Assessing low-activity faults for the seismic safety of dams

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:220193

Page, W D; Savage, W U; McLaren, M K ^[1]

---

1. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Francisco, CA (United States)

Dams have been a familiar construct in the northern Sierra Nevada range in California (north of the San Joaquin River) since the forty-niners and farmers diverted water to their gold mines and farms in the mid 19th century. Today, more than 370 dams dot the region from the Central Valley to the eastern escarpment. Fifty-five more dam streams on the eastern slope. The dams are of all types: 240 earth fill; 56 concrete gravity; 45 rock and earth fills; 35 rock fill; 14 concrete arch; 9 hydraulic fill; and 29 various other types. We use the northern Sierra Nevada to illustrate the assessment of low-activity faults for the seismic safety of dams. The approach, techniques, and methods of evaluation are applicable to other regions characterized by low seismicity and low-activity faults having long recurrence intervals. Even though several moderate earthquakes had shaken the Sierra Nevada since 1849 (for example, the 1875 magnitude 5.8 Honey Lake and the 1909 magnitudes 5 and 5.5 Downieville earthquakes), seismic analyses for dams in the area generally were not performed prior to the middle of this century. Following the 1971 magnitude 6.7 San Fernando earthquake, when the hydraulic-fill Lower Van Norman Dam in southern California narrowly escaped catastrophic failure, the California Division of Safety of Dams and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission required seismic safety to be addressed with increasing rigor. In 1975, the magnitude 5.7 Oroville earthquake on the Cleveland Hill fault near Oroville Dam in the Sierra Nevada foothills, showed convincingly that earthquakes and surface faulting could occur within the range. Following this event, faults along the ancient Foothills fault system have been extensively investigated at dam sites.

• OSTI ID: 220193
• Report Number(s): CONF-9507190--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

13 HYDRO ENERGY
CALIFORNIA
DAMS
EVALUATION
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
SEISMIC EFFECTS
SEISMICITY