News & Upcoming Events
4.4M Earthquake Strikes Near Ottawa
The U.S. Geological Survey reported that a 4.4M earthquake struck near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on Friday morning, May 17, 2013 at 09:43 AM local time (13:43:22 UTC). The quake was felt widely in southeastern Ontario from London to Montreal and much of New York and Vermont in the United States. For more information, visit the USGS website.
UB earthquake engineer says Canada earthquake was “relatively minor" by Cory Nealon, UB Reporter, May 17, 2013
Shake Table Testing of NYC’s Unreinforced Masonry Walls Featured in Civil Engineering Magazine
Experimental test setup
Recent shake table testing of unreinforced masonry walls commonly used in New York City buildings was featured in the April 2013 issue of ASCE’s Civil Engineering magazine. The experimental testing, part of a larger project to develop and validate numerical models to be used for seismic vulnerability assessments, provided much-needed experimental data on out-of-plane seismic behavior of masonry walls with parapets. The project is a collaboration between MCEER investigators Andrew Whittaker, Amjad Aref and Gilberto Mosqueda, University at Buffalo Ph.D. candidate Juan Aleman, the Structural Engineers Association of New York and the International Masonry Institute. Read more
Register Now for the Seventh National Seismic Conference on Bridges and Highways
Oakland, California | May 20-22, 2013
Registration is open for the Seventh National Seismic Conference on Bridges and Highways (7NSC), which will be held at the Oakland Marriott City Center in Oakland, California on May 20-22, 2013. With the theme of Bridge Resilience for Earthquakes and Other Natural Hazards, the conference’s objective is to increase awareness of natural hazards and to enhance the technical expertise of engineering professionals so they can mitigate the risk of failure or damage to bridges and highways. Read more
Help Select the Winning Team for the 7NSC Undergraduate Bridge Seismic Design Competition
In conjunction with the Seventh National Seismic Conference on Bridges and Highways, PEER, NEES, and MCEER are conducting an undergraduate competition focused on the seismic design of bridges. Teams have been working since January to design and test small scale K’Nex highway bridges. They have gathered their results in posters and want to share their results with the community. Tell us what you think of their designs by voting for your favorite(s). Voting closes May 20. The top five bridges will be tested at the 7NSC and the winners will be announced at the Awards Banquet.
MCEER Demonstrates “Why You Wouldn’t Want to Experience a Big One Like 1906”
Students and parents learning about the 1906 earthquake.
It was a morning of combing through the devastation and ruins of historical San Francisco in a quest for clues and answers for a group of 40 University at Buffalo (UB) staff and their children, as MCEER hosted a presentation on the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fires. The presentation was part of the larger UB Bring Your Kids to Work Day event, held on April 19, 2013. Read more
New Monograph: Seismic Design of Buried and Offshore Pipelines
Seismic Design of Buried and Offshore Pipelines, by M.J. O'Rourke and (Jack) X. Liu, addresses many new research developments as well as observations following significant earthquakes around the world that have impacted the current state-of-the-art on the seismic design of buried pipelines since the 1999 version of this monograph was published. Offshore pipelines have been added to the current version because of their importance in addressing the world’s energy needs. Read more
Seismicity of the Eastern United States the Topic of Two Recent Publications
The March 2013 issue of Structure Magazine includes an article entitled The Eastern United States: We had an Earthquake in Virginia – Now What? by Sissy Nikolaou, which highlights key seismic design issues that are not sufficiently addressed in current building codes in the Eastern U.S. The topic is expanded upon in Geo-Seismic Design in the Eastern United States: State of Practice, by S. Nikolaou, J. Go, C. Beyzaei, C. Moss and P. Deming, all of Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, which is one of 15 invited papers that highlight the state of practice in Geotechnical Engineering State of the Art and Practice: Keynote Lectures from GeoCongress 2012 and published by ASCE.
MCEER Investigator Co-authors Book on Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics
Andre Filiatrault, an MCEER investigator and professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at the University at Buffalo, co-authored a book on earthquake engineering and structural dynamics that addresses seismic design practices in both Canada and the United States. Primarily intended for senior undergraduate and graduate structural engineering students and university educators as well as practicing engineers, the book provides an introductory understanding of earthquake engineering and the basic knowledge needed to apply the seismic provisions contained within American and Canadian building codes. Read more
