9303187 Bolt This action is to continue a collaboration in the recording of earthquake strong ground motion, between principal investigators at the University of California at Berkeley and at the Institute of Earth Sciences, Academica Sinica, Taiwan. This collaboration began with the NSF-funded installation in Taiwan of SMART-1 (Strong Motion Array in Taiwan-1) headed by the principal investigator. Since that time, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have collaborated with Taiwan Power in the complimentary recording of strong ground motions through a smaller-scale array within SMART-1, for soil-structure interaction studies motivated by needs in nuclear power plant design. This collaboration is being repeated with the installation of the Taiwan-funded SMART-2 array at a stiffer soil site at Hualien. The Taiwan Weather Bureau is now installing 600 strong-motion recorders distributed around the island of Taiwan. NSF-funded investigators from the University of Houston and the University of Southern California are participating in this data-gathering program, and the principal investigator is involved separately as chairman of a technical review panel for the strong-motion recorders being installed. This action is to: (1) support collaboration in dissemination and processing of seismic ground motions being recorded by the new digital accelerograph array (SMART-2); (2) assist in the integration of SMART-2 data with that from the smaller-scale 3-D array; and (3) continue research using new SMART-1 and SMART-2 data, on measuring, comparing, understanding and characterizing variations of strong ground motion paralleling those at SMART-1 on "soft" soil. ***
