This action is associated with the Engineering Research Equipment Grants program. Funding is provided for the purchase of specific equipment items; these are for use in the cross hole seismic technique. The goal is to measure in situ the damping characteristics of soils. A knowledge of the strength, stiffness and damping properties of soils is fundamental to earthquake hazard mitigation. Many techniques have been developed to measure strength and stiffness properties, but the measurement of damping properties in situ has proven very difficult. The cross hole seismic method shows a lot of promise in this regard.
