An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
USGS science helps to understand and quantify the risks natural hazards pose to Bay-Delta habitats, communities, and infrastructure.
Property in the Bay-Delta is often protected behind levees. Because of severe subsidence in parts of the Delta and the threat of sea-level rise from climate change, levee stability is a primary concern in the region. USGS scientists are characterizing the subsurface geology to increase understanding of the earthquake faults that could affect the Bay-Delta and its levees. They are also developing three-dimensional (3-D) maps to determine fault locations, maximum possible earthquake magnitudes and fault-slip rates, and how seismic waves would behave in the sandy and peaty soils of the Bay-Delta. USGS is using innovative technologies, such as lidar (light detection and ranging; a remote-sensing technique) and InSAR (space-borne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar), to better understand subsidence and other ground movements and determine how these ground movements affect levee stability.
USGS science helps to understand and quantify the risks natural hazards pose to Bay-Delta habitats, communities, and infrastructure.
Property in the Bay-Delta is often protected behind levees. Because of severe subsidence in parts of the Delta and the threat of sea-level rise from climate change, levee stability is a primary concern in the region. USGS scientists are characterizing the subsurface geology to increase understanding of the earthquake faults that could affect the Bay-Delta and its levees. They are also developing three-dimensional (3-D) maps to determine fault locations, maximum possible earthquake magnitudes and fault-slip rates, and how seismic waves would behave in the sandy and peaty soils of the Bay-Delta. USGS is using innovative technologies, such as lidar (light detection and ranging; a remote-sensing technique) and InSAR (space-borne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar), to better understand subsidence and other ground movements and determine how these ground movements affect levee stability.