Publications

The San Andreas fault accommodates 28–34 mm yr−1 of right lateral motion of the Pacific crustal plate northwestward past the North American plate. In California, the fault is composed of two distinct locked segments that have produced great earthquakes in historical times, separated by a 150-km-long creeping zone. The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) is a scientific...

Earthquake engineering is increasingly using nonlinear response history analysis (RHA) to demonstrate the performance of structures. This rigorous method of analysis requires selection and scaling of ground motions appropriate to design hazard levels. This paper presents a modal-pushover-based scaling (MPS) procedure to scale ground motions for use in a nonlinear RHA of buildings. In the...

Talc is a constituent of faults in a variety of settings, and it may be an effective weakening agent depending on its abundance and distribution within a fault. We conducted frictional strength experiments under hydrothermal conditions to determine the effect of talc on the strengths of synthetic gouges of lizardite and antigorite serpentinites and of quartz. Small amounts of talc weaken

The southernmost ~100 km of the San Andreas fault has not ruptured historically. It is imperative to determine its rupture history to better predict its future behavior. This paleoseismic investigation in Coachella, California, establishes a chronology of at least five and up to seven major earthquakes during the past ~1100 yr. This chronology yields a range of average recurrence...

For the ShakeOut Earthquake Scenario, we estimate $68 billion in direct and indirect business interruption (BI) and $11 billion in related costs in addition to the $113 billion in property damage in an eight-county Southern California region. The modeled conduits of shock to the economy are property damage and lifeline service outages that affect the economy’s ability to produce...

Large earthquakes are known to trigger earthquakes elsewhere. Damaging large aftershocks occur close to the mainshock and microearthquakes are triggered by passing seismic waves at significant distances from the mainshock. It is unclear, however, whether bigger, more damaging earthquakes are routinely triggered at distances far from the mainshock, heightening the global seismic hazard...

We present a Geographic Information System (GIS) of a new 3-dimensional (3D) model of the subducted Juan de Fuca Plate beneath western North America and associated seismicity of the Cascadia subduction system. The geo-referenced 3D model was constructed from weighted control points that integrate depth information from hypocenter locations and regional seismic velocity studies. We used...

Liquefaction probability curves that predict the probability of surface manifestations of earthquake-induced liquefaction are developed for 14 different types of surficial geologic units. The units consist of alluvial fan, beach ridge, river delta topset and foreset beds, eolian dune, point bar, flood basin, natural river and alluvial fan levees, abandoned river channel, deep-water lake...

The Eurasia Basin petroleum province comprises the younger, eastern half of the Arctic Ocean, including the Cenozoic Eurasia Basin and the outboard part of the continental margin of northern Europe. For the USGS petroleum assessment (CARA), it was divided into four assessment units (AUs): the Lena Prodelta AU, consisting of the deep-marine part of the Lena Delta; the Nansen Basin Margin...

The three-dimensional crustal displacement field as sampled by GPS is used to determine the coseismic slip of the 2011 M9.0 Tohoku Earthquake. We employ a spherically layered Earth structure and use a combination of onland GPS, out to ∼4000 km from the rupture, and offshore GPS, which samples the high-slip region on the interplate boundary along the Japan trench. Inversion of the...

No abstract available.

We analyze here the rupture mechanics of the 2004, M2.2 earthquake based on our observations and measurements at focal depth (Part I). This event ruptured the Archean Pretorius fault that has been inactive for at least 2 Ga, and was reactivated due to mining operations down to a depth of 3.6 km depth. Thus, it was expected that the Pretorius fault zone will fail similarly to an intact...