Education

Want to learn about earthquakes?

Science briefs about new earthquake research written for non-scientists.

The USGS Landslide Hazards Seminar is a speaker series that brings together landslide researchers, academics, students, applied scientists, and others to share their work in a long format. Topics range from deep dives into numerical models to broad overviews of landslide hazards of a state. The 50-minute presentations are presented live on regular Wednesdays at 3:00 PM Mountain Time. 

Landslides occur in all 50 states and territories and they affect lives, property, infrastructure, and the environment.  Understanding when, where, and how landslides occur can help to reduce the risk of living with these natural hazards.  

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series, a whiteboard animation video series highlighting USGS careers. The concept is to show whimsically "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." Here we have Volcanologist, someone who studies volcanoes and eruptions.

Life of a Tsunami

The Question: Soon after the devastating tsunamis in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004 and in Japan on March 11, 2011, many people have asked, "Could such a tsunami happen in the United States?"

In the past century, several damaging tsunamis have struck the Pacific Northwest coast (Northern California, Oregon, and Washington). All of these tsunamis were distant tsunamis generated from earthquakes located far across the Pacific basin and are distinguished from tsunamis generated by earthquakes near the coast—termed local tsunamis.

Keep watching this page for more photos from our scientists!

122 earthquake FAQs organized by category.

Tons of great resources for learning about the science of earthquakes.

Soon after the devastating tsunamis in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004 and in Japan on March 11, 2011, many people have asked, "Could such a tsunami happen in the United States?"