This action is for continued support of a U.S.-Taiwan cooperative research project (NSF CES-8417856) to record and disseminate earthquake strong ground-motion data. This research facility, called SMART-1 (Strong Motion ARray in Taiwan -1), is a large-scale digital strong-motion array installed in a highly seismic area of Taiwan. It is a collaborative project between the University of California at Berkeley and the Academia Sinica of the Institute of Earth Sciences at the National Taiwan University. The SMART-1 array commenced operation in September 1980, and in the first 6 1/2 years of operation, strong-motion records from over 50 local earthquakes of magnitude between 3.8 and 7.0 (Richter scale) have been recorded. These strong-motion records represent an important resource for earthquake engineering and for the understanding of seismic strong motion in the near field. The goals for this continued cooperation are: (1) To support research on the strong-motion data sets already recorded, including the magnitude 7.8 earthquake on November 15, 1986, and (2) to assist in the relocation of a major part of the array to a new site in the same highly seismic region, with firmer (stiffer) ground foundation conditions. This will provide earthquake response data for structures built on stiff soil and rock sites.
