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Putting down roots in earthquake country: Your handbook for earthquakes in the Central United States Putting down roots in earthquake country: Your handbook for earthquakes in the Central United States

This handbook provides information to residents of the Central United States about the threat of earthquakes in that area, particularly along the New Madrid seismic zone, and explains how to prepare for, survive, and recover from such events. It explains the need for concern about earthquakes for those residents and describes what one can expect during and after an earthquake. Much is...
Authors
Richard Contributors: Dart, Jill McCarthy, Natasha McCallister, Robert A. Williams

Overview of the ARkStorm scenario Overview of the ARkStorm scenario

The U.S. Geological Survey, Multi Hazards Demonstration Project (MHDP) uses hazards science to improve resiliency of communities to natural disasters including earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, landslides, floods and coastal erosion. The project engages emergency planners, businesses, universities, government agencies, and others in preparing for major natural disasters. The project also...
Authors
Keith Porter, Anne Wein, Charles N. Alpers, Allan Baez, Patrick L. Barnard, James Carter, Alessandra Corsi, James Costner, Dale Cox, Tapash Das, Mike Dettinger, James Done, Charles Eadie, Marcia Eymann, Justin Ferris, Prasad Gunturi, Mimi Hughes, Robert Jarrett, Laurie Johnson, Hanh Dam Le-Griffin, David Mitchell, Suzette Morman, Paul Neiman, Anna Olsen, Suzanne Perry, Geoffrey Plumlee, Martin Ralph, David Reynolds, Adam Rose, Kathleen Schaefer, Julie Serakos, William Siembieda, Jonathan D. Stock, David Strong, Ian Sue Wing, Alex Tang, Pete Thomas, Ken Topping, Chris Wills, Lucile Jones

Electrical properties of methane hydrate + sediment mixtures Electrical properties of methane hydrate + sediment mixtures

As part of our DOE-funded proposal to characterize gas hydrate in the Gulf of Mexico using marine electromagnetic methods, a collaboration between SIO, LLNL, and USGS with the goal of measuring the electrical properties of lab-created methane (CH4) hydrate and sediment mixtures was formed. We examined samples with known characteristics to better relate electrical properties measured in...
Authors
Wyatt L. Du Frane, Laura A. Stern, Karen A. Weitemeyer, Steven Constable, Jeffery J. Roberts

Deep rock damage in the San Andreas Fault revealed by P- and S-type fault-zone-guided waves Deep rock damage in the San Andreas Fault revealed by P- and S-type fault-zone-guided waves

Damage to fault-zone rocks during fault slip results in the formation of a channel of low seismic-wave velocities. Within such channels guided seismic waves, denoted by Fg, can propagate. Here we show with core samples, well logs and Fg-waves that such a channel is crossed by the SAFOD (San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth) borehole at a depth of 2.7 km near Parkfield, California, USA...
Authors
William L. Ellsworth, Peter E. Malin

Don't forget about the Christchurch earthquake: Lessons learned from this disaster Don't forget about the Christchurch earthquake: Lessons learned from this disaster

In the aftermath of the devastating magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck the Tohoku region of Japan on March 11, attention quickly turned away from a much smaller, but also highly destructive earthquake that struck the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, just a few weeks earlier, on Feb. 22. Both events are stark reminders of human vulnerability to natural disasters and...
Authors
Michael W. Hamburger, Walter D. Mooney

Twitter earthquake detection: Earthquake monitoring in a social world Twitter earthquake detection: Earthquake monitoring in a social world

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is investigating how the social networking site Twitter, a popular service for sending and receiving short, public text messages, can augment USGS earthquake response products and the delivery of hazard information. Rapid detection and qualitative assessment of shaking events are possible because people begin sending public Twitter messages (tweets) with...
Authors
Paul S. Earle, Daniel C. Bowden, Michelle R. Guy

Triggered surface slips in southern California associated with the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah, Baja California, Mexico, earthquake Triggered surface slips in southern California associated with the 2010 El Mayor-Cucapah, Baja California, Mexico, earthquake

The April 4, 2010 (Mw7.2), El Mayor-Cucapah, Baja California, Mexico, earthquake is the strongest earthquake to shake the Salton Trough area since the 1992 (Mw7.3) Landers earthquake. Similar to the Landers event, ground-surface fracturing occurred on multiple faults in the trough. However, the 2010 event triggered surface slip on more faults in the central Salton Trough than previous...
Authors
Michael J. Rymer, Jerome A. Treiman, Katherine J. Kendrick, James J. Lienkaemper, Ray J. Weldon, Roger G. Bilham, Meng Wei, Eric J. Fielding, Janis L. Hernandez, Brian Olson, Pamela J. Irvine, Nichole Knepprath, Robert R. Sickler, Xiaopeng Tong, Martin E. Siem

Scientific drilling into the San Andreas Fault Zone - an overview of SAFOD's first five years Scientific drilling into the San Andreas Fault Zone - an overview of SAFOD's first five years

The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) was drilled to study the physical and chemical processes controlling faulting and earthquake generation along an active, plate-bounding fault at depth. SAFOD is located near Parkfield, California and penetrates a section of the fault that is moving due to a combination of repeating microearthquakes and fault creep. Geophysical logs...
Authors
Mark Zoback, Stephen Hickman, William Ellsworth

A methodology for post-mainshock probabilistic assessment of building collapse risk A methodology for post-mainshock probabilistic assessment of building collapse risk

This paper presents a methodology for post-earthquake probabilistic risk (of damage) assessment that we propose in order to develop a computational tool for automatic or semi-automatic assessment. The methodology utilizes the same so-called risk integral which can be used for pre-earthquake probabilistic assessment. The risk integral couples (i) ground motion hazard information for the...
Authors
N. Luco, M.C. Gerstenberger, S.R. Uma, H. Ryu, A.B. Liel, M. Raghunandan

Estimating unknown input parameters when implementing the NGA ground-motion prediction equations in engineering practice Estimating unknown input parameters when implementing the NGA ground-motion prediction equations in engineering practice

The ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) developed as part of the Next Generation Attenuation of Ground Motions (NGA-West) project in 2008 are becoming widely used in seismic hazard analyses. However, these new models are considerably more complicated than previous GMPEs, and they require several more input parameters. When employing the NGA models, users routinely face situations...
Authors
James Kaklamanos, Laurie G. Baise, David M. Boore

Seismic and geodetic signatures of fault slip at the Slumgullion Landslide Natural Laboratory Seismic and geodetic signatures of fault slip at the Slumgullion Landslide Natural Laboratory

We tested the hypothesis that the Slumgullion landslide is a useful natural laboratory for observing fault slip, specifically that slip along its basal surface and side-bounding strike-slip faults occurs with comparable richness of aseismic and seismic modes as along crustal- and plate-scale boundaries. Our study provides new constraints on models governing landslide motion. We monitored...
Authors
J. Gomberg, W. Schulz, P. Bodin, J. Kean
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