Seismic hazards

The Eastern United States are considered to be a low seismic hazard
zone.  To my knowledge, museums in the Eastern United States do not
have a history of using preventive measures to reduce the risk of
earthquake damage to their collections in storage and on display,
e.g. through specific mounting and storage methods.  As lenders to
seismic hazard zones we are interested in keeping appraised of best
practice developments in mitigation methods, and I have a couple of
questions specifically in relation to the August 2011 earthquake in
Virginia:

    Has there been damage to museum collections as a result of the
    earthquake?  If so, what types of damage were incurred?

    Are museums in the Eastern United States now applying preventive
    measures in storage and on display to reduce the risk to their
    collections from earthquakes?  If so, what types of measures do
    you apply?

Monika Harter
Department of Conservation and Scientific Research
The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 26:32
                 Distributed: Saturday, January 5, 2013
                       Message Id: cdl-26-32-015
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