There are many differences between the hazard maps of USGS and CyberShake, including, procedures of making hazard maps, required computational resources and results [3, 5]. The USGS National Seismic Hazard maps in California region are derived form source models based on seismological data, geological surveys and earthquake rupture models, and the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) database [8, 9]. The CyberShake hazard map is constructed by physics-based simulations in the 3D velocity model for all potential earthquake ruptures with Mw ≥ 6.0 near Los Angeles region [5].
The computational resources requirements for generating USGS hazard maps do not mention in the 2008 report of seismic hazard maps update, but the hazard maps should be able to done without a super computer. To generate the CyberShake hazard map, lots of wave propagation simulations are required to build a database for generating synthetic seismograms of potential earthquake ruptures [5]. The computational resource of physics-based seismic hazard maps is much higher than the computational requirement of USGS hazard maps. However, the advances in computer sciences make the computational requirements affordable for CyberShake, also accurate estimations of ground motions are important for a city with a large population. The seismic hazard levels are quit different in the Los Angeles region between two hazard maps. In the USGS hazard map [Figure 1], the high hazard level regions are almost along the fault zones and hazard values decrease as the distance between a site and fault zones increases. In the Los Angeles basin region, the hazard level is about the same in the USGS hazard map [Figure 1]. In the CyberShake hazard map, the hazard values along the San Andreas fault are high, but the width of high hazard zones is narrower. In addition, the CyberShake hazard map in the Los Angeles basin has more details [5]. This probably reflects the source and structure effects??in ground motion predictions.
