Using the National Seismic Hazard Map

Hazard Map

Using the National Seismic Hazard Map

The National Seismic Hazard Map is an online, GIS (Geographical Information System Map. Its address is http://eqmaps.cr.usgs.gov/website/nshmp/viewer.htm. The controls on the map enable you to find more information than you might with a simple map. Let’s take a look a screen shot of the map and look at its features:

On the left hand side of the map you see the layers.

To see a layer on the map, you click in the visible column on the right side and click the “Refresh Map” button.
To the right, you have an active layer column. The active layer is a “radio button”, you can have only one active layer at a time.
Select “Faults” as both a visible and active layer and “Western Seismicity” as visible.

The right side of the layer contains a number of tools. The upper left hand corner button is the legend button. Click it to see what the symbols and the colors on the map mean.