Publications

A comprehensive, consistently interpreted new catalog of felt intensities for India (Martin and Szeliga, 2010, this issue) includes intensities for 570 earthquakes; instrumental magnitudes and locations are available for 100 of these events. We use the intensity values for 29 of the instrumentally recorded events to develop new intensity versus attenuation relations for the Indian...

We apply a viscoelastic cycle model to a compilation of GPS velocity fields in order to address the kinematics of deformation in the northwestern United States. A viscoelastic cycle model accounts for time-dependent deformation following large crustal earthquakes and is an alternative to block models for explaining the interseismic crustal velocity field. Building on the approach taken...

This article corrects: Constraints on the stress state of the San Andreas Fault with analysis based on core and cuttings from San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) drilling phases 1 and 2. Vol. 114, Issue B11, Article first published online: 5 NOV 2009.

Ever since 1858, when Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (pen name Félix Nadar) took the first aerial photograph (Professional Aerial Photographers Association 2009), the scientific value and popular appeal of such pictures have been widely recognized. Indeed, Nadar patented the idea of using aerial photographs in mapmaking and surveying. Since then, aerial imagery has flourished, eventually...

We used high-resolution topography to quantify the spatial distribution of scarps, linear valleys, topographic sinks, and oversteepened stream channels formed along an extensional step over on the San Andreas Fault (SAF) at Mustang Ridge, California. This location provides detail of both creeping fault landform development and complex fault zone kinematics. Here, the SAF creeps 10–14 mm...

Recent technological advances combined with more detailed analyses of seismologic and geodetic observations have fundamentally changed our understanding of the ways in which tectonic stresses arising from plate motions are accommodated by slip on faults. The traditional view that relative plate motions are accommodated by a simple cycle of stress accumulation and release on “locked”...

Maps of surficial geology, deterministic and probabilistic seismic hazard, and liquefaction potential index have been prepared by various members of the Evansville Area Earthquake Hazard Mapping Project for seven quadrangles in the Evansville, Indiana, and Henderson, Kentucky, metropolitan areas. The surficial geologic maps feature 23 types of surficial geologic deposits, artificial fill...

Analysis of field data has led different investigators to conclude that the San Andreas Fault (SAF) has either anomalously low frictional sliding strength (μ 0.2) or strength consistent with standard laboratory tests (μ > 0.6). Arguments for the apparent weakness of the SAF generally hinge on conceptual models involving intrinsically weak gouge or elevated pore pressure within the fault...

The possibility that slab windows might form in the wake of ridge subduction was first conceptualized in the late 1970s as earth scientists explored the implications of plate tectonic theory in three dimensions. Acceptance of slab-window occurrence, however, has been a long time coming (McCrory and Wilson, this issue). With records of both current and past slab-window transients now...

Most probabilistic seismic-hazard assessments require an estimate of Mmax, the magnitude (M) of the largest earthquake that is thought possible within a specified area. In seismically active areas such as some plate boundaries, large earthquakes occur frequently enough that Mmax might have been observed directly during the historical period. In less active regions like most of the...

A suite of geophysical logs has been acquired for structural, fluid flow and stress analysis of well 27-15 in the Desert Peak Geothermal Field, Nevada, in preparation for stimulation and development of an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS). Advanced Logic Technologies Borehole Televiewer (BHTV) and Schlumberger Formation MicroScanner (FMS) image logs reveal extensive drilling-induced...

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based Global NavigationSatellite System (GNSS). Using signals transmitted by GPS satellites, the positions of ground‐based receivers can be calculated to high precision,making it possible to track the movement of points on the Earth's surface over time. Unlike older geodetic surveying methods which involved periodicallymeasuring angles...