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SEPINFOUR Seismic Hazard Inputs <br /> Inputs into the seismic hazard analyses include characterization of both earthquake sources and <br /> ground motion attenuation. These inputs for the PSHA and DSHA, including the WFMF that is <br /> particularly significant to the Henderson site,are described below. <br /> 4.1 EARTHQUAKE SOURCES <br /> In this study, all known seismic sources which could potentially generate strong ground shaking <br /> at the site were characterized. Seismic source characterization is concerned with three <br /> fundamental elements: (1) the identification of significant sources of earthquakes; (2) the <br /> maximum size of these earthquakes; and (3) for probabilistic analyses, the rate at which they <br /> occur. In the PSHA, we estimated and used source parameters for the significant faults in the <br /> region, and areal source zones to represent background earthquakes, which are described in <br /> Sections 4.1.1 and 4.1.2, respectively. For the DSHAs,the WFMF is the source for the scenario <br /> event at the Henderson site and is discussed at the end of Section 4.1.1. <br /> 4.1.1 Quaternary Faults <br /> In marked contrast to the historical earthquake record, the geologic record indicates that large <br /> surface-faulting earthquakes (M > 6.25) have repeatedly occurred during the Quaternary (past <br /> 1.6 million years)on several faults in the northern Rio Grande rift(Machette, 1998; Machette et <br /> al., 1998; Widmann et al., 1998; Morgan et al., 2012; Figure 2). These faults accommodate <br /> overall east-west extension in a series of asymmetric late Cenozoic basins that generally are <br /> smaller (narrower and shallower) than basins in the central and southern Rio Grande rift. <br /> Quaternary faults in the northern rift typically strike north to northwest and often show long, <br /> complex histories, reactivating older reverse faults. Many are range-bounding normal faults <br /> (e.g., the WFMF and Mosquito fault), but some show more structural complexity, including <br /> intrabasin faults(e.g.,Williams Fork Valley faults),or discontinuous zones(e.g.,unnamed faults <br /> near Leadville) that may serve as relay ramps transferring slip between larger range-bounding <br /> faults. Despite the complexities, Quaternary faults in the rift are generally characterized by: (1) <br /> dominantly normal slip, (2) moderate to low slip rates (typically less than 1 mm/yr), and (3) <br /> relatively long recurrence intervals between surface-faulting events (typically tens of thousands <br /> to hundreds of thousands of years). These faults often lack associated seismicity and show <br /> orders-of-magnitude variations in rates of activity through time (Machette, 1998; McCalpin, <br /> 1995; McCalpin et al., 2006). <br /> The seismic source characterization of Quaternary faults used for this analysis is updated from <br /> our previous seismic hazard analysis for the Henderson site (Olig et al., 2013), which included <br /> results from mapping(Olig and Kirkham,2012)and trenching investigations of the WFMF. Our <br /> 2013 study was in turn enhanced and updated from previous studies that we conducted for other <br /> damsites in western Colorado, most importantly our seismic hazard analyses for the Climax site <br /> that included reconnaissance mapping and scarp profiling of the Mosquito fault (Wong et al., <br /> 2007). Additionally, this study addresses review comments on our 2013 study provided by <br /> Norm Abrahamson (personal comm., 2014) regarding better incorporating epistemic versus <br /> aleatory uncertainties on rupture models for the WFMF. This study also incorporates new data <br /> from the USBR regarding recent studies of the Frontal fault conducted to improve seismic hazard <br /> evaluations of Green Mountain Dam (Derouin, 2014). It also revises our previous rupture <br /> models and geometry for the southern Frontal fault, which had solely relied on mapping by the <br /> USBR (L. Anderson, personal comm., 2009) and terminated the southern end near Frisco. To <br />