David L George
I develop mathematical models, numerical methods, and open-source software for simulating geophysical flows. My mathematical focus is PDEs and adaptive finite volume methods, with an application focus on earth-surface flows (e.g., landslides, debris flows, tsunamis, overland flooding).
Current Position:
Research Mathematician, USGS, Cascades Volcano Observatory, 2012-present
Previous Positions:
Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow, USGS, Cascades Volcano Observatory, 2008-2012
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, 2007-2008
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Mathematics, University of Utah, 2006-2007.
Education:
Ph.D., Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Seattle 2006.
M.S., Applied Mathematics, University of Washington, Seattle 2004.
B.S. , B.S. & B.A., Physics, Biology, Anthropology, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1997.
Science and Products
Simulated inundation extent and depth in Harriman Fjord and Barry Arm, western Prince William Sound, Alaska, resulting from the hypothetical rapid motion of landslides into Barry Arm Fjord, Prince William Sound, Alaska
Summary This data release contains postprocessed model output from a simulation of hypothetical rapid motion of landslides, subsequent wave generation, and wave propagation. A simulated displacement wave was generated by rapid motion of unstable material into Barry Arm fjord. We consider the wave propagation in Harriman Fjord and Barry Arm, western Prince William Sound (area of interest...
Simulated inundation extent and depth at Whittier, Alaska resulting from the hypothetical rapid motion of landslides into Barry Arm Fjord, Prince William Sound, Alaska
This data release contains postprocessed model output from simulations of hypothetical rapid motion of landslides, subsequent wave generation, and wave propagation. A modeled tsunami wave was generated by rapid motion of unstable material into Barry Arm Fjord. This wave propagated through Prince William Sound and then into Passage Canal east of Whittier. Here we consider only the largest...
Select model results from simulations of hypothetical rapid failures of landslides into Barry Arm, Prince William Sound, Alaska
This data release contains model output from simulations presented in the associated Open-File Report (Barnhart and others, 2021). In this report, we present model results from four simulations (scenarios C-290, NC-290, C-689, NC-689, Table 1) of hypothetical rapid movement of landslides into adjacent fjord water at Barry Arm, Alaska using the D-Claw model (George and Iverson, 2014...
Data to support modeling of the 2015 Tyndall Glacier landslide, Alaska
Landslide-generated tsunamis pose significant hazards, but developing models to assess these hazards presents unique challenges. George and others (2017) present a new methodology in which a depth-averaged two-phase landslide model (D-Claw) is used to simulate all stages of landslide dynamics and subsequent tsunami generation, propagation, and inundation. Because the model describes the...
Filter Total Items: 36
Using the D-Claw software package to model lahars in the Middle Fork Nooksack River drainage and beyond, Mount Baker, Washington
Lahars, or volcanic mudflows, are the most hazardous eruption-related phenomena that will affect communities living along rivers that originate on Mount Baker. In the past 15,000 years, the largest lahars from Mount Baker have affected the Middle Fork Nooksack River drainage and beyond. Here we use the physics-based D-Claw software package to model nine lahar scenarios that are initiated...
Authors
Cynthia A. Gardner, Mary Catherine Benage, Charles M. Cannon, David L. George
Utility of a swath laser rangefinder for characterizing mass movement flow depth and landslide initiation
Mass movements such as debris flows and landslides are some of the deadliest and most destructive natural hazards occurring mostly in alpine and volcanic settings. With ever-growing populations located downslope from known debris flow channels, early warning systems can help prevent loss of life. Geophysical and technological advances have improved monitoring and detection capabilities...
Authors
Maciej Obryk, Emily Christina Bedinger, Alexandra M. Iezzi, Emily H Bryant, Kate E. Allstadt, David L. George, Benjamin B. Mirus
Uncertainty reduction for subaerial landslide-tsunami hazards
Subaerial rock slopes may generate a tsunami by rapidly moving into the water. Large uncertainty in landslide characteristics propagates into large uncertainty in tsunami hazard, making hazard assessment more difficult for land and emergency managers. Once a potentially tsunamigenic landslide is identified, it may not be clear which landslide characteristics contribute most significantly...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, David L. George, Andrew L. Collins, Lauren N. Schaefer, Dennis M. Staley
Forecasting inundation of catastrophic landslides from precursory creep
Forecasting landslide inundation upon catastrophic failure is crucial for reducing casualties, yet it remains a long-standing challenge owing to the complex nature of landslides. Recent global studies indicate that catastrophic hillslope failures are commonly preceded by a period of precursory creep, motivating a novel scheme to foresee their hazard. Here, we showcase an approach to...
Authors
Yuankun Xu, R. Burgmann, David L. George, E..J. Fielding, G.X. Solis-Gordillo, D.B. Yanez-Borja
Numerical modeling of debris flows: A conceptual assessment
Real-world hazard evaluation poses many challenges for the development and application of numerical models of debris flows. In this chapter we provide a conceptual overview of physically based, depth-averaged models designed to simulate debris-flow motion across three-dimensional terrain. When judiciously formulated and applied, these models can provide useful information about...
