Publications

Marine seismic reflection data from southern Puget Sound, Washington, were collected to investigate the nature of shallow structures associated with the Tacoma fault zone and the Olympia structure. Growth folding and probable Holocene surface deformation were imaged within the Tacoma fault zone beneath Case and Carr Inlets. Shallow faults near potential field anomalies associated with...

The Streckeisen STS‐1 has been the primary vault‐type seismometer used in the over‐150‐station Global Seismographic Network (GSN). This sensor has long been known for its outstanding vertical, very long‐period (e.g., >100  s period), and low‐noise performance, although the horizontal long‐period noise performance is less well known. The STS‐1 is a limited, important resource, because it...

On 25 May 2014, a rain-on-snow–induced rock avalanche occurred in the West Salt Creek valley on the northern flank of Grand Mesa in western Colorado (United States). The avalanche mobilized from a preexisting rock slide in the Green River Formation and traveled 4.6 km down the confined valley, killing three people. The avalanche was rare for the contiguous United States because of its...

Extreme space-weather events — intense solar and geomagnetic storms — have occurred in the past: most recently in 1859, 1921 and 1989. So scientists expect that, sooner or later, another extremely intense spaceweather event will strike Earth again. Such storms have the potential to cause widespread interference with and damage to technological systems. A National Academy of Sciences...

During the 1964 Great Alaska earthquake (Mw 9.2), several fjords, straits, and bays throughout southern Alaska experienced significant tsunami runup of localized, but unexplained origin. Dangerous Passage is a glacimarine fjord in western Prince William Sound, which experienced a tsunami that devastated the village of Chenega where 23 of 75 inhabitants were lost – the highest relative...

Shallow aquifers are an important source of water resources and provide base flow to streams; yet actual rates of groundwater recharge are difficult to estimate. While climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme precipitation events, the resulting impact on groundwater recharge remains poorly understood. We quantify empirical relations between...

We investigated relations between slip-surface geometry and deformational structures and hydrologic features at the Montaguto earth flow in southern Italy between 1954 and 2010. We used 25 boreholes, 15 static cone-penetration tests, and 22 shallow-seismic profiles to define the geometry of basal- and lateral-slip surfaces; and 9 multitemporal maps to quantify the spatial and temporal...

In a letter to The Salt Lake Daily Tribune in September 1883, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) geologist G.K. Gilbert warned local residents about the implications of observable fault scarps along the western base of the Wasatch Range. The scarps were evidence that large surface-rupturing earthquakes had occurred in the past and more would likely occur in the future. The main actor in this...

No abstract available.

Deposits near Lamoille in the Ruby Mountains-East Humboldt Range of central Nevada and at Woodfords on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada each record two distinct glacial advances. We compare independent assessments of terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) surface exposure ages for glacial deposits that we have determined to those obtained by others at the two sites. At each site, TCN...

Most of the effort in seismic design of buildings and other structures is focused on structural design. This chapter addresses another key aspect of the design process—characterization of earthquake ground motion into parameters for use in design. Section 3.1 describes the basis of the earthquake ground motion maps in the Provisions and in ASCE 7 (the Standard). Section 3.2 has examples...

We present here a simplified approach to quantifying regional seismic risk. The seismic risk for a given region can be inferred in terms of average annual loss (AAL) that represents long-term value of earthquake losses in any one year caused from a long-term seismic hazard. The AAL are commonly measured in the form of earthquake shaking-induced deaths, direct economic impacts or indirect...