Earthquake Hazards

The constant plate tectonic motions between the Pacific and North American plates guarantees that the crust in the western US is continually building up stress. Crustal deformation refers to the changing earth’s surface caused by tectonic forces that are accumulated in the crust and then cause earthquakes.

Waveform data from the GSN and ANSS backbone are transmitted from the station to the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in near-real time, where they are used for rapid earthquake response. A small number of stations do not have telemetry, and data from those sites are transmitted to the USGS via media such as tapes or CDs. As part of GSN and backbone operations, waveform data are...

A list of accomplishments of the ANSS.

ANSS governing bodies.

Release Date: APRIL 25, 2019 New high-resolution lidar data reveals cracks produced from strong shaking in past earthquakes in the New Madrid seismic zone.

Release Date: FEBRUARY 4, 2019 A project to scan a small selection of the film chips of historical earthquake recordings to digital files was started in 1996. In addition to archiving historic data from the early years, the USGS has also worked to archive photos and descriptions of early seismometers.

Release Date: NOVEMBER 12, 2018 A new picture of the geometry of subducting slabs around the world, the locations of the world’s largest earthquakes.

Release Date: OCTOBER 12, 2018 Complex geologic sites, like those between the fault segments along the Wasatch fault zone in Utah, make the dating and ordering past earthquakes a difficult task. Two new methods were used to make this task easier and to get better results.

Release Date: JULY 16, 2018 A new more detailed and higher resolution map of the Rodgers Creek Fault in Sonoma County, California, has been produced using aerial photography and hillshade imagery derived from LiDAR data.

Release Date: JUNE 18, 2018 A new map of crustal stress across the U.S. shows that the plate interior stress is variable, with contributions from plate boundary stress, crustal collapse due to gravity, and more local and subtle changes to style, orientation, and earthquake rate.