Publications
Educational Publications
Educational Publications
Selected publications about earthquakes In plain language.
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Paleoliquefaction field reconnaissance in eastern North Carolina—Is there evidence for large magnitude earthquakes between the central Virginia seismic zone and Charleston seismic zone? Paleoliquefaction field reconnaissance in eastern North Carolina—Is there evidence for large magnitude earthquakes between the central Virginia seismic zone and Charleston seismic zone?
In June 2016, approximately 64 kilometers (km) of riverbank were examined along the Tar and Neuse Rivers near Tarboro and Kinston, North Carolina, for evidence of liquefaction-forming earthquakes. The study area is in the vicinity of the Grainger’s fault zone in eastern North Carolina. The Grainger’s fault zone is a fault zone in the inner Coastal Plain Province that has well-documented...
Authors
Mark Carter, Brett McLaurin
High-frequency ground motion and source characteristics of the 2008 Wenchuan and 2013 Lushan, China, earthquakes High-frequency ground motion and source characteristics of the 2008 Wenchuan and 2013 Lushan, China, earthquakes
The 2008 MW7.9 Wenchuan and the 2013 MW6.6 Lushan earthquakes, which both occurred on the Longmen Shan thrust belt, show some interesting similarities and differences. Whereas the Wenchuan earthquake entailed a rupture zone that extended about 300 km northeastward, with fault slip extending to the surface, the Lushan earthquake was the result of a buried and much more compact zone of...
Authors
Lingyuan Meng, Yang Zang, Longquan Zhou
SKS splitting beneath Mount St. Helens: Constraints on subslab mantle entrainment SKS splitting beneath Mount St. Helens: Constraints on subslab mantle entrainment
Observations of seismic anisotropy can provide direct constraints on the character of mantle flow in subduction zones, critical for our broader understanding of subduction dynamics. Here we present over 750 new SKS splitting measurements in the vicinity of Mount St. Helens in the Cascadia subduction zone using a combination of stations from the iMUSH broadband array and Cascades Volcano
Authors
Caroline Eakin, Erin Wirth, Abraham Wallace, Carl Ulberg, Kenneth Creager, Geoffrey Abers
Rupture branching structure of the 2014 Mw 6.0 South Napa, California earthquake inferred from explosion-generated fault-zone trapped waves Rupture branching structure of the 2014 Mw 6.0 South Napa, California earthquake inferred from explosion-generated fault-zone trapped waves
We present evidence for multiple fault branches of the West Napa fault zone (WNFZ) based on fault‐zone trapped waves (FZTWs) generated by two explosions that were detonated within the main surface rupture zone produced by the 24 August 2014 Mw 6.0 South Napa earthquake. The FZTWs were recorded by a 15‐kilometer‐long dense (100 m spacing) linear seismic array consisting of 155 4.5‐hertz...
Authors
Yong-Gang Li, Rufus Catchings, Mark Goldman
Natural hazards and mineral commodity supply: Quantifying risk of earthquake disruption to South American copper supply Natural hazards and mineral commodity supply: Quantifying risk of earthquake disruption to South American copper supply
Mineral resources, and their mining and enrichment operations, are not equally distributed across Earth. The concentration of mineral supply in certain regions, owing to the geology or geography of the mineral resource, raises the level of risk related to supply disruption. Where mineral production coincides with areas prone to natural hazards, supply may be especially at risk. However...
Authors
Emily Schnebele, Kishor Jaiswal, Nico Luco, Nedal T. Nassar
Preliminary report on engineering and geological effects of the July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence Preliminary report on engineering and geological effects of the July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence
The Ridgecrest Earthquake sequence included a foreshock event on July 4 2019 (M6.4) and a M7.1 mainshock event on July 5 2019. These events occurred in the Eastern California Shear Zone, near Indian Wells Valley, south of China Lake and west of Searles Valley. GEER has partnered with several organizations to collect perishable data and document the important impacts of these events...