Authors
Richard M. Iverson, David L. George
Forecasting the inundation of postfire debris flows
In the semi-arid regions of the western United States, postfire debris flows are typically runoff generated. The U.S. Geological Survey has been studying the mechanisms of postfire debris-flow initiation for multiple decades to generate operational models for forecasting the timing, location, and magnitude of postfire debris flows. Here we discuss challenges and progress for extending...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, Ryan P Jones, David L. George, Francis K. Rengers, Jason W. Kean
Simulating debris flow and levee formation in the 2D shallow flow model D-Claw: Channelized and unconfined flow
Debris flow runout poses a hazard to life and infrastructure. The expansion of human population into mountainous areas and onto alluvial fans increases the need to predict and mitigate debris flow runout hazards. Debris flows on unconfined alluvial fans can exhibit spontaneous self-channelization through levee formation that reduces lateral spreading and extends runout distances compared...
Authors
Ryan P. Jones, Francis K. Rengers, Katherine R. Barnhart, David L. George, Dennis M. Staley, Jason W. Kean
Insights on multistage rock avalanche behavior from runout modeling constrained by seismic inversions
Inversion of low-frequency regional seismic records to solve for a time series of bulk forces exerted on the earth by a landslide (a force-time function) is increasingly being used to infer volumes and dynamics of large, highly energetic landslides, such as rock avalanches and flowslides, and to provide calibration information on event dynamics and volumes for numerical landslide runout...
Authors
Andrew Mitchell, Kate E. Allstadt, David L. George, Jordan Aaron, Scott McDougall, Jeffrey R. Moore, Brian Menounous
Modeling the dynamics of lahars that originate as landslides on the west side of Mount Rainier, Washington
Large lahars pose substantial threats to people and property downstream from Mount Rainier volcano in Washington State. Geologic evidence indicates that these threats exist even during the absence of volcanic activity and that the threats are highest in the densely populated Puyallup and Nisqually River valleys on the west side of the volcano. However, the precise character of these...
Authors
David L. George, Richard M. Iverson, Charles M. Cannon
Multi-model comparison of computed debris flow runout for the 9 January 2018 Montecito, California post-wildfire event
Hazard assessment for post-wildfire debris flows, which are common in the steep terrain of the western United States, has focused on the susceptibility of upstream basins to generate debris flows. However, reducing public exposure to this hazard also requires an assessment of hazards in downstream areas that might be inundated during debris flow runout. Debris flow runout models are...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, Ryan P. Jones, David L. George, Brian W. McArdell, Francis K. Rengers, Dennis M. Staley, Jason W. Kean
Preliminary assessment of the wave generating potential from landslides at Barry Arm, Prince William Sound, Alaska
We simulated the concurrent rapid motion of landslides on an unstable slope at Barry Arm, Alaska. Movement of landslides into the adjacent fjord displaced fjord water and generated a tsunami, which propagated out of Barry Arm. Rather than assuming an initial sea surface height, velocity, and location for the tsunami, we generated the tsunami directly using a model capable of simulating...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, Ryan P. Jones, David L. George, Jeffrey A. Coe, Dennis M. Staley
When hazard avoidance is not an option: Lessons learned from monitoring the postdisaster Oso landslide, USA
On 22 March 2014, a massive, catastrophic landslide occurred near Oso, Washington, USA, sweeping more than 1 km across the adjacent valley flats and killing 43 people. For the following 5 weeks, hundreds of workers engaged in an exhaustive search, rescue, and recovery effort directly in the landslide runout path. These workers could not avoid the risks posed by additional large-scale...
Authors
Mark E. Reid, Jonathan W. Godt, Richard G LaHusen, Stephen L Slaughter, Thomas C. Badger, Brian D. Collins, William Schulz, Rex L. Baum, Jeffrey A. Coe, Edwin L Harp, Kevin M. Schmidt, Richard M. Iverson, Joel B. Smith, Ralph A. Haugerud, David L. George
Non-USGS Publications**
D. L. George, 2008: Augmented Riemann solvers for the shallow water equations over variable topography with steady states and inundation. J. Comput. Phys., 227(6): 3089--3113.
R. J. LeVeque and D. L. George, 2008: High-resolution finite volume methods for the shallow water equations with topography and dry-states. In P. L. Liu, C. Synolakis, and H. Yeh, editors, Advanced Numerical Models for Simulating Tsunami Waves and Runup, vol. 10 of Advances in Coastal and Ocean Engineering, pp. 43--73. World Scientific.
D. L. George and R. J. LeVeque, 2008: High-resolution methods and adaptive refinement for tsunami propagation and inundation. In S. Benzoni-Gavage and D. Serre, editors, Hyperbolic Problems: Theory, Numerics, Applications, pp. 541--549, Springer.
D. L. George and R. J. LeVeque, 2006: Finite volume methods and adaptive refinement for global tsunami propagation and inundation. Science of Tsunami Hazards, Vol. 24. No. 5, 319--328.
