New hazard maps, model updates could shift views on quake risk.(Best's Special Report: Our Insight, Your Advantage. Excerpt: Earthquake)(Brief article)

The 2008 National Seismic Hazard Maps by the U.S. Geological Survey are changing the perception of earthquake risk in the United States. Catastrophe modeling firms have updated their models with research from the latest maps, bringing potentially significant implications for how insurers and reinsurers manage, underwrite and price U.S. earthquake risk.

* Newer USGS ground motion attenuation models tend to lower ground motion by up to 30% in the Western United States for shaking from 1-second seismic waves hitting multistory buildings.

* Ground motion in the Central and Eastern United States is generally lower by about 10% to 25%, according to the USGS.

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