Duluth, MN: what USGS's seismic model says

Duluth 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. Nationally, Duluth ranks above 1% of the 4,875 cities in this dataset for seismic hazard - the 1th percentile.

Duluth by the numbers

The raw figures: peak ground acceleration 0.019g, short-period spectral response 0.041g, 1-second spectral response 0.016g. Among 155 Minnesota cities in this dataset, Duluth ranks 150 for seismic hazard, the 3th percentile within the state. About 87,986 people live in Duluth, Minnesota.

Retrofit economics for Duluth

Outside California, no state-level retrofit grant equivalent to Brace + Bolt could be found for Minnesota. A typical retrofit still runs $5,000-$10,000 nationally, about $7,000 for a common single-family job.

What this means for insurance

Outside California, earthquake coverage is typically sold as an endorsement added to a standard homeowners policy, not a separate product - worth asking about directly when getting a home-insurance quote for a Duluth address.

More on how this number was built

The methodology guide covers exactly how USGS's public design-maps API produced Duluth's numbers. The guide to what a Seismic Design Category actually means covers why a category is never a substitute for an engineer's assessment of one specific house.