It is our great regret, but we have to inform you this
time that we have made up our mind to drop the Northridge case from the
official ESG98 project.  This is primarily because we have found great
difficulty to prepare in time both strong motion data and geological and
geotechnical data for Northridge by ourselves.  
<BR>
The SCEC project, in which
several participants will simulate observed strong motions with their own
codes and models simultanesouly, has been delayed more than expected so far
and it also seems difficult to wait for their progress at least in a timely
manner.  Basically, those of you who want strong motion data of the
Northridge earthquake can extract data from the SCEC strong motion database
at <http://quake.crustal.ucsb.edu/scec/smdb/smdb.html>.  For other source
of strong motion and broad-band data, please see<http://www-socal.wr.usgs.gov/smdata.html>.  For geological structures in
San Fernando and L.A. basins you need to contact SCEC to ask research
report.  You can get information from SCEC Data Center at
<http://www.scecdc.scec.org/> .  If you want to get up-to-date information
of the ongoing SCEC S.S. project, please contact Norm Abrahamson
<nabraham@holonet.net> and ask him to include your name in the mailing list
of the SCEC S.S.
<BR>
Please let me know within a week after receiving this message if you still
want to submit a paper in the technical session for your Northridge
simulation by collecting necessary data for yourselves.  Again we are very
sorry for giving up the Northridge case from one of the special projects of
ESG98.
<BR>
As for the Kobe S.S. project data are now in preparation and we hope that
we can release them soon.  Thank you for your cooperation and acceptance of
our decision.  We look forward to see you in Yokohama.
<BR>