Strong‐motion seismology

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Abstract
Although this is the first review on this topic to appear in a quadrennial report, the roots of strong‐motion seismology extend back to at least 1932, when far‐sighted engineers in the Seismological Field Survey of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey installed rugged, fieldworthy instruments designed to make on‐scale recordings of large earthquakes (Carder, 1964); these instruments are called accelerographs, for their output closely mimics ground acceleration (Hudson, 1979). The original instruments and their offspring have provided a wealth of information about ground motions of direct use to engineers. Due in large part to the continued devotion of the Seismological Field Survey (now part of the Branch of Engineering Seismology and Geology at the U. S. Geological Survey), the number of recordings has increased substantially, particularly in the last two decades, and multiple recordings of a few California earthquakes have provided the data necessary to begin to unravel the complexities of the ground motions and to predict these motions on an empirical basis. Although seismologists used accelerograph records in studies of earthquake energy and ground motion attenuation as long ago as 1942 (Gutenberg and Richter, 1942, 1956), widespread seismological use of the records began with Aki's (1968) analysis of the 1966 Parkfield earthquake.

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