References in Google Scholar
David J Wald
Dr. Wald is a Seismologist with the USGS in Golden. He is involved in research, development & operations of several real-time earthquake information systems at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center. He developed and manages “ShakeMap”, “Did You Feel it?”, & is responsible for developing other systems for post-earthquake response & pre-earthquake mitigation, including ShakeCast and PAGER.
Biography
Wald's scientific interests include the characterization of rupture processes from complex recent and historic earthquakes using combined geodetic, teleseismic, and strong motion data; waveform modelling and inversion; analysis of ground motion hazards and site effects; earthquake source physics; and modelling earthquake-induced landslides, liquefaction, and losses, macroseismic intensity, building damage, financial and human impact, rapid damage and impact assessment, earthquake scenario development and mitigation planning and drills, and communication with the media, public, and emergency managers.
Previously at Caltech, and now at the Colorado School of Mines, Wald has advised dozens of post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate student research projects. Wald directly supervises 10 PhD level scientists and 5 five BS and MS level support staff, and supervises several students. Wald serves on several PhD committees at this time. This research has resulted in more than 450 professional publications that David has authored or co-authored, including journal papers, USGS publication series, conference papers, and published abstracts.
Publications in Google Scholar | Loop | Orcid
Education:
Post-doctoral Fellow, Geophysics, National Research Council, USGS, Pasadena, 1995
Ph.D., Geophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 1993
M.S., Geophysics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 1986
B.S., Geology & Physics, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, 1984
Science and Products
Date published: October 1, 2020
Status: Active Developing and Implementing an International Macroseismic Scale (IMS) for Earthquake Engineering, Earthquake Science, and Rapid Damage Assessment
The USGS “Did You Feel It” (DYFI) is an extremely popular way for members of the public to contribute to earthquake science and earthquake response. DYFI has been in operation for nearly two decades (1999-2019) in the U.S., and for nearly 15 years globally. During that period the amount of data collected is astounding: Over 5 million individual DYFI intensity reports—spanning all magnitude and...
Contacts: David J Wald
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Date published: May 29, 2020
Status: Completed The Blind Zone of Earthquake Early Warning
Release Date: MAY 29, 2020
Residents in California, Oregon, and Washington have been told that earthquake early warning (EEW) is at their doorstep and will alert them to the shaking from an earthquake before it arrives. Some media reports have said there will be “up to a minute of warning”. The problem is, for onshore earthquakes these claims are exaggerated, and under some conditions a...
Contacts: David J Wald, Lisa A Wald
Attribution: Natural Hazards, Earthquake Hazards Program
Date published: June 5, 2018
Status: Active Future Opportunities in Regional and Global Seismic Network Monitoring and Science
The past decade has seen improvements in computational efficiency, seismic data coverage, and communication technology - driven by societal expectation for timely, accurate information. While aspects of earthquake research have taken advantage of this evolution, the adoption of improvements in earthquake monitoring has not been fully leveraged. In real-time monitoring, earthquakes are...
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Date published: October 6, 2014
Status: Active Operational Earthquake Forecasting – Implementing a Real-Time System for California
It is well know that every earthquake can spawn others (e.g., as aftershocks), and that such triggered events can be large and damaging, as recently demonstrated by L’Aquila, Italy and Christchurch, New Zealand earthquakes. In spite of being an explicit USGS strategic-action priority (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1088; page 32), the USGS...
Attribution: John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis
Year Published: 2021
An efficient Bayesian framework for updating PAGER loss estimates
We introduce a Bayesian framework for incorporating time-varying noisy reported data on damage and loss information to update near real-time loss estimates/alerts for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system. Initial loss estimation by PAGER immediately following an earthquake includes...
Noh, Hae Young; Jaiswal, Kishor; Engler, Davis T.; Wald, David J.
Year Published: 2021
ShakeMap operations, policies, and procedures
The US Geological Survey’s ShakeMap is used domestically and globally for post-earthquake emergency management and response, engineering analyses, financial instruments, and other decision-making activities. Recent developments in the insurance, reinsurance, and catastrophe bond sectors link payouts of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars...
Wald, David J.; Worden, Charles; Thompson, Eric M.; Hearne, Mike
Year Published: 2021
Amateur radio operators help fill earthquake donut holes
If you’ve ever seen tall antennas rising from everyday residences in your community and wondered what they are for, it could be that those homes belong to ham radio enthusiasts who enjoy communicating with each other over the airwaves. In addition to having fun with their radios and finding camaraderie, many ham radio operators are also...
