USGS announces awards for 2018 earthquake monitoring and research in the United States

More than 40 universities, state geological surveys and private institutions are the recipients of research grants and cooperative agreements. This funding supports earthquake research in high-risk areas nationwide, contributes to the maintenance and operation of the USGS Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) and supports the development and testing of the ShakeAlert West coast earthquake early warning system.

As part of the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program , the ANSS provides continuous, real-time monitoring of earthquake activity and collects critical information about the earth’s movements and effects on buildings and structures. Building and improving the ANSS is crucial to providing fast information to emergency-response personnel in areas affected by earthquakes.

ShakeAlert is a new product of the ANSS, which is a federation of national and regional earthquake monitoring networks throughout the country, including networks in southern California, northern California, Nevada and the Pacific Northwest.

Grants funded in 2018 include:

• the investigation of active faults in the Central Virginia Seismic Zone;
• evaluating and improving seismic velocity models in the San Francisco Bay Area;
• the investigation of the Las Vegas Valley Fault System to provide data for the USGS national seismic hazard model;
• assessing behavioral response to earthquakes using the USGS “Did You Feel It?” system;
• analysis of a high-resolution marine seismic reflection data set to characterize the shallow deformation structure of the Seattle fault zone; and
• a paleoseismic investigation of the southern San Andreas Fault Zone within Northern Coachella Valley.

Funding was also provided for the operation of deformation monitoring networks, which use GPS and other technologies to detect and evaluate Earth motions between, during and following large earthquakes.  These technologies and the accompanying research hold promise for understanding how the Earth builds and releases energy in earthquakes.

For a complete list of funded earthquake projects, and reports of past work, visit:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/external/

The USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information, visit www.usgs.gov.