干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Groups of precariously balanced rocks are effectively low-resolution strong-motion seismoscopes that have been operating on solid rock outcrops for long periods of time, Zones of precarious rocks are direct evidence that no strong ground accelerations have occurred in the zone for thousands of years. They thus provide important information about seismic risk and have the potential of providing constraints on strong ground motion attenuation from great earthquakes, as well as constraining the probabilities of large earthquakes on possible hidden faults, and on mapped faults of unknown activity. The results will have important implications for seismic zonation and for siting of sensitive structures such as hospitals and power plants.