BSSA Call for Papers

Special Issue on Earthquake Hazards 25 Years after Chi-Chi: Learning from the Past to Prepare for the Future

The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA) is soliciting papers for a Special Issue on Earthquake Hazards 25 Years after Chi-Chi: Learning from the Past to Prepare for the Future.

The devastating 21 September 1999, Mw 7.6 Chi-Chi earthquake in Taiwan was one of many strong and damaging earthquakes across the globe that year. Turkey, California and Mexico also were struck by earthquakes (Mw 7.6 Izmit, 17 August 1999; Mw 7.2 Duzce, 12 November 1999; Mw 7.2 Hector Mine, 16 October 1999; Mw 7.5 San Baltazar Loxicha, 30 September 1999).

Subsequently, significant efforts were undertaken by academic, engineering, and governmental bodies to enhance earthquake preparedness for future events. Twenty-five years later, what are the lessons learned from their work, and from other responses to earthquake hazards in the last quarter-century? How do we apply these lessons from past events to develop and implement earthquake risk mitigation actions? We aim to raise global awareness on earthquake hazard and the importance of learning from past events to prepare for the future.

Since 1999, numerous large earthquakes have occurred in Taiwan, a seismically active region situated at the collision and subduction zone of the Philippine Sea plate and the Eurasian plate. Eastern Taiwan has experienced several strong earthquakes in recent years, including the 6 February 2018, Mw 6.4 Hualien earthquake, the 17 September 2022, Mw 6.4 and 18 September 2022, Mw 6.8 Guanshan-Chishang, Taitung earthquake sequences, and the most recent destructive event, the 3 April 2024, Mw 7.4 Hualien earthquake. These earthquakes resulted in damage to buildings and bridges, and loss of life, although the impacts have been significantly reduced due to improved preparedness measures. While the intense seismic activity serves as a stark reminder of the earthquake hazard faced by Taiwan, the relatively low number of fatalities demonstrates progress in developing and implementing earthquake-safety measures and engineering practices over the last 25 years since the devastating Mw 7.6 Chi-Chi earthquake.

In light of recent earthquakes and the resulting damage in Taiwan and elsewhere, we issue this call for papers on the subject of “Earthquake Hazards 25 Years after Chi-Chi: Learning from the Past to Prepare for the Future.” Topics of interest include source processes and their characterization (including surface-rupture assessment), ground-motion analyses and earthquake-triggered landslides, as well as geotechnical aspects related to structural failure. We also invite contributions addressing the history of earthquakes, paleoseismological assessments, and studies of the seismotectonic environment of Taiwan and other regions. While the focus is on Taiwan’s experience, we explicitly solicit contributions on other seismically active regions with multiple sizable earthquakes and the scientific, engineering, communication and policy-making lessons learned from these earthquakes towards collectively building a more resilient society that is prepared to mitigate seismic risks.

Guest Editors for this Special Issue:

Deadline for Submission: 6 March 2025

Articles accepted to this BSSA Special Issue will be published online soon after acceptance and collectively in print in the October 2025 issue. Papers will be reviewed as they are received and published online prior to the print issue.

In preparing manuscripts, authors must follow the BSSA author guidelines at https://www.seismosoc.org/publications/bssa-submission-guidelines/.

Papers must be submitted via the BSSA online submission system (www.editorialmanager.com/bssa) under the category “Earthquake Hazards.”

Please address questions about scientific issues to the guest editors or BSSA Editor-in-Chief P. Martin Mai at bssaeditor@seismosoc.org.  Submission-related questions should be addressed to the BSSA Editorial Office at bssamss@seismosoc.org.