Publications
Educational Publications
Educational Publications
Selected publications about earthquakes In plain language.
Filter Total Items: 2785
The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989: Performance of the built environment The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989: Performance of the built environment
Professional Paper 1552 focuses on the response of buildings, lifelines, highway systems, and earth structures to the earthquake. Losses to these systems totaled approximated $5.9 billion. The earthquake displaced many residents from their homes and severely disrupted transportation systems. Some significant findings were: * Approximately 16,000 housing units were uninhabitable after the
Authors
Thomas L. Coordinated by Holzer
Chapter A. The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989 - Lifelines Chapter A. The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989 - Lifelines
To the general public who had their televisions tuned to watch the World Series, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake was a lifelines earthquake. It was the images seen around the world of the collapsed Cypress Street viaduct, with the frantic and heroic efforts to pull survivors from the structure that was billowing smoke; the collapsed section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and...
The Cascadia Subduction Zone: Two contrasting models of lithospheric structure The Cascadia Subduction Zone: Two contrasting models of lithospheric structure
The Pacific margin of North America is one of the most complicated regions in the world in terms of its structure and present day geodynamic regime. The aim of this work is to develop a better understanding of lithospheric structure of the Pacific Northwest, in particular the Cascadia subduction zone of Southwest Canada and Northwest USA. The goal is to compare and contrast the...
Authors
T.V. Romanyuk, R. Blakely, Walter D. Mooney
Chapter D. The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989 - Recovery, Mitigation, and Reconstruction Chapter D. The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989 - Recovery, Mitigation, and Reconstruction
The papers in this chapter reflect the broad spectrum of issues that arise following a major damaging urban earthquake-the regional economic consequences, rehousing problems, reconstruction strategies and policies, and opportunities for mitigation before the next major seismic event. While some of these papers deal with structural or physical science topics, their significant social and...
The Loma Prieta, California, earthquake of October 17, 1989 - Earth structures and engineering characterization of ground motion The Loma Prieta, California, earthquake of October 17, 1989 - Earth structures and engineering characterization of ground motion
This chapter contains two papers that summarize the performance of engineered earth structures, dams and stabilized excavations in soil, and two papers that characterize for engineering purposes the attenuation of ground motion with distance during the Loma Prieta earthquake. Documenting the field performance of engineered structures and confirming empirically based predictions of ground...
Authors
Thomas L. Holzer
Crustal structure of China from deep seismic sounding profiles Crustal structure of China from deep seismic sounding profiles
More than 36,000 km of Deep Seismic Sounding (DSS) profiles have been collected in China since 1958. However, the results of these profiles are not well known in the West due to the language barrier. In this paper, we summarize the crustal structure of China with a new contour map of crustal thickness, nine representative crustal columns, and maps showing profile locations, average...
Authors
S. Li, Walter D. Mooney
CRUST 5.1: A global crustal model at 5° x 5° CRUST 5.1: A global crustal model at 5° x 5°
We present a new global model for the Earth's crust based on seismic refraction data published in the period 1948-1995 and a detailed compilation of ice and sediment thickness. An extensive compilation of seismic refraction measurements has been used to determine the crustal structure on continents and their margins. Oceanic crust is modeled with both a standard model for normal oceanic...
Authors
Walter D. Mooney, Gabi Laske, T. Guy Masters
Post seismic deformation associated with the 1992 Mω = 7.3 Landers earthquake, southern California Post seismic deformation associated with the 1992 Mω = 7.3 Landers earthquake, southern California
Following the 1992 Mω=7.3 Landers earthquake, a linear array of 10 geodetic monuments at roughly 5‐km spacing was established across the Emerson fault segment of the Landers rupture. The array trends perpendicular to the local strike of the fault segment and extends about 30 km on either side of it. The array was surveyed by Global Positioning System 0.034, 0.048, 0.381, 1.27, 1.88, 2.60...
Authors
James C. Savage, Jerry L. Svarc
Surface strain accumulation and the seismic moment tensor Surface strain accumulation and the seismic moment tensor
Although the scalar moment accumulation rate within the seismogenic zone beneath a given area is sometimes deduced from the observed average surface strain accumulation rate over that same area (e.g., Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities, 1995), the correspondence between the two is very uncertain. The equivalence between surface strain accumulation and scalar moment...
Authors
James C. Savage, Robert W. Simpson
The Loma Prieta, California, earthquake of October 17, 1989: Aftershocks and postseismic effects The Loma Prieta, California, earthquake of October 17, 1989: Aftershocks and postseismic effects
While the damaging effects of the earthquake represent a significant social setback and economic loss, the geophysical effects have produced a wealth of data that have provided important insights into the structure and mechanics of the San Andreas Fault system. Generally, the period after a large earthquake is vitally important to monitor. During this part of the seismic cycle, the...
Authors
Paul A. Reasenberg, Lynn D. Dietz, William L. Ellsworth, Robert W. Simpson, John W. Gephart, Susan Y. Schwartz, Glenn D. Nelson, H. Guo, A. Lerner-Lam, William Menke, Susan E. Hough, Leif Wennerberg, K.S. Breckenridge, Jeff Behr, Roger G. Bilham, Paul Bodin, Arthur G. Sylvester, Jon S. Galehouse, R. Burgmann, Paul Segall, Michael Lisowski, Jerry L. Svarc, John Langbein, Mark F. Linker, J.R. Rice, M. T. Gladwin, R. L. Gwyther, R.H.G. Hart, Randall Mackie, Theodore R. Madden, Edward A. Nichols
Review of electric and magnetic fields accompanying seismic and volcanic activity Review of electric and magnetic fields accompanying seismic and volcanic activity
New observations of magnetic, electric and electromagnetic field variations, possibly related to recent volcanic and seismic events, have been obtained on Mt. Unzen in Japan, Reunion Island in Indian Ocean, the Long Valley volcanic caldera in California, and for faults in China and Russia, California and several other locations. For volcanic events, contributions from different physical...
Authors
M.J.S. Johnston
Composition of the crust in the Grenville and Appalachian Provinces of North America inferred from VP/VS ratios Composition of the crust in the Grenville and Appalachian Provinces of North America inferred from VP/VS ratios
We use the ratios between P and S wave velocities (VP/VS), derived from seismic refraction data, to infer the composition of the crust in the Grenville and the Appalachian Provinces of North America. The crust exhibits VP/VS increasing with depth from 1.64 to 1.84; there is a clear distinction between the Grenville Province (average VP/VS=1.81) and the Appalachian Province (average VP/VS...
Authors
G. Musacchio, Walter D. Mooney, James H. Luetgert, Nikolas I. Christensen