video
EERI 2022 Distinguished Lecturer Ken Elwood presented his distinguished lecture, From Ductility to Repairability: Evolution of Building Design in the Wake of the Christchurch Earthquake to the Southern California Regional Chapter in Los Angeles in May. A video recording is now available on EERI’s YouTube account here.
Northern California Chapter Provides Input to Seismic Safety Commission
The California Seismic Safety Commission (SSC) held its May 23 meeting in the city of Rio Dell that suffered damage from the Ferndale M6.4 earthquake of December 20, 2022. Bruce Maison (M.EERI 1990), Secretary/Treasurer of EERI’s Northern California Regional Chapter, presented reconnaissance findings on housing damage. His presentation slides can be viewed in the Ferndale Earthquake Clearinghouse here.
Students
Sign up for the Student Leadership Council Today!
The EERI Student Leadership Council (SLC) is recruiting members! If you had fun as an undergraduate participating in the Seismic Design Competition (SDC) and are continuing on to grad school, come join us! If you don't know what the SDC is, but are passionate about engineering, outreach, or resiliency after an earthquake, we want you too!
The SLC is made up of graduate students from around the world. Come make friends, learn leadership skills, and help organize next year's SDC! If you're interested, fill out the form at this link by June 15.
Back to top >Spectra
Reminder: Call for Papers for Spectra Special Collection on Turkey Earthquakes
The 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes occurred in a region of significant prior study by Earthquake Spectra authors. In recognition of this legacy of work, Earthquake Spectra has compiled a special collection of some previously published papers from this region. These papers can be found at the collection page here, and will be freely available to readers for until November 1, 2023.
In addition, Earthquake Spectra is opening a new special collection: Impact of the February 6, 2023 M7.8 and M7.6 Earthquakes in Turkey on the Built Environment, and Implications on Seismic Hazard
Two devastating earthquakes occurred within 9 hours of each other on February 6, 2023 in Turkey, along the Southern part of the Eastern Anatolian Fault Zone. The ruptured fault segments, exceeding 300 km in total length, had been silent since 1511. The impacts of these two sequential earthquakes were enormous: the number of people who lost their lives in 240,000 collapsed or severely damaged buildings in eleven provinces has exceeded 50,000. More than 500 strong motion stations in Turkey have recorded the ground motions. Earthquake Spectra invites earthquake researchers to contribute to its “Special Collection” for sharing their valuable observations and discussing all aspects of these earthquakes. This Special Collection will include original articles on topics including (but not limited to) reconnaissance reports, characteristics of fault ruptures, analysis of ground motions, site amplification, geotechnical deformations, performance of buildings and infrastructure, economic losses, risk analysis, and insurance issues.
EERI would like to announce this collection on the one-year anniversary of the earthquakes in February 2024. To be included in this announcement, papers should be submitted no later than October 1, 2023, though submissions will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis after that date and added to the collection once published.
For the list of guest editors and more information on the submission process, visit the news post on the EERI website here.
Don't Miss the May Issue of Earthquake Spectra!
Have you explored the May 2023 (Volume 39, issue 2) issue of Earthquake Spectra? Editor-in-chief Jack Baker selected "Seismic loss and resilience assessment of tall-coupled cross-laminated timber wall building," by Tian You, Biniam Tekle Teweldebrhan, Wei Wang, and Solomon Tesfamariam, as the editor's choice paper for this issue.
Editor's Recommendation: “You et al perform an integrated response history analysis and FEMA P-58 loss assessment to quantify the seismic performance of a tall cross-laminated timber wall building. The study involved developing an OpenSEES model of a 20-story case study building, performing incremental dynamic analysis using 30 pairs of ground motions, and using the FEMA P-58 methodology to compute repair costs and repair times. Analyses show that the structural repair costs are dominated by damage to steel coupling beams. Fortunately, these coupling beams are more easily replaceable than many of the other structural components in the building. The study is noteworthy for the holistic analysis of a structural system that is of significant interest at present, providing helpful insights and demonstrating the utility of the FEMA P-58 loss assessment methodology.”
View the rest of the May issue at the Earthquake Spectra website here. Make sure you are logged into your EERI member account on the EERI website for full access.
Back to top >Announcements
Kinemetrics Webinar: Looking Inside the Earth and Planets
Join Kinemetrics on June 7 (9:00 AM Pacific) for a free webinar: “Looking Inside the Earth and Planets: Improved Coverage, Advanced Instrumentation, and Innovative Methods.” Global seismology has come a long way in providing insights into Earth's internal structure and dynamics. However, progress in imaging the Earth's inner core has been impeded by the lack of geometric coverage of body waves from large earthquakes. It was only recently confirmed that its innermost part contains distinct seismic anisotropy. Further experiments with earthquake coda correlation contributed to the rise of a new paradigm—the coda-correlation wavefield, utilized for important studies of the Earth and Mars cores. In this webinar, Professor Hrvoje Tkalčić of the Research School of Earth Sciences at Australian National University will show how coda-correlation studies— and further development and the proliferation of seismic sensors—can play a central role in global and planetary seismology in the coming decades. Register here to attend the webinar!
WCEE 2024 Briefly Extends Abstract Submission Deadline
The 2024 World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (WCEE) has made a brief extension to the deadline for abstracts submission due to confusion over the time zone that caused some authors to miss the previous deadline. The platform is now re-opened and there is a hard deadline of June 4th at midnight CEST to submit your abstract. View the Contributions page of the conference website for more details.
Back to top >Subscribing Member Spotlight
AIR Worldwide
AIR Worldwide provides risk modeling solutions that make individuals, businesses, and society more resilient to extreme events with nine offices around the globe. More than 400 organizations rely on AIR’s models, software, and services to manage their risk from natural catastrophes, terrorism, cyber attacks, to pandemics.
GeoSIG Ltd
GeoSIG Ltd provides earthquake, seismic, structural, dynamic and static monitoring and measuring solutions. Founded in 1992, GeoSIG is a world leader in design and manufacture of a diverse range of high quality, precision instruments for vibration and earthquake monitoring.
News of the Profession
Links to Recent News and Views
- Unpublished list reveals 3,400 San Francisco buildings may be at severe earthquake risk (NBC News, quoting EERI members David Friedman )
- Disaster risk profile warns Canada ill-prepared for a major earthquake (Toronto Star)
- Largest earthquake in 120 years rattles Melbourne but causes little damage (CNN)
- A Disaster the Size of Multiple Katrinas Is Building Off Washington’s Coast (Politico Magazine)
- Structural engineering experts give initial thoughts on Davenport building collapse (WQAD)
- California's Architects Lead in Designing for Resilience (Architect Magazine)