The Monitor Newsletter - Vol. 9 | Issue November 2022
In this issue: The Seven Wicked Wonders of the West, Hurricane Sandy ten years ago, Hurricane Ian recently, teaching software to track coastal change, a Cascadia subduction zone expedition, ShakeOut 2022, World Tsunami Awareness Day, and more.
Seismotectonics of the Eastern Margin of the Australia Plate
The Australia-Pacific margin is an intensely active plate boundary that produces some of the world's most powerful earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. Explore this interactive geonarrative (Esri storymap).
Mapping the Entire Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault System
A recently completed series of data publications led by the U.S. Geological Survey represents the first time the fault has been mapped using comprehensive, high-resolution marine geophysical approaches. The goal of this research is to gain a better understanding of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault and its associated earthquake, tsunami, and underwater-landslide hazards.
A Decade of Evolution
Ten years have passed since Hurricane Sandy ravaged the eastern seaboard, damaging 200,000 homes, cutting power to 8 million residents and causing more than 100 fatalities.
USGS post-Ian science continues
To learn more about USGS’s role in providing science to decision-makers before, during and after Hurricane Ian, visit
Research Expedition Collects Cores, Geophysical Data from Cascadia Subduction Zone
To better understand the geophysical characteristics and seismic history of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, USGS researchers conduct fieldwork at sea to collect evidence of turbidity currents from underwater landslides likely caused by earthquake shaking.
Remembering Hurricane Sandy Ten Years Later
USGS New England Water Science Center staff deployed storm-tide sensors and rapid deployment gauges ahead of Hurricane Sandy – and measured high water level marks and surveyed for elevation after the historic storm. These vital data are used to improve the accuracy of flood and coastal change models, which are critical to storm preparation and public safety.
ShakeOut 2022: Earthquake Awareness Enables Community Preparedness
Get ready to shake it like it’s real! ShakeOut 2022: Drop (or Lock), Cover, and Hold On!
Volcano Watch — Aftershock forecasts let you know what to expect after a large earthquake
After damaging earthquakes, response and recovery takes place under the threat of aftershocks. USGS aftershock forecasts can help you understand what may happen, promoting public safety and an understanding that experiencing aftershocks is normal.
Rocks in unusual positions hold secrets to northeastern U.S. earthquakes
USGS scientists are studying precariously balanced rocks, or rocks that seem on the brink of falling over (but haven’t yet), to estimate the strongest earthquake shaking to rattle parts of New York and northern Vermont.
Teaching Software to Track Coastal Change
Classifying imagery based on identifiable pixels—labeling pixels of a certain color “water” and others as “land”, for example—is known as image segmentation, a common method of processing natural science data into meaningful units. Manual image segmentation is time-consuming, though. What if artificial intelligence could be trained to do it instead?
World Tsunami Awareness Day November 5, 2022
A new infographic summarizes great Alaska earthquakes and their related history for generating dangerous Pacific tsunamis.
Under Pressure (and Temperature): Volcano Lessons Learned from Laboratory Experiments
When you envision scientists working in a laboratory, you might not think of geologists. But there is an important field of geology called “experimental petrology” that involves torturing rocks under high pressures and temperatures.