Fault Displacement Hazard Initiative research program
This paper provides an overview of the Fault Displacement Hazard Initiative (FDHI). The FDHI is a community-based and multi-year research initiative with the goals of developing: (a) a comprehensive empirical database of surface fault displacement measurements and mapped ruptures, and (b) a suite of next-generation fault displacement predictive models. The database was developed by systematically collecting worldwide data from professional literature, followed by an extensive review and quality assurance process. The FDHI database contains 75 surface-rupturing earthquakes ranging from moment magnitude M 4.9 to 8.0 including data from strike-slip, reverse/reverse-oblique, and normal/normal-oblique faulting events. As part of the FDHI Program, employing the database, four new fault displacement models (FDMs) were developed. The FDMs predict principal or aggregate surface displacement, where aggregate is the combined displacement across principal and distributed ruptures. Two models were developed for all styles of faulting, while the other two are for reverse or strike-slip faulting. The new models include improved magnitude scaling and aleatory variability modeling. Compared with pre-existing models, average displacements in the new models are about 40% larger for M ~7, but smaller for lower and higher magnitudes. In addition, the new models predict significantly smaller displacement at low probability of exceedance. Besides the core FDHI tasks, in this article we also provide an overview of other parallel projects completed in coordination with the FDHI Program.
Authors
- Albert Kottke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1861-5682)
- Fiia Nurminen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0007-6390)
- Yousef Bozorgnia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1773-2489)
- Christopher Madugo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1431-1446)
- Timothy Dawson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8017-5836)
- Chris Milliner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3790-595X)
- Danielle Madugo
- Nicolas Kuehn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3512-5300)
- Norman Abrahamson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7900-6023)
- Grigorios Lavrentiadis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6546-1340)
- Francesco Visini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9582-6443)
- Arash Zandieh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7285-2251)
- Alessandro Valentini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5149-2090)
- Kate Thomas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6314-8326)
- Stephen C. Thompson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8075-3894)
- Robb Eric S. Moss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1104-1476)
- Paolo Boncio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4129-5779)
- Stéphane Baize (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7656-1790)
- Alexandra Sarmiento (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5502-6908)
- Rui Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5138-840X)
- Brian Chiou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7545-1936)
Institutions
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- United States Geological Survey (US)
- Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (FR)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- California Department of Transportation (US)
- California Polytechnic State University (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (IT)
- University of Chieti-Pescara (IT)
- Lettis Consultants International (United States) (US)
- California Geological Survey
- Autorité de sûreté nucléaire et de radioprotection (FR)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Earthquake Spectra
- Published
- 2025-08-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/87552930251356418
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- earthquake and tectonic studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.60
Funders
- California Energy Commission
- California Department of Transportation
- Southern California Gas Company