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Kenya Rift International Seismic Project, 1989–1990 experiment

Ever since Gregory's work at the turn of the century, the extensional structures extending through central Kenya have been recognized as the classic example of a continental rift zone. Because of the scale and variety of rift features present, this locality has fascinated geologists and geophysicists since its discovery.
Authors
G. Randy Keller, L.W. Braile, P.M. Davis, R.P. Meyer, Walter D. Mooney

Deep seismic sounding in northern Eurasia

For nearly 40 years, the former Soviet Union has carried out an extensive program of seismic studies of the Earth's crust and upper mantle, known as “Deep Seismic Sounding” or DSS [Piwinskii, 1979; Zverev and Kosminskaya, 1980; Egorkin and Pavlenkova, 1981; Egorkin and Chernyshov, 1983; Scheimer and Borg, 1985]. Beginning in 1939–1940 with a series of small-scale seismic experiments near Moscow, D
Authors
H. M. Benz, J. D. Unger, W.S. Leith, Walter D. Mooney, L. Solodilov, A.V. Egorkin, V.Z. Ryaboy

On the characteristics of local geology and their influence on ground motions generated by the Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay region, California

Strong ground motions recorded at 34 sites in the San Francisco Bay region from the Loma Prieta earthquake show marked variations in characteristics dependent on crustal structure and local geological conditions. Peak horizontal acceleration and velocity inferred for sites underlain by “rock” generally occur on the transverse component of motion. They are consistently greater with lower attenuatio
Authors
Roger D. Borcherdt, Gary Glassmoyer

Thin, low‐velocity crust beneath the southern Yukon‐Tanana Terrane, east central Alaska: Results from Trans‐Alaska crustal transect refraction/wide‐angle reflection data

A seismic refraction/wide‐angle reflection survey for the Trans‐Alaska Crustal Transect program reveals a thin, reflective crust beneath the southern Yukon‐Tanana terrane (YTT) in east central Alaska. These data are the first detailed refraction survey of the southern YTT and compose a 130‐km‐long reversed profile along the Alaska and Richardson highways. Results from this study indicate that low‐
Authors
Bruce C. Beaudoin, Gary S. Fuis, Walter D. Mooney, Warren J. Nokleberg, Nikolas I. Christensen

Fault growth and acoustic emissions in confined granite

The failure process in a brittle granite was studied by using acoustic emission techniques to obtain three dimensional locations of the microfracturing events. During a creep experiment the nucleation of faulting coincided with the onset of tertiary creep, but the development of the fault could not be followed because the failure occurred catastrophically. A technique has been developed that enabl
Authors
David A. Lockner, James D. Byerlee

The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989: Strong ground motion and ground failure

Professional Paper 1551 describes the effects at the land surface caused by the Loma Prieta earthquake. These effects: include the pattern and characteristics of strong ground shaking, liquefaction of both floodplain deposits along the Pajaro and Salinas Rivers in the Monterey Bay region and sandy artificial fills along the margins of San Francisco Bay, landslides in the epicentral region, and inc
Authors
Thomas L. Coordinated by Holzer

An evaluation of installation methods for STS-1 seismometers

This report documents the results of a series of experiments conducted by the authors at the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASl) during the spring and summer of 1991; the object of these experiments was to obtain and document quantitative performance comparisons of three methods of installing STS-1 seismometers. Historically, ASL has installed STS-1 sensors by cementing their thick glass ba
Authors
L. Gary Holcomb, Charles R. Hutt

Hayward fault: Large earthquakes versus surface creep

The Hayward fault, thought a likely source of large earthquakes in the next few decades, has generated two large historic earthquakes (about magnitude 7), one in 1836 and another in 1868. We know little about the 1836 event, but the 1868 event had a surface rupture extending 41 km along the southern Hayward fault. Right-lateral surface slip occurred in 1868, but was not well measured. Witness acco
Authors
James J. Lienkaemper, Glenn Borchardt

The Loma Prieta, California, earthquake of October, 17, 1989: Marina District

During the earthquake, a total land area of about 4,300 km2 was shaken with seismic intensities that can cause significant damage to structures. The area of the Marina District of San Francisco is only 4.0 km2--less than 0.1 percent of the area most strongly affected by the earthquake--but its significance with respect to engineering, seismology, and planning far outstrips its proportion of shaken
Authors
Thomas D. O'Rourke, M. G. Bonilla, John Boatwright, Linda C. Seekins, Thomas E. Fumal, Hsi-Ping Liu, Charles S. Mueller, Richard E. Warrick, Robert E. Westerlund, Eugene D. Sembera, Leif Wennerberg, Harry E. Stewart, Ashraf K. Hussein, J. -P. Bardet, M. Kapuskar, G. R. Martin, J. Proubet, H. T. Taylor, J.T. Cameron, S. Vahdani, H. Yap, Jonathan W. Pease, Stephen K. Harris, John A. Egan, Charles R. Scawthorn, Keith A. Porter, Frank T. Blackburn

Speculations on continental crustal evolution

The evolution of the continental crust is a topic that has challenged Earth scientists since the earliest hypotheses of crustal evolution were put forth by such luminaries as Hutton, the 18th century Scottish scientist, and later by Stille (Germany), Argand (France), and Dana (United States). Recent geophysical observations provide important constraints on hypotheses of crustal evolution, and the
Authors
R. Meissner, Walter D. Mooney
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