This proposal seeks support to convene a national workshop on the origin of destructive earthquakes in the eastern United States. The conference will emphasize the discussion on several fundamental aspects regarding the tectonic origin of intracontinental earthquakes, and on planning and coordination of future research on intracontinental seismicity. Since plate tectonics does not provide a useful framework for studying deformation in plate interiors, intracratonic tectonism presents a major challenge for basic geosciences. The occurrence of large intracontinental earthquakes also poses complex problems for applied sciences in determining seismic risk and mitigating earthaquake hazard. We submit that a conference on intracontinental seismicity is timely. Results and ideas from diverse disciplines pertinent to this field of renewed interest in geoscience need to be compared and tested. Outside of basic goescience, groups which interact with this field such as users of the information (e.g., earthquake engineers), policy makers and funding agencies need to be made aware of the latest results and the issues rising in this rapidly evolving field. We propose to organize a conference to be held on April 12 and 13, 1988 at the Illini Union of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The main purpose of this conference will be to critically assess our current knowledge on intracontinental seismicity. We plan to host about 40 scientists from diverse fields pertinent to the study of seismicity in the eartern U.S., with emphasis on earthquake seismology, solid-earth geophysics, structural geology, and tectonics.
