Publications

Improved predictions of earthquake ground motions are critical to advancing seismic hazard analyses and earthquake response. The high seismicity rate from 2009 to 2016 in Oklahoma and Kansas provides an extensive data set for examining the ground motions from these events. We evaluate the ability of three suites of ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs)—appropriate for modeling...

Analysis is made of solar observations and ground‐based magnetometer data recording space weather before and during the magnetic superstorm of 25 September 1909. From these data, it is inferred that the storm was initiated by an interplanetary coronal‐mass ejection having a mean Sun‐to‐Earth velocity of ~1,679 km/s. The commencement pressure on the magnetopause was ~32.4 nPa, sufficient...

From 1961 to 1996, the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL) installed and operated the World‐Wide Standardized Seismograph Network (WWSSN). Each station within the network consisted of three Benioff short‐period sensors and three Sprengnether Press‐Ewing long‐period sensors along with recording, timing, and calibration equipment. Approximately 3.7 million single‐day record film...

No abstract available.

The Global Earthquake Risk Map (v2018.1) comprises four global maps. The main map presents the geographic distribution of average annual loss (USD) normalized by the average construction costs of the respective country (USD/m2 due to ground shaking in the residential, commercial and industrial building stock, considering contents, structural and non-structural components. The normalized

Following a wildfire, flooding and debris- flow hazards are common and pose a threat to human life and infrastructure in steep burned terrain. Wildfire enhances both water runoff and soil erosion, which ultimately shape the debris flow potential. The erosional processes that route excess sediment from hillslopes to debris-flow channels in recently burned areas, however, are poorly...

Tucked in a grove of thorny mesquite trees, on an ancient coral reef on the south side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu, west of Pearl Harbor, a small unmanned observatory quietly records the Earth’s time-varying magnetic field. The Honolulu Magnetic Observatory is 1 of 14 that the U.S. Geological Survey Geomag­netism Program operates at various locations across the United States and its...

We evaluate worldwide low-latitude auroral activity associated with the great magnetic storm of September 1909 for which a minimum Dst value of −595 nT has recently been determined. From auroral observations, we calculate that the equatorward boundary of the auroral oval in the 1909 event was in the range from 31°–35° invariant latitude (assuming auroral height of 400 km) to 37°–38° (800...

Seismologists have recently begun utilizing low-cost nodal sensors in dense deployments to sample the seismic wavefield at unprecedented spatial resolution. Earthquake Early Warning Systems (EEWS) and other monitoring networks (e.g. wastewater injection) would additionally benefit from network densification; however, current nodal systems lack power systems and/or real-time data...

A MW 5.8 earthquake occurred on 6 July 2017 at 12.2 km depth, 11 km southeast of Lincoln in west central Montana. No major damage or injuries were reported; however, the widely felt mainshock generated a prolific aftershock sequence with more than 1200 located events through the end of 2017. The Lincoln event is the latest in a series of moderate-to-large earthquakes that have affected...

Hillslope asymmetry is often attributed to differential eco‐hydro‐geomorphic processes resulting from aspect‐related differences in insolation. At midlatitudes, polar facing hillslopes are steeper, wetter, have denser vegetation, and deeper soils than their equatorial facing counterparts. We propose that at regional scales, the magnitude in insolation‐driven hillslope asymmetry is...

We describe a methodology that has been developed at the U.S. Geological Survey for making earthquake catalogs for seismic hazard analysis and review the status of the catalogs for the conterminous United States. A new catalog is assembled from several pre‐existing catalogs. Uniform moment magnitudes and related parameters for estimating unbiased seismicity rates are calculated...