About the Cover
Various types of intensity scales have been used the world over for more than a century to describe, quantify, rank, and comprehend seismic activity. Such scales have some limitations, however, when applied to regions and cultures from which they did not originate. Such shortcomings prompted Hamidreza Ramazi and Reza Haghani at Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran to develop a set of innovative criteria for evaluating earthquake intensity in this region of the world, as described in New Criteria for an Intensity Scale in Iran and Surrounding Countries, beginning on page 422. Ramazi and Haghani provide details and examples of five types of construction and 12 grades of destruction commonly found in this region; the cover of this issue provides a sampling of the photos they use to illustrate their intensity scale. Cover photos courtesy of Hamidreza Ramazi, http://www.ngdir.ir/photogallery/photoalbums.asp?pcategorycode=17, http://www.eas.slu.edu/earthquake_center/turkey/, http://www.landslidecentre.org/kashmir.htm, and http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazard/slideset/46/46_slides.shtml.
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Copyright © 2008 by Seismological Society of America