Authors
Scott Brandenberg, Pengfei Wang, Chukwuebuka Nweke, Kenneth Hudson, Silvia Mazzoni, Yousef Bozorgnia, Kenneth Hudnut, Craig Davis, Sean Ahdi, Farzin Zareian, Jawad Fayaz, Richard Koehler, Colin Chupik, Ian Pierce, Alana Williams, Sinan Akciz, Martin Hudson, Tadahiro Kishida, Benjamin Brooks, Ryan Gold, Daniel Ponti, Katherine M. Scharer, Devin McPhillips, Christopher DuRoss, Todd Ericksen, Janis Hernandez, Jay Patton, Brian Olson, Timothy Dawson, Jerome Treiman, Kelly Blake, Jeffrey Buchhuber, Chris Madugo, Joseph Sun, Andrea Donnellan, Greg Lyzenga, Erik Conway
Improved implementation of rupture location uncertainty in fault displacement hazard assessment Improved implementation of rupture location uncertainty in fault displacement hazard assessment
This short note proposes an improvement to the implementation of uncertainty associated with rupture location from future earthquakes in probabilistic fault displacement hazard analysis. Location uncertainty leads to nonzero primary fault displacement near a mapped fault. With the improved implementation of location uncertainty, estimated fault displacement hazard at a given site is...
Authors
Rui Chen, Mark Petersen
Depth determination of the 2010 El Mayor‐Cucapah earthquake sequence (M ≥ 4.0) Depth determination of the 2010 El Mayor‐Cucapah earthquake sequence (M ≥ 4.0)
The 2010 MW 7.2 El Mayor‐Cucapah earthquake ruptured a zone of ~120 km in length in northern Baja California. The geographic distribution of this earthquake sequence was well constrained by waveform relocation. The depth distribution, however, was poorly determined as it is near the edge of, or outside, the Southern California Seismic Network. Here we use two complementary methods to...
Authors
C. Yu, E. Hauksson, Z. Zhan, Elizabeth Cochran, D. Helmberger
Lithosphere and shallow asthenosphere rheology from observations of post-earthquake relaxation Lithosphere and shallow asthenosphere rheology from observations of post-earthquake relaxation
In tectonically active regions, post-earthquake motions are generally shaped by a combination of continued fault slippage (afterslip) on a timescale of days to months and viscoelastic relaxation of the lower crust and upper mantle on a timescale of days to years. Transient crustal motions have been observed following numerous magnitude >~7 earthquakes in various tectonic settings...
Authors
Frederick Pollitz
Petrologic and mineral physics database for use with the U.S. Geological Survey National Crustal Model Petrologic and mineral physics database for use with the U.S. Geological Survey National Crustal Model
We present a petrologic and mineral physics database as part of the U.S. Geological Survey National Crustal Model (NCM). Each of 209 geologic units, 134 of which are currently part of the geologic framework within the NCM, was assigned a mineralogical composition according to generalized classifications with some refinement for specific geologic formations. This report is concerned with...
Authors
Theron Sowers, Oliver Boyd
Satellite observations of surface deformation at the Coso Geothermal Field, California Satellite observations of surface deformation at the Coso Geothermal Field, California
Surface deformation time series and rates are identified at the Coso Geothermal Field (CGF) and surrounding areas by applying interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) to satellite scenes from Envisat (June 2004 ̶ October 2010) and Sentinel (November 2014 – April 2018). The measurements are done in the line of sight (LOS) to each satellite, within an area of size ~450 km2, at the
Authors
Mariana Eneva, Andrew Barbour, David Adams, Vicky Hsiao, Kelly Blake, Giacomo Falorni, Roberto Locatelli
Landscape change associated with the upper Scenic Drive landslide, La Honda, California, January 10–June 28, 2017 Landscape change associated with the upper Scenic Drive landslide, La Honda, California, January 10–June 28, 2017
La Honda, California, is a small town in unincorporated San Mateo County, located on the west edge of the San Francisco Peninsula in the Santa Cruz Mountains, between San Francisco and San Jose. The Scenic Drive area of La Honda has experienced several past episodes of landslide motion, which were documented in 1998, 2005, and 2006. This report documents the movement of the upper Scenic...
Authors
Alexandra Pickering, Carol Prentice, Stephen DeLong