Publications

The 72-km-long Teton normal fault bounds the eastern base of the Teton Range in northwestern Wyoming, USA. Although geomorphic surfaces along the fault record latest Pleistocene to Holocene fault movement, the postglacial earthquake history of the fault has remained enigmatic. We excavated a paleoseismic trench at the Buffalo Bowl site along the southernmost part of the fault to...

Replacement or deterioration of seismic instruments and the evolution of the installation conditions and sites can alter the seismic signal in very subtle ways, so it is notoriously difficult to monitor the signal quality of permanent seismic stations. We present a simple tool, energy ratios between each pair of the three recorded components, aimed at characterizing and monitoring signal...

We measure pseudospectral and peak ground motions from 44 intermediate‐depth Mw≥4.9 earthquakes in the Cook Inlet region of southern Alaska, including those from the 2018 Mw 7.1 earthquake near Anchorage, to identify regional amplification features (⁠0.1–5  s period). Ground‐motion residuals are computed with respect to an empirical ground‐motion model for intraslab subduction...

Global earthquake catalogs covering the early twentieth century differ in their listings of a large earthquake, or earthquakes, on 12 December 1908. Some catalogs list an M∼7M∼7 earthquake originating in northern Myanmar (Burma) at ∼12:55∼12:55 UTC on that date. Other catalogs do not list the Myanmar origin but list an earthquake with magnitude 8.2 originating in or near Peru at 12:08...

The multisegment Wasatch fault zone is a well-studied normal fault in the western United States that has paleoseismic evidence of recurrent Holocene surface-faulting earthquakes. Along the 270-km-long central part of the fault, four primary structural complexities provide possible along-strike limits to these ruptures and form the basis for models of fault segmentation. Here, we assess...

Prominent scarps on Pinedale glacial surfaces along the eastern base of the Teton Range confirm latest Pleistocene to Holocene surface‐faulting earthquakes on the Teton fault, but the timing of these events is only broadly constrained by a single previous paleoseismic study. We excavated two trenches at the Leigh Lake site near the center of the Teton fault to address open questions...

The 1983 Mw 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake generated ∼36 km of surface rupture along the Thousand Springs and Warm Springs sections of the Lost River fault zone (LRFZ, Idaho, USA). Although the rupture is a well-studied example of multisegment surface faulting, ambiguity remains regarding the degree to which a bedrock ridge and branch fault at the Willow Creek Hills influenced rupture...

World‐Wide Standardized Seismograph Network (WWSSN) records contain daily calibration pulses that can be used to retrieve the magnification as well as the response of the instrument for a given day record. We analyze a select number of long‐period vertical (LPZ) records from WWSSN station ALQ (Albuquerque, New Mexico). Although we find that the response of this instrument varies widely...

PAGER, short for Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response, is an automated system developed and run by the US Geological Survey (USGS) that produces information concerning the impact of significant earthquakes around the world within approximately 20 min of any magnitude 5.5 or larger event. PAGER rapidly assesses earthquake impacts by combining populations exposed to...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), created in 1879, is the national geological survey for the United States and the sole science agency within its cabinet-level bureau, the Department of the Interior. The USGS has a broad mission, including: serving the Nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from...

Investigation of ground failure triggered by the 2018 MwMw 7.1 Anchorage earthquake showed that landslides, liquefaction, and ground cracking all occurred and caused significant damage. Shallow rock falls and rock slides were the most abundant types of landslides, but they occurred in smaller numbers than global models that are based on earthquake magnitude predict; this might result...

Station noise levels play a fundamental limitation in our ability to detect seismic signals. These noise levels are frequency-dependent and arise from a number of physically different drivers. At periods greater than 100 s, station noise levels are often limited by the self-noise of the instrument as well as the sensitivity of the instrument to non-seismic noise sources. Recently...