Earthquakes are prime considerations in the design and retrofit of structures.
The Office of Earthquake Engineering is responsibilty to define the seismic hazard for Caltrans' projects. The MCE is defined as the largest earthquake which can be expected to occur on a fault in the current tectonic regime. Following the 1971 San Fernando earthquake Caltrans instituted an effort to a develop hazard maps for California to effectively incorporate seismic effects into the design process. This 1996 version of our hazard map is the latest map. The map incorporates the ideas and opinions from seismologists, geologists and other earth sciences experts .