Images

3-minute exposure of Parkfield Cafe (and shake table) entrance at night.

The Hotel Montana, shown here, is a portable seismometer site. USGS Seismologists Doug Given, Susan Hough, Mark Meremonte, and J. Zebulon Maharrey traveled to Haiti shortly after the magnitude-7 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010 to install seismometers. Seismometers monitor the earth's movement and can detect and measure aftershocks.

Wendy McCausland of the USGS Volcano Disaster Assistance Program and Hani Zahran of the Saudi Geological Survey view the southern end of the surface fault rupture caused by a M5.4 earthquake in the Saudi Arabian desert on May 19, 2009.

The May 12, 2008, Great Sichuan Earthquake, also called the Wenchuan Earthquake, occurred at 14:28 local time, in Sichuan Province, China. The earthquake magnitudes were Mw = 7.9 (USGS), Ms = 8.0 (Chinese Earthquake Administration). The epicenter was 80 km west-northwest of Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province.

USGS geophysicist Anjana Shah stands next to a Cessna Grand Caravan airplane that took measurements over Virginia's Louisa, Goochland and Fluvanna counties. The data collected will help USGS scientists locate buried geologic features associated with the August 23, 2011 earthquake and its aftershocks. Surveys were conducted from 7/15- 7/25.

Damage to a house in Louisa County, Virginia, after a magnitude 5.8 earthquake on August 23, 2011.

Following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, the USGS has been helping with earthquake awareness and monitoring in the country, with continued support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

A tidal marsh bank exposed during low tide on Sitkinak Island, Alaska. The bank reveals ledges of alternating peat and silt. Abrupt uplift and subsidence during large megathrust earthquakes is interpreted to be the cause of the alternating layers.

Base camp, Sitkinak Island.

Geologists examine cores on Sitkinak Island, Alaska.

Geologists examine an exposure of a tidal marsh bank on Sitkinak Island, Alaska. The bank exposes interbedded peat and silt that records sudden vertical land movements associated with megathrust fault slip during large earthquakes.

Heavy rains from a tropical cyclone struck the islands of the Comoros in March, 2014. On the island of Anjouan in the Union of Comoros, these rains triggered landslides that displaced over 3000 people to refugee camps. The USGS and the OFDA with USAID are providing support and research assistance on these events.

The earthwork in context of the small town of Parkfield, CA.

Photo taken from a kite-lofted camera, showing the shake table and control bunker.

View looking southeast along the surface trace of the San Andreas fault in the Carrizo Plain, north of Wallace Creek. Elkhorn Rd. meets the fault near the top of the photo.

Earthquake-triggered landslide on south coast of Haiti near village of Nan Diamant.

Life in a tent. Family members having lunch together.

An 8.5-minute exposure taken on a moonless night with a blue-gel'd flashlight to fill in the top of the shake table.

A 30-second exposure with the fluorescent lights underneath the table switched on for a split second.

Shake Table at dusk, lit by flourescent lights installed under the table in addition to a high-powered, hand-held flashlight.

D.V. Rogers in the "Bunker," the control center for the project. Real-time earthquakes are received via satellite internet.