Three Cups of Tea: Building Collaborations to Assess Earthquake Hazard in Pakistan: Modern Methods in Seismic Hazard Assessment; Nagarkot, Nepal, 8–12 June 2009

Abstract

The M7.6 Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, earthquake struck the Pakistani Kashmir on 8 October 2005, claiming more than 80,000 lives. The earthquake underscored two points about earthquake hazard in Pakistan: first, that it is high, and, second, that it is poorly understood. In Karachi, for example, hazard is generally considered to be low, yet this rapidly growing megacity is as close to a major strike‐slip fault system as Los Angeles is to the San Andreas fault.The Pakistani engineering community has sought guidance from seismologists on improved characterization of seismic hazard. This requires both improved hazard assessment methodology and improved constraints on the critical inputs to seismic hazard maps, for example, assessment of fault slip rates and geological site characterization. These inputs are currently unavailable. Efforts to map seismicity and attenuation and to estimate fault slip rates have been hampered by political instability. Yet there is no shortage of intellectual energy—Pakistan boasts an eager community of trained earthquake professionals.