---
title: O.C.G.A. § 25-8-5. Use of seismograph measurements.
collection: code
id: 25-8-5
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 25-8-5 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/25-8-5
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/25-8-5.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/25-8-5/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t24-t26-(v21)-2023-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=5423edd_0#page=132
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: FIRE PROTECTION AND SAFETY / REGULATION OF BLASTING OPERATIONS GENERALLY
---

# O.C.G.A. § 25-8-5. Use of seismograph measurements.

(a) Seismograph measurements may be used to increase the charge weight per delay period, provided that the velocity limit of two inches per second of any of the three mutually perpendicular components of ground motion is not exceeded.

(b) Seismograph measurements must be used in each individual blasting operation in which the standard table of distance is not being complied with. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a modified table for blasting operations may be established for use at a particular site, provided that the velocity limit of two inches per second of any of the three mutually perpendicular components of ground motion is not exceeded. Blasting operations without instrumentation will be considered as being within the limits set forth in this subsection if, at a specified location on at least five blasts, instrumentation has shown that the maximum peak particle velocity of any of the three mutually perpendicular components of ground motion at the specified location is 50 percent or less than the limit set forth in this subsection, provided that on all future blasts the scaled distance is equal to or greater than the scaled distance for the instrumented blast.

(c) In estimating the maximum peak particle velocity at a particular position, the following formula shall be used:

where V(cid:3) is the maximum ground particle velocity at the seismograph, D(cid:3) is the distance of the seismograph from the blasting, and D is the distance from the blasting to the position in question and in the same general direction. The distance D(cid:3) may not be greater than D, and D cannot be more than five times D(cid:3). This determined velocity at the site of any dwelling house, public building, school, church, or commercial or institutional building normally occupied shall not exceed the two inches per second limit.

## History

Ga. L. 1978, p. 1624, § 5.