Advancing geodesy in the U.S. Midcontinent: workshop report

The workshop on “Advancing Geodesy in the U.S. Midcontinent” was held from October 31 to November 1, 2012, at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The workshop included 28 participants from academia, government, and private-sector organizations that are involved in research on geodesy and earthquake hazards in the seismically active areas of the U.S. midcontinent (the region of relatively undeformed crust roughly between the Great Plains and Appalachian Mountains). The workshop was intended to provide guidance to the U.S. Geological Survey’s internal and external Earthquake Hazards research programs in the U.S. midcontinent. The 2012 workshop was developed as a follow-up to the “Workshop on New Madrid Geodesy and Understanding Intraplate Earthquakes,” held in Norwood, Massachusetts, in March 2011. The goal of the 2012 workshop was to provide specific recommendations to the U.S. Geological Survey on priorities for infrastructure and research investments related to geodesy in the U.S. midcontinent.