Publications

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...

At the Salton Sea Geothermal Field (SSGF) in Southern California, surface deformation associated with geologic processes including sediment compaction, tectonic strain, and fault slip may be augmented by energy production activities. Separating the relative contributions from natural and anthropogenic sources is especially important at the SSGF, which sits at the apex of a complex...

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...

The soil-foundation impedance function of the MIT Green Building is identified from its response signals recorded during an earthquake. Estimation of foundation impedance functions from seismic response signals is a challenging task, because: (1) the foundation input motions (FIMs) are not directly measurable, (2) the as-built properties of the super-structure are only approximately...

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...

Geomagnetic referencing uses the Earth’s magnetic field to determine accurate wellbore positioning essential for success in today's complex drilling programs, either as an alternative or a complement to north-seeking gyroscopic referencing. However, fluctuations in the geomagnetic field, especially at high latitudes, make the application of geomagnetic referencing in those areas more...

The beating phenomenon observed in the recorded responses of a tall building in Japan and another in the U.S. are examined in this paper. Beating is a periodic vibrational behavior caused by distinctive coupling between translational and torsional modes that typically have close frequencies. Beating is prominent in the prolonged resonant responses of lightly damped structures. Resonances...

A bathymetric terrain model of the Atlantic margin covering almost 725,000 square kilometers of seafloor from the New England Seamounts in the north to the Blake Basin in the south is compiled from existing multibeam bathymetric data for marine geological investigations. Although other terrain models of the same area are extant, they are produced from either satellite-derived bathymetry...

No abstract available.

Recent studies have presented evidence that early to mid‐twentieth‐century earthquakes in Oklahoma and Texas were likely induced by fossil fuel production and/or injection of wastewater (Hough and Page, 2015; Frohlich et al., 2016). Considering seismicity from 1935 onward, Hauksson et al. (2015) concluded that there is no evidence for significant induced activity in the greater Los...

Rotational seismology is an emerging study of all aspects of rotational motions induced by earthquakes, explosions, and ambient vibrations. It is of interest to several disciplines, including seismology, earthquake engineering, geodesy, and earth-based detection of Einstein’s gravitation waves.Rotational effects of seismic waves, together with rotations caused by soil–structure...

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...