The history of seismology has been traced since man first reacted literarily to the phenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes, some 4000 yr ago. Twentysix centuries ago man began the quest for natural causes of earthquakes. The dawn of modern seismology broke immediately after the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 with the pioneering studies of John Bevis (1757) and John Miehell (1761). It reached its pin...

This paper describes an approach used to develop retrofit strategies for hospitals and other critical facilities in low to moderate seismic hazard zones, where strong earthquakes are infrequent, but if they should occur, the consequences would be high. Hospitals in New York State and other urban centers in the eastern U.S. fall into this category, where seismic retrofit requires information on ...