Mission Areas
Natural Hazards
Every year in the United States, natural hazards threaten lives and livelihoods and result in billions of dollars in damage. We work with many partners to monitor, assess, and conduct targeted research on a wide range of natural hazards so that policymakers and the public have the understanding they need to enhance preparedness, response, and resilience.
Reducing Risk
USGS scientists develop new products to make science available to the public, emergency managers, and decision-makers. These efforts increase public safety and reduce risk and economic losses caused by natural hazards.
Learn MoreHazard Research
USGS scientists conduct research to understand earth processes and the natural hazards they can pose to society in order to increase public safety and reduce risk and economic loss.
Explore our ProgramsNews
Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center staff contribute to 4th National Climate Assessment
Ocean and coastal ecosystems in the northeast are being affected by large changes in a variety of climate-related environmental conditions.
International Gas Hydrate Workshop held in Tromso, Norway
The 2019 Sedimentary Gas Hydrate Workshop held in Tromso, Norway brought together early-career researchers and international experts including Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Research Geophysicist, Bill Waite, who has spent his career being...
Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Waves-Sediment Transport (COAWST) Modeling System Training
Predicting Coastal Storm Impacts: 4th COAWST Model Training in the James Hunt Library at North Carolina State University, hosted by John Warner, Research Oceanographer of the USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center.
Publications
Stratigraphic and structural relations in trench exposures and geomorphology at the Big Burn, Lily Lake, and Lester Ranch sites, Bear River Fault Zone, Utah and Wyoming
This report provides trench photomosaics, logs and related site information, age data, and earthquake event evidence from three paleoseismic trench sites on the Bear River Fault Zone. Our motivation for studying the Bear River Fault Zone—a nascent normal fault in the Rocky Mountains east of the Basin and Range physiographic province—is twofold: (1...
Hecker, Suzanne; Duross, Christopher; Schwartz, David P.; Cinti, Francesca R.; Civico, Riccardo; Lund, William R.; Hiscock, Adam I.; West, Michael W.; Wilcox, Tarka; Stoller, Alivia R.
Improving earthquake forecasts during swarms with a duration model
Earthquake swarms present a challenge for operational earthquake forecasting because they are driven primarily by transient external processes, such as fluid flow, the behavior and duration of which are difficult to predict. In this study, we develop a swarm duration model to estimate how long a swarm is likely to last based on actuarial...
Llenos, Andrea L.; Van Der Elst, Nicholas Better approaches to managing drought in the American Southwest
The second in a series of USGS Southwest Region (SWR) “Science Exchange” annual workshops, focused on USGS drought science. The participants considered how extreme drought conditions are evolving in much of the American southwest, with an emphasis on integrated drought science planning at the USGS bureau and program levels. The increased need for...
Lambert, Patrick; Titus, Timothy N.; Ostroff, Andrea