Wald, David J.; Quitoriano, Vince; Dully, Oliver
Year Published: 2021
Quantifying nuisance ground motion thresholds for induced earthquakes
Hazards from induced earthquakes are a growing concern with a need for effective management. One aspect of that concern is the “nuisance” from unexpected ground motions, which have the potential to cause public alarm and discontent. In this article, we borrow earthquake engineering concepts to quantify the chance of building damage states and...
Schultz, Ryan; Quitoriano, Vince; Wald, David J.; Beroza, Gregory C.
Year Published: 2020
Financial risk innovation: Development of earthquake parametric triggers for contingent credit instruments
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has developed financial risk management strategies for natural disasters focusing primarily on the emergency phase of the catastrophes where financial support is more cost-efficient and certainly most needed. The main IDB financial instrument to provide liquidity in the aftermath of catastrophic events is...
Collich, Guillermo; Rosillo, Rafael; Martinez, Juan; Wald, David J.; Durante, Juan José
Year Published: 2020
Human behavioral response in the Ridgecrest earthquakes: Assessing immediate actions based on data from “Did You Feel It?”
Human behavioral response to earthquake ground motion has long been a subject of multidisciplinary interest and research. In most versions of seismic intensity scales, human perceptions and behavior are one component of the assignment of intensity. Public health research has shown that actions taken during earthquakes have a significant impact on...
Goltz, James D.; Park, Hyejeong; Quitoriano, Vince; Wald, David J.
Year Published: 2020
A global hybrid VS30 map with a topographic slope–based default and regional map insets
Time-averaged shear wave velocity over the upper 30 m of the earth’s surface (VS30) is a key parameter for estimating ground motion amplification as both a predictive and a diagnostic tool for earthquake hazards. The first-order approximation of VS30 is commonly obtained through a topographic slope–based or terrain proxy due to the...
Heath, David C.; Wald, David J.; Worden, C. Bruce; Thompson, Eric M.; Smoczyk, Gregory M.
Year Published: 2020
Practical limitations of Earthquake Early Warning
Earthquake Early Earning (EEW) entails detection of initial earthquake shaking and rapid estimation and notification to users prior to imminent, stronger shaking. EEW is coming to the U.S. West Coast. But what are the technical and social challenges to delivering actionable information on earthquake shaking before it arrives? Although there will...
Wald, David J.
Year Published: 2020
USGS “Did You Feel It?” — Science and lessons from twenty years of citizen science-based macroseismology
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) “Did You Feel It?” (DYFI) system is an automatic method for rapidly collecting macroseismic intensity data from Internet users’ shaking and damage reports and for generating intensity maps immediately following felt earthquakes. DYFI has been in operation for nearly two decades (1999-2019) in the United States,...
Quitoriano, Vince; Wald, David J.
Year Published: 2020
Earthquakes, ShakeCast
ShakeCast® – short for ShakeMap Broadcast – is a fully automated software system for delivering specific ShakeMap products to critical users and for triggering established post-earthquake response protocols. ShakeCast is a freely available, postearthquake situational awareness software application that automatically retrieves earthquake shaking...
Lin, Kuo-wan; Wald, David J.; Slosky, Daniel
Year Published: 2020
Estimating rupture dimensions of three major earthquakes in Sichuan, China, for early warning and rapid loss estimates
Large earthquakes like in Wenchuan in 2008, MW 7.9, Sichuan, China, provide opportunity for earthquake early warning (EEW) as many heavily shaken areas are far (~50 km) from the epicenter and warning time could be long enough (≥ 5 s) to take effective preventative action. On the other hand, earthquakes with magnitudes larger than ~M 6.5 are...
Li, Jiawei; Böse, Maren; Wyss, Max; Wald, David J.; Hutchinson, Alexandra; Clinton, John F.; Wu, Zhongliang; Jiang, Changsheng; Zhou, Shiyong
Year Published: 2020
Earthquakes, did you feel it?
The US Geological Survey (USGS) “Did You Feel It?”® (DYFI) system is an automated system for rapidly collecting macroseismic intensity data from Internet users’ shaking and damage reports and generating intensity maps immediately following earthquakes.Although the collection and assignment of DYFI-based Macroseismic Intensity (MI) data depart...
Wald, David J.; Quitoriano, Vince; Dewey, James W.Pre-USGS Publications
Date published: October 1, 2015
ShakeCast
An application for automating ShakeMap delivery to critical users and for facilitating notification of shaking levels at user-selected facilities.
Attribution: Earthquake Hazards Program
Date published: June 1, 2020
The Blind Zone of Earthquake Early Warning
One USGS scientist has sorted through the challenges, the claims, and the data to determine what the possibilities and limitations really are for EEW, and the results may surprise you.
Read the new Science for Everyone article: The Blind Zone of Earthquake Early Warning