Dickinson's Seismic Design Category, explained

Dickinson carries Seismic Design Category A under USGS's ASCE 7-16 model. Lowest seismic design category. Building code requires no seismic-specific detailing here beyond ordinary construction practice. Rank it against the rest of the country and Dickinson sits at the 9th percentile for seismic hazard among 4,875 US cities.

How Dickinson compares

USGS's underlying values for Dickinson: 0.026g peak ground acceleration, 0.058g at short period, 0.025g at 1 second. Within North Dakota alone, Dickinson ranks 7 of 14 cities by seismic hazard - the 54th percentile in-state. Dickinson has a population of about 25,695.

What a retrofit costs in Dickinson

A full earthquake retrofit typically runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally (around $7,000 typical), driven mainly by house size and foundation type, not by North Dakota specifically. California's Earthquake Brace + Bolt grant, which covers a large share of this cost, is a California-only program and does not apply in North Dakota.

What this means for insurance

A Dickinson homeowner cannot buy a standalone earthquake policy in most cases - it is added to an existing homeowners policy as an endorsement, so the place to start is a regular home-insurance quote.

Where Dickinson's figures come from

Dickinson's Category A and every number above trace to USGS's own ASCE 7-16 Design Maps service - see the methodology guide. See the category explainer for what Category A does and doesn't tell you about Dickinson.