Austin J Elliott, Ph.D. (Former Employee)
Science and Products
Ring widths, scans of samples, and ancillary data from Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood) trees and stumps at Fort Ross and Gualala, sampled for dendroseismology in 2021–2024 Ring widths, scans of samples, and ancillary data from Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood) trees and stumps at Fort Ross and Gualala, sampled for dendroseismology in 2021–2024
Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood) trees were sampled for a dendroseismological investigation along the North Coast Section of the San Andreas Fault, and the data were fully analyzed, interpreted, and discussed in a journal article and supplemental material (Carroll et al., 2025). Here, were provide data associated with this work: 1200 dpi resolution images of tree cores and stumps...
Data from Theodolite Measurements of Creep Rates on San Francisco Bay Region Faults, California (ver. 2.2, July 2023) Data from Theodolite Measurements of Creep Rates on San Francisco Bay Region Faults, California (ver. 2.2, July 2023)
The data comprise an archive of repeated surveyed measurements to monitor surface fault creep (a form of gradual tectonic movement) occurring along active faults in the San Francisco Bay region for use by the scientific research community. Additional description of these data and the methods used to collect them is provided at: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2009/1119/. The primary data are...
Surface Rupture Map of the 2020 M 6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake, Esmeralda and Mineral counties, Nevada Surface Rupture Map of the 2020 M 6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake, Esmeralda and Mineral counties, Nevada
The 15 May 2020, M6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake was the largest earthquake in Nevada in over 66 years and occurred in a sparsely populated area of western Nevada about 74 km southeast of the town of Hawthorne. The earthquake produced surface rupture distributed across a 28-km-long zone along the eastward projection of the Candelaria fault in the Mina deflection of the central Walker...
Macroseismology Macroseismology
In this chapter I discuss the use of so-called macroseismic data, i.e., reports of damage and other effects of shaking on humans and the built environment, to improve the characterization of earthquakes and the ground motions they produce. Macroseismic data are critical not only to investigate earthquakes that occurred before the start of the instrumental era in seismology, but are also...
Authors
Susan E. Hough
Paleoseismology and paleogeodesy using coral microatolls Paleoseismology and paleogeodesy using coral microatolls
Establishing the rupture extent and slip distribution of individual paleo-earthquakes is vital for assessing fault behavior including the persistence of rupture segmentation, recurrence patterns, and similarity of successive events, key issues in both fault mechanics and hazard assessment. Techniques with high temporal and geodetic precision as well as a wide distribution of study sites...
Authors
Belle E. Philibosian
Probing the upper end of intracontinental earthquake magnitude: A prehistoric example from the Dzhungarian and Lepsy faults of Kazakhstan Probing the upper end of intracontinental earthquake magnitude: A prehistoric example from the Dzhungarian and Lepsy faults of Kazakhstan
The study of surface ruptures is key to understanding the earthquake occurrence of faults especially in the absence of historical events. We present a detailed analysis of geomorphic displacements along the Dzhungarian Fault, which straddles the border of China and Kazakhstan. We use digital elevation models derived from structure-from-motion analysis of Pléiades satellite imagery and...
Authors
Chia-Hsin Tsai, Kanatbek Abdrakhmatov, Aidyn Mukambayev, Austin John Elliott, John R. Elliott, Christoph Grützner, Edward J. Rhodes, A. H. Ivester, R. T. Walker, Roberta Wilkinson
How similar was the 1983 Mw 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake rupture to its surface-faulting predecessors along the northern Lost River fault zone (Idaho, USA)? How similar was the 1983 Mw 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake rupture to its surface-faulting predecessors along the northern Lost River fault zone (Idaho, USA)?
We excavated trenches at two paleoseismic sites bounding a trans-basin bedrock ridge (the Willow Creek Hills) along the northern Lost River fault zone to explore the uniqueness of the 1983 Mw 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake compared to its prehistoric predecessors. At the Sheep Creek site on the southernmost Warm Springs section, two earthquakes occurred at 9.8−14.0 ka (95% confidence) and 6.5...
