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KGS, UK scientists visit China

Three scientists from the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) and the University of Kentucky were recently invited to visit Tianshui in southeastern Gansu Province of China from July 27 to August 8, 2009. The visit by KGS Director James Cobb, Zhenming Wang, head of the KGS Geologic Hazards Section, and Edward Woolery, associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science, was part of an ongoing earthquake science exchange program with the Lanzhou Institute of Seismology/Gansu Earthquake Administration. Tianshui was a center of early Chinese civilization and the birth place of Taoist “Ba Gua” or “eight symbols.” It has experienced many great earthquakes in the past several thousand years, including the 2008 Wenchuan 8.0-magnitude earthquake.

“This has been a tremendous success for us and for our Chinese counterparts,” according to Cobb. “Our work in China has provided us with opportunities to see active faults and earthquake effects not seen in Kentucky. This has been very important for our studies of the New Madrid seismic zone and other earthquake zones that affect Kentucky.”
The exchange program has produced scientific papers and studies of earthquakes in both countries. The May 2008 earthquake killed an estimated 85,000 people and brought a renewed sense of purpose to the exchange. The research being done bears directly on improving public safety in the US and China by assessing earthquake-prone faults and the responses of soils and rock to shaking from earthquakes.

“With a long civilization and rich historical earthquake records, Tianshui provides an ideal place for seismologists to study earthquake science and seismic hazard mitigation policy” said Wang.

It was the fourth trip by UK scientists to China for the purpose of collaborating with Chinese colleagues, presenting papers, and conducting research on seismic hazards.  Seismologists from China have made an equal number of trips to Kentucky, and two Chinese seismologists spent a year at UK as visiting scholars.

"The scholarly exchange is providing our research program an important opportunity to compare their actual large-magnitude earthquake observations with our theoretical or modeled seismic responses for similar sized events in the central United States,” says Woolery. “Ultimately, this will allow us to better understand seismic hazards here at home."
Future plans for the exchange program include scientific investigations for a hazard assessment of Tianshui City, assessment of data from 2009 field work in China, hosting another visiting scholar from the Lanzhou Institute, and publication of results from previous field investigations.

 Ed Woolery (center, standing) and Zhenming Wang (right, seated)
work with researchers from the Lanzhou Institute of Seismology
on seismic hazard mapping in Tianshui.

Jim Cobb and Ed Woolery investigate earthquake damages to
the Buddhist Maiji Groto during their visit to Tianshui.