**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.
D-Claw - A library for the simulation of granular-fluid flows, v1.0.0
D-Claw is a software library for the simulation of dense granular flows over spatially variable topography. D-Claw builds on clawpack, is written in Fortran, and has a python wrapper. The code is hosted on code.usgs.gov and mirrored on github. D-Claw is supported on Linux/Unix only.
digger - Utility tools for landslide runout modeling
Digger is a python package that provides a number of pre- and post-processing tools for landslide runout modeling. Many aspects of digger have been tailored for use with the D-Claw model. It may also be useful for initializing and postprocessing the results of other runout models. D-Claw requires input files and generates output files in very specific formats. Simulation output generates...
digger: A python package for D-Claw model inputs
Digger is a python package that provides a number of pre- and post-processing tools for working with the D-Claw model.
Science and Products
Simulated inundation extent and depth in Harriman Fjord and Barry Arm, western Prince William Sound, Alaska, resulting from the hypothetical rapid motion of landslides into Barry Arm Fjord, Prince William Sound, Alaska
Summary This data release contains postprocessed model output from a simulation of hypothetical rapid motion of landslides, subsequent wave generation, and wave propagation. A simulated displacement wave was generated by rapid motion of unstable material into Barry Arm fjord. We consider the wave propagation in Harriman Fjord and Barry Arm, western Prince William Sound (area of interest...
Simulated inundation extent and depth at Whittier, Alaska resulting from the hypothetical rapid motion of landslides into Barry Arm Fjord, Prince William Sound, Alaska
This data release contains postprocessed model output from simulations of hypothetical rapid motion of landslides, subsequent wave generation, and wave propagation. A modeled tsunami wave was generated by rapid motion of unstable material into Barry Arm Fjord. This wave propagated through Prince William Sound and then into Passage Canal east of Whittier. Here we consider only the largest...
Select model results from simulations of hypothetical rapid failures of landslides into Barry Arm, Prince William Sound, Alaska
This data release contains model output from simulations presented in the associated Open-File Report (Barnhart and others, 2021). In this report, we present model results from four simulations (scenarios C-290, NC-290, C-689, NC-689, Table 1) of hypothetical rapid movement of landslides into adjacent fjord water at Barry Arm, Alaska using the D-Claw model (George and Iverson, 2014...
Data to support modeling of the 2015 Tyndall Glacier landslide, Alaska
Landslide-generated tsunamis pose significant hazards, but developing models to assess these hazards presents unique challenges. George and others (2017) present a new methodology in which a depth-averaged two-phase landslide model (D-Claw) is used to simulate all stages of landslide dynamics and subsequent tsunami generation, propagation, and inundation. Because the model describes the...
Filter Total Items: 36
Using the D-Claw software package to model lahars in the Middle Fork Nooksack River drainage and beyond, Mount Baker, Washington
Lahars, or volcanic mudflows, are the most hazardous eruption-related phenomena that will affect communities living along rivers that originate on Mount Baker. In the past 15,000 years, the largest lahars from Mount Baker have affected the Middle Fork Nooksack River drainage and beyond. Here we use the physics-based D-Claw software package to model nine lahar scenarios that are initiated...
Authors
Cynthia A. Gardner, Mary Catherine Benage, Charles M. Cannon, David L. George
Utility of a swath laser rangefinder for characterizing mass movement flow depth and landslide initiation
Mass movements such as debris flows and landslides are some of the deadliest and most destructive natural hazards occurring mostly in alpine and volcanic settings. With ever-growing populations located downslope from known debris flow channels, early warning systems can help prevent loss of life. Geophysical and technological advances have improved monitoring and detection capabilities...
Authors
Maciej Obryk, Emily Christina Bedinger, Alexandra M. Iezzi, Emily H Bryant, Kate E. Allstadt, David L. George, Benjamin B. Mirus
Uncertainty reduction for subaerial landslide-tsunami hazards
Subaerial rock slopes may generate a tsunami by rapidly moving into the water. Large uncertainty in landslide characteristics propagates into large uncertainty in tsunami hazard, making hazard assessment more difficult for land and emergency managers. Once a potentially tsunamigenic landslide is identified, it may not be clear which landslide characteristics contribute most significantly...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, David L. George, Andrew L. Collins, Lauren N. Schaefer, Dennis M. Staley
Forecasting inundation of catastrophic landslides from precursory creep
Forecasting landslide inundation upon catastrophic failure is crucial for reducing casualties, yet it remains a long-standing challenge owing to the complex nature of landslides. Recent global studies indicate that catastrophic hillslope failures are commonly preceded by a period of precursory creep, motivating a novel scheme to foresee their hazard. Here, we showcase an approach to...
Authors
Yuankun Xu, R. Burgmann, David L. George, E..J. Fielding, G.X. Solis-Gordillo, D.B. Yanez-Borja
Numerical modeling of debris flows: A conceptual assessment
Real-world hazard evaluation poses many challenