What are my risks?

• Seismic Hazard Ranking for Kauai County
• History of earthquakes in Kauai County

Seismic Hazard Zones in Kauai County

Kauai's Uniform Building Code seismic risk zone ranking is currently a . The UBC contain six seismic zones, ranging from 0 (no chance of severe ground shaking) to 4 (10% chance of severe shaking in a 50-year interval).

According to the U.S. Geological Society, one problem in assigning seismic hazard zones to the island is that the ground shaking during a strong earthquake may vary within a small area. This variation is due to the nature of the underlying ground; for example, whether it is mainly lava bedrock or soil. Two homes in the same neighborhood may suffer different degrees of damage depending on the properties of the ground upon which they are built. In addition, local topography strongly affects earthquake hazards. Steep slopes composed of loose material may produce large landslides during an earthquake.

The risk from living in a seismically active area, unlike that of living in an area prone to being covered by lava, also depends to a large degree on the type of construction used in a given home. Earthquake shaking may damage certain types of houses, while leaving other types of construction unscathed. For all of these reasons, earthquake hazards are highly localized, and it is difficult to define broad zones with the same relative degree of hazard.

For more information about Seismic Hazards in Hawaii click here.

History of Earthquakes in Kauai County

Each year thousands of earthquakes occur in Hawaii, with the majority of them too small to be felt except by highly sensitive instruments. However, there have been earthquakes that jolted the islands. The island of Hawaii has experienced numerous earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater, however, no large earthquakes have been felt on Kauai.

History of Earthquakes in Hawaii, M6 and Greater, 1868-Present

History of Earthquakes in Hawaii, M6 and Greater, 1868-Present

Source: Atlas of Hawaii, Third Edition, 1998