Serving professionals in engineering, environmental,
and groundwater geology since 1957

MONTHLY DINNER MEETING

Date: Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Location: Steven's Steak House, 5332 Stevens Place, Commerce, California
Time: 6:00 p.m.-Social Hour; 7:00 p.m.-Dinner; 7:45 p.m.-Presentation

Cost: $30 per person with reservations, $35 at the door, $15 for students with a valid Student ID
Reservations: Please call (323) 889-5366 or rmunro@mactec.com

SPEAKER: Bruce A. Schell
TOPIC: Faulting and Earthquake Hazards in the Los Angeles Basin Area

ABSTRACT

A recent 2-year evaluation of seismic hazards for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has evaluated the probabilistic seismic hazards for the busiest port complex in the United States. An upcoming phase will focus on the probabilistic tsunami hazards in the port area. In addition to the usual suspects such as the Newport-Inglewood and Palos Verdes faults, poorly known and enigmatic features such as the Compton-Los Alamitos thrust, THUMS-Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, and Cabrillo faults, as well as offshore faults such as the San Pedro Basin fault were evaluated. The hazard model uses newly developed ground-motion attenuation relationships based on the abundant new worldwide earthquake data to derive probabilistic seismic design estimates. This talk will present the results of the investigation but equally important discuss the state of knowledge on faults that control the design estimates. These results are important not only for the ports but for much of the Los Angeles Basin as well.

SPEAKET BIOGRAPHY

Bruce A. Schell is a consulting geologist based in the southern California area where he has practiced independently since 1988. Prior to that, he was Principal Geoscientist at the Earth Technology Corporation. He is licensed in the state of California as a Professional Geologist and a Certified Engineering Geologist, and serves as the Engineering Geologist on the California State Hospital and Building Safety Board. Bruce received his Bachelor of Science from California State University, Northridge and has conducted graduate studies at University of Southern California and California State University, Los Angeles. Mr. Schell's consulting practice involves engineering geological investigations for government agencies, other geotechnical firms, land developers, insurance companies, law firms, and property owners. Typical investigations comprise 1) seismological hazards analyses such as identifying earthquake sources, compiling historical seismicity, estimating maximum earthquakes, calculating earthquake probabilities, and evaluating seismically induced ground failures (e.g. liquefaction), 2) evaluating geological hazards such as faults, landslides, ground subsidence, and erosion, 3) site characterization such as determining geological and engineering conditions of soil, sediments, and rocks, and 4) environmental assessments, impacts, and mitigations. His investigations typically employ the geological disciplines of geomorphology, Quaternary geology, remote sensing, seismology, paleoseismology, and geophysics. Mr. Schell's geological and seismological research has resulted in more than 50 published scientific papers.