Induced Seismicity and Structural Design

[MillR]

USGS has published 1 year seismic hazards for 2016, 2017, and 2018 for the increase in earthquake activity in the central part of the United States (Oklahoma), linked to wastewater from mining. The earthquakes are low magnitude, but do cause damage as the infrastructure is not designed for earthquakes. The 2018 hazards have dropped from the 2016 levels as other measures were put into place to reduce the activity. But the hazard is still higher than ASCE 7-10 or ASCE 7-16 tell us to design for. The reasons for this are complicated but come down to the speed at which changes in seismic activity happen and the life cycle of codes.

So this is my question - as design professionals, what, if anything, should we do differently while designing new buildings in these areas? Adopt small changes that have long been accepted in California? Assume that in the life cycle of the building the motions will have stopped or maybe increased? Should code officials address induced seismicity?

 

[WARose]

So this is my question - as design professionals, what, if anything, should we do differently while designing new buildings in these areas? Adopt small changes that have long been accepted in California? Assume that in the life cycle of the building the motions will have stopped or maybe increased? Should code officials address induced seismicity?

There is nothing wrong with using updated info from USGS (if you have it).....but to answer your question: I'm not sure you can/should do much beyond what the code requires. It wouldn't hurt to ask the local building code guy about what he's seen.....but unless you are certain a building will see a event, I don't know that you can justify designing it for some arbitrary ground motion.

At the end of the day, you follow the code.

 

[Sawbux]

I would think wind would govern many of the areas around OK.
Adding a little more resistance for seismic should not cost that much and would give greater margin for extreme wind events like tornados.
Much of the seismic concerns are just making sure the load paths are there and connected adequately.
Remember that Codes are the minimum, Engineering judgment might require a bit more.