HR: 14:05h
AN: S23C-02 INVITED [Abstracts]
TI: Earthquake interdependence and insurance loss modeling
AU: * Muir Wood, R
EM: robertm@rms.com
AF: Risk Management Solutions, Peninsular House, 30 Monument Street, London, EC3R 8HB
United Kingdom
AB:
Probabilistic Catastrophe loss modeling generally assumes that earthquakes are independent events and occur far enough apart
in time that damage from one event is fully restituted before another earthquake occurs. While time dependence and cascade
fault rupturing are today standard elements of the earthquake hazard engine, in the next generation of Catastrophe loss
models one can expect to find a more comprehensive range of earthquake interdependence represented in a full simulation
modeling environment. Such behavior includes the incorporation of the ways in which earthquakes relate one to another in both
space and time (including foreshock, aftershock and triggered mainshock distinctions) and the damage that can be predicted
from overlapping damage fields as related to the length of time for reconstruction that has elapsed between events. For
insurance purposes losses are framed by the 168 hour clause for classifying losses as falling within the same `event' for
reinsurance recoveries as well as the annual insurance contract. The understanding of the ways in which stress changes
associated with fault rupture affect the probabilities of earthquakes on surrounding faults has also expanded the
predictability of potential earthquake sequences as well as highlighted the potential to identify locations where, for some
time window, risk can be discounted. While it can be illuminating to explore the loss and insurance implications of the
patterns of historical earthquake occurrence seen historically along the Nankaido subduction zone of Southern Japan, in New
Madrid from 1811-1812, or Nevada in 1954, the sequences to be expected in the future are unlikely to have historical
precedent in the region in which they form.
UR: http://www.rms.com/
DE: 7223 Earthquake interaction, forecasting, and prediction (1217, 1242)
DE: 7230 Seismicity and tectonics (1207, 1217, 1240, 1242)
SC: Seismology [S]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005