| Excerpt |
|---|
Eric Thompson and colleagues have used the Tufts Linux Cluster to further their understanding of the seismic response of near-surface soils. This behavior, often termed "site response," can often explain why locations heavily damaged by an earthquake are frequently observed adjacent to undamaged locations. Standard modeling procedures often fail to accurately model this behavior. The failure of these models is often attributed to the uncertainty of the soil properties. However, using the Tufts Linux Cluster they have shown that the underlying theoretical assumptions of the standard model (vertically incident plane SH-wave propagation through a laterally constant medium) are responsible for the failure to match the observed site response behavior. |