Authors
Christopher DuRoss, Richard W. Briggs, Ryan D. Gold, Alexandra Elise Hatem, Austin John Elliott, Jaime Delano, Ivan Medina-Cascales, Harrison J. Gray, Shannon A. Mahan, Sylvia Nicovich, Zachery Lifton, Emily J. Kleber, Greg N. McDonald, Adam Hiscock, Mike Bunds, Nadine G. Reitman
Field response and surface rupture characteristics of the 2020 M6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake, central Walker Lane, Nevada Field response and surface rupture characteristics of the 2020 M6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake, central Walker Lane, Nevada
The M 6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake that occurred in the central Walker Lane on 15 May 2020 was the largest earthquake in Nevada in 66 yr and resulted in a multidisciplinary scientific field response. The earthquake was the result of left‐lateral slip along largely unmapped parts of the Candelaria fault, one of a series of east–northeast‐striking faults that comprise the Mina...
Authors
Richard D Koehler, Seth Dee, Austin John Elliott, Alexandra Elise Hatem, Alexandra Pickering, Ian Pierce, Gordon G. Seitz
Interactive terrain visualization enables virtual field work during rapid scientific response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake Interactive terrain visualization enables virtual field work during rapid scientific response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake
The moment magnitude (Mw) 7.0 12 January 2010 Haiti earthquake is the first major earthquake for which a large-footprint LiDAR (light detection and ranging) survey was acquired within several weeks of the event. Here, we describe the use of virtual reality data visualization to analyze massive amounts (67 GB on disk) of multiresolution terrain data during the rapid scientific response to...
Authors
Eric Cowgill, Tony S. Bernardin, Michael E. Oskin, Christopher Bowles, M. Burak Yikilmaz, Oliver Kreylos, Austin J. Elliott, Scott Bishop, Ryan D. Gold, Alexander Morelan, Gerald W. Bawden, Bernd Hamann, Louise Kellogg
Non-USGS Publications**
Elliott, A. J., Oskin, M. E., Liu-Zeng, J., Shao, Y.-X., (2018) Persistent rupture terminations at a restraining bend from slip rates on the eastern Altyn Tagh fault, Tectonophysics 733, 57-72, doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2018.01.004
Elliott, A. J., Oskin, M. E., Liu-Zeng, J., and Shao, Y., (2015) Rupture termination at restraining bends: The last great earthquake on the Altyn Tagh Fault, Geophysical Research Letters 42(7), 2164–2170. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063107
Elliott, A. J., Dolan, J. F., Oglesby, D. D. (2009) Evidence from coseismic slip gradients for dynamic control on rupture propagation and arrest through stepovers. Journal of Geophysical Research 104, doi: 10.1029/2008JB005969
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Ring widths, scans of samples, and ancillary data from Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood) trees and stumps at Fort Ross and Gualala, sampled for dendroseismology in 2021–2024 Ring widths, scans of samples, and ancillary data from Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood) trees and stumps at Fort Ross and Gualala, sampled for dendroseismology in 2021–2024
Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood) trees were sampled for a dendroseismological investigation along the North Coast Section of the San Andreas Fault, and the data were fully analyzed, interpreted, and discussed in a journal article and supplemental material (Carroll et al., 2025). Here, were provide data associated with this work: 1200 dpi resolution images of tree cores and stumps...
Data from Theodolite Measurements of Creep Rates on San Francisco Bay Region Faults, California (ver. 2.2, July 2023) Data from Theodolite Measurements of Creep Rates on San Francisco Bay Region Faults, California (ver. 2.2, July 2023)
The data comprise an archive of repeated surveyed measurements to monitor surface fault creep (a form of gradual tectonic movement) occurring along active faults in the San Francisco Bay region for use by the scientific research community. Additional description of these data and the methods used to collect them is provided at: https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2009/1119/. The primary data are...
Surface Rupture Map of the 2020 M 6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake, Esmeralda and Mineral counties, Nevada Surface Rupture Map of the 2020 M 6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake, Esmeralda and Mineral counties, Nevada
The 15 May 2020, M6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake was the largest earthquake in Nevada in over 66 years and occurred in a sparsely populated area of western Nevada about 74 km southeast of the town of Hawthorne. The earthquake produced surface rupture distributed across a 28-km-long zone along the eastward projection of the Candelaria fault in the Mina deflection of the central Walker...
Macroseismology Macroseismology
In this chapter I discuss the use of so-called macroseismic data, i.e., reports of damage and other effects of shaking on humans and the built environment, to improve the characterization of earthquakes and the ground motions they produce. Macroseismic data are critical not only to investigate earthquakes that occurred before the start of the instrumental era in seismology, but are also...
Authors
Susan E. Hough
Paleoseismology and paleogeodesy using coral microatolls Paleoseismology and paleogeodesy using coral microatolls
Establishing the rupture extent and slip distribution of individual paleo-earthquakes is vital for assessing fault behavior including the persistence of rupture segmentation, recurrence patterns, and similarity of successive events, key issues in both fault mechanics and hazard assessment. Techniques with high temporal and geodetic precision as well as a wide distribution of study sites...
