Publications

Coulomb is intended both for publication-directed research and for college and graduate school classroom instruction. We believe that one learns best when one can see the most and can explore alternatives quickly. So the principal feature of Coulomb is ease of input, rapid interactive modification, and intuitive visualization of the results. The program has menus and check-items, and...

Waveform analysis of aftershocks of the Mw7.0 Haiti earthquake of 12 January 2010 reveals amplification of ground motions at sites within the Cul de Sac valley in which Port-au-Prince is situated. Relative to ground motions recorded at a hard-rock reference site, peak acceleration values are amplified by a factor of approximately 1.8 at sites on low-lying Mio-Pliocene deposits in central...

Earthquake source parameters are important for earthquake studies and seismic hazard assessment. Moment tensors are among the most important earthquake source parameters, and are now routinely derived using modern broadband seismic networks around the world. Similar waveform inversion techniques can also apply to other available data, including strong-motion seismograms. Strong-motion...

We report about a preliminary study to evaluate the use of semi-automated imaging analysis of remotely-sensed DEM and field geophysical measurements to develop a seismic-zonation map of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. For in situ data, VS30 values are derived from the MASW technique deployed in and around the city. For satellite imagery, we use an ASTER GDEM of Hispaniola. We apply both pixel-...

The Mw 7.1 September 2010 Darfield earthquake, New Zealand, produced widespread damage and liquefaction ~40 km from the epicentre in Christchurch city. It was followed by the even more destructive Mw 6.2 February 2011 Christchurch aftershock directly beneath the city’s southern suburbs. Seismic data recorded during the two large events suggest that site effects contributed to the...

Rupture of the southern section of the San Andreas Fault, from the Coachella Valley to the Mojave Desert, is believed to be the greatest natural hazard facing California in the near future. With an estimated magnitude between 7.2 and 8.1, such an event would result in violent shaking, loss of life, and disruption of lifelines (freeways, aqueducts, power, petroleum, and communication...

We carried out morphotectonic studies along the left-lateral strike-slip Bogd Fault, the principal structure involved in the Gobi-Altay earthquake of 1957 December 4 (published magnitudes range from 7.8 to 8.3). The Bogd Fault is 260 km long and can be subdivided into five main geometric segments, based on variation in strike direction. West to East these segments are, respectively: the...

The Colorado River Delta region of southern Imperial Valley, California, and Mexicali Valley, Baja California, is a tectonically dynamic area characterized by numerous active faults and frequent large seismic events. Significant earthquakes that have been accompanied by surface fault rupture and/or soil liquefaction occurred in this region in 1892 (M7.1), 1915 (M6.3; M7.1), 1930 (M5.7)...

The Barents Sea and its surroundings is an epicontinental region which previously has been difficult to access, partly because of its remote Arctic location (Figure 1) and partly because the region has been politically sensitive. Now, however, this region, and in particular its western parts, has been very well surveyed with a variety of geophysical studies, motivated in part by...

[1] Static offsets produced by the February 27, 2010 Mw = 8.8 Maule, Chile earthquake as measured by GPS and InSAR constrain coseismic slip along a section of the Andean megathrust of dimensions 650 km (in length) × 180 km (in width). GPS data have been collected from both campaign and continuous sites sampling both the near-field and far field. ALOS/PALSAR data from several ascending...

The procedures and criteria in 2006 IBC (International Council of Building Officials, 2006) and 2007 CBC (International Council of Building Officials, 2007) for the selection and scaling ground-motions for use in nonlinear response history analysis (RHA) of structures are based on ASCE/SEI 7 provisions (ASCE, 2005, 2010). According to ASCE/SEI 7, earthquake records should be selected...

High seismicity levels with accelerating uplift (under the resurgent dome) in Long Valley caldera in the eastern Sierra Nevada from 1989 to 1997, triggered upgrades to dilational strainmeters and other instrumentation installed in the early 1980's following a series of magnitude 6 earthquakes. This included two additional high-resolution borehole strainmeters and replacement of the...