alex grant
alex is a Research Engineer specializing in regional-scale landslide and liquefaction hazards and risk
Biography
alex got his Ph.D. in 2017 from the University of Washington where he studied coseismic landslide hazard and risk in Lebanon, New Zealand, Japan, and the Pacific Northwest of N. America. alex received his BSCE from Tufts University in 2013 and a MSE in 2014 from the University of Washington in Geotechnical Engineering. alex joined the USGS in 2018 to research earthquake-induced ground failures, and is actively working on projects in the Pacific Northwest and California.
Science and Products
The normal faulting 2020 Mw5.8 Lone Pine, Eastern California earthquake sequence
The 2020 Mw">Mw 5.8 Lone Pine earthquake, the largest earthquake on the Owens Valley fault zone, eastern California, since the nineteenth century, ruptured an extensional stepover in that fault. Owens Valley separates two normal‐faulting regimes, the western margin of the Great basin and the eastern margin of the Sierra Nevada,...
Hauksson, Egill; Olsen, Brian J.; Grant, Alex R. R. ; Andrews, Jennifer R; Chung, Angela I.; Hough, Susan E.; Kanamori, Hiroo; McBride, Sara; Michael, Andrew J.; Page, Morgan T.; Ross, Zachary E.; Smith, Deborah; Valkaniotis, Sotiris A generic soil velocity model that accounts for near-surface conditions and deeper geologic structure
Near-surface soil conditions can significantly alter the amplitude and frequency content of incoming ground motions – often with profound consequences for the built environment – and are thus important inputs to any ground-motion prediction. Previous soil-velocity models (SVM) have predicted shear-wave velocity profiles based on the time-averaged...
Marafi, Nasser A.; Grant, Alex R. R. ; Maurer, Brett W.; Rateria, Gunjan; Eberhard, Marc O; Berman, Jeff W Ensemble ShakeMaps for magnitude 9 earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone
We develop ensemble ShakeMaps for various magnitude 9 (M">MM 9) earthquakes on the Cascadia megathrust. Ground‐shaking estimates are based on 30 M">MM 9 Cascadia earthquake scenarios, which were selected using a logic‐tree approach that varied the hypocenter location, down‐dip rupture limit, slip distribution, and location of...
Wirth, Erin; Grant, Alex R. R. ; Marafi, Nasser A.; Frankel, Arthur Rainfall triggers more deep-seated landslides than Cascadia earthquakes in the Oregon Coast Range, USA
The coastal Pacific Northwest USA hosts thousands of deep-seated landslides. Historic landslides have primarily been triggered by rainfall, but the region is also prone to large earthquakes on the 1100-km-long Cascadia Subduction Zone megathrust. Little is known about the number of landslides triggered by these earthquakes because the last...
LaHusen, Sean R; Duvall, Alison R; Booth, Adam M; Grant, Alex R. R. ; Mishkin, Benjamin A; Montgomery, David R; Struble, William; Roering, Joshua J.; Wartman, Joseph
Ground failure triggered by shaking during the November 30, 2018, magnitude 7.1 Anchorage, Alaska, earthquake
We developed an initial inventory of ground failure features from the November 30, 2018, magnitude 7.1 Anchorage earthquake. This inventory of 153 features is from ground-based observations soon after the earthquake (December 5–10) that include the presence or absence of liquefaction, landslides, and individual crack traces of lateral spreads and...
Grant, Alex R. R. ; Jibson, Randall W.; Witter, Robert C.; Allstadt, Kate E.; Thompson, Eric M.; Bender, Adrian M. Probabilistic regional-scale liquefaction triggering modeling using 3D Gaussian processes
Liquefaction is a major cause of coseismic damages, occurring irregularly over hundreds or thousands of square kilometers in large earthquakes. Large variations in the extent and location of liquefaction have been observed in recent earthquakes, motivating the need for prediction methods that consider the spatial heterogeneity of geologic deposits...
Greenfield, Michael; Grant, Alex R. R. USGS near-real-time products-and their use-for the 2018 Anchorage earthquake
In the minutes to hours after a major earthquake, such as the recent 2018 Mw">Mw 7.1 Anchorage event, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) produces a suite of interconnected earthquake products that provides diverse information ranging from basic earthquake source parameters to loss estimates. The 2018 Anchorage earthquake is the first...
Thompson, Eric M.; McBride, Sara; Hayes, Gavin P.; Allstadt, Kate; Wald, Lisa; Wald, David J.; Knudsen, Keith L.; Worden, Charles; Marano, Kristin; Jibson, Randall W.; Grant, Alex R. R. Ground failure from the Anchorage, Alaska, earthquake of 30 November 2018
Investigation of ground failure triggered by the 2018 Mw">MwMw 7.1 Anchorage earthquake showed that landslides, liquefaction, and ground cracking all occurred and caused significant damage. Shallow rock falls and rock slides were the most abundant types of landslides, but they occurred in smaller numbers than global models that are...
Jibson, Randall W.; Grant, Alex R. R. ; Witter, Robert C.; Allstadt, Kate; Thompson, Eric M.; Bender, Adrian Seismological, geological, and geotechnical engineering aspects of the 2018 MW 6.6 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake
The 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi MW6.6 earthquake struck the southern coast of the north island of Japan in the early morning (3:08 AM JST) on September 6, 2018. The event had a hypocentral depth of 35 km, centered beneath the port city of Tomakomai. Extremely strong shaking with peak ground acceleration in excess of 0.5 g was felt in the...
Kayen, Robert; Wham, Brad; Grant, Alex R. R. ; Atsushi, Mikami; Anderson, Donald; Zimmaro, Paolo; Wang, Pengfei; Tsai, Yi Tyan; Bachhuber, Jeff; Madugo, Chris L M; Sun, Joseph; Hitchcock, Christopher S.; Motto, Matthew Quantitative coseismic and precipitation-induced landslide risk mapping for the country of Lebanon
Quantitative landslide risk assessment is a key step in creating appropriate land use policies. The forced migration of those displaced by recent events in Syria has highlighted the need for studies to guide humanitarian aid and resettlement policies. In 2011, armed conflict in the region precipitated the largest refugee crisis in a generation....
Pollock, William; Wartman, Joseph; Abou-Jaoude, Grace; Grant, Alex R. R.