Authors
Belle E. Philibosian
Probing the upper end of intracontinental earthquake magnitude: A prehistoric example from the Dzhungarian and Lepsy faults of Kazakhstan Probing the upper end of intracontinental earthquake magnitude: A prehistoric example from the Dzhungarian and Lepsy faults of Kazakhstan
The study of surface ruptures is key to understanding the earthquake occurrence of faults especially in the absence of historical events. We present a detailed analysis of geomorphic displacements along the Dzhungarian Fault, which straddles the border of China and Kazakhstan. We use digital elevation models derived from structure-from-motion analysis of Pléiades satellite imagery and...
Authors
Chia-Hsin Tsai, Kanatbek Abdrakhmatov, Aidyn Mukambayev, Austin John Elliott, John R. Elliott, Christoph Grützner, Edward J. Rhodes, A. H. Ivester, R. T. Walker, Roberta Wilkinson
How similar was the 1983 Mw 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake rupture to its surface-faulting predecessors along the northern Lost River fault zone (Idaho, USA)? How similar was the 1983 Mw 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake rupture to its surface-faulting predecessors along the northern Lost River fault zone (Idaho, USA)?
We excavated trenches at two paleoseismic sites bounding a trans-basin bedrock ridge (the Willow Creek Hills) along the northern Lost River fault zone to explore the uniqueness of the 1983 Mw 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake compared to its prehistoric predecessors. At the Sheep Creek site on the southernmost Warm Springs section, two earthquakes occurred at 9.8−14.0 ka (95% confidence) and 6.5...
Authors
Christopher DuRoss, Richard W. Briggs, Ryan D. Gold, Alexandra Elise Hatem, Austin John Elliott, Jaime Delano, Ivan Medina-Cascales, Harrison J. Gray, Shannon A. Mahan, Sylvia Nicovich, Zachery Lifton, Emily J. Kleber, Greg N. McDonald, Adam Hiscock, Mike Bunds, Nadine G. Reitman
Field response and surface rupture characteristics of the 2020 M6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake, central Walker Lane, Nevada Field response and surface rupture characteristics of the 2020 M6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake, central Walker Lane, Nevada
The M 6.5 Monte Cristo Range earthquake that occurred in the central Walker Lane on 15 May 2020 was the largest earthquake in Nevada in 66 yr and resulted in a multidisciplinary scientific field response. The earthquake was the result of left‐lateral slip along largely unmapped parts of the Candelaria fault, one of a series of east–northeast‐striking faults that comprise the Mina...
Authors
Richard D Koehler, Seth Dee, Austin John Elliott, Alexandra Elise Hatem, Alexandra Pickering, Ian Pierce, Gordon G. Seitz
Interactive terrain visualization enables virtual field work during rapid scientific response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake Interactive terrain visualization enables virtual field work during rapid scientific response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake
The moment magnitude (Mw) 7.0 12 January 2010 Haiti earthquake is the first major earthquake for which a large-footprint LiDAR (light detection and ranging) survey was acquired within several weeks of the event. Here, we describe the use of virtual reality data visualization to analyze massive amounts (67 GB on disk) of multiresolution terrain data during the rapid scientific response to...
Authors
Eric Cowgill, Tony S. Bernardin, Michael E. Oskin, Christopher Bowles, M. Burak Yikilmaz, Oliver Kreylos, Austin J. Elliott, Scott Bishop, Ryan D. Gold, Alexander Morelan, Gerald W. Bawden, Bernd Hamann, Louise Kellogg
Non-USGS Publications**
Elliott, A. J., Oskin, M. E., Liu-Zeng, J., Shao, Y.-X., (2018) Persistent rupture terminations at a restraining bend from slip rates on the eastern Altyn Tagh fault, Tectonophysics 733, 57-72, doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2018.01.004
Elliott, A. J., Oskin, M. E., Liu-Zeng, J., and Shao, Y., (2015) Rupture termination at restraining bends: The last great earthquake on the Altyn Tagh Fault, Geophysical Research Letters 42(7), 2164–2170. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063107
Elliott, A. J., Dolan, J. F., Oglesby, D. D. (2009) Evidence from coseismic slip gradients for dynamic control on rupture propagation and arrest through stepovers. Journal of Geophysical Research 104, doi: 10.1029/2008JB005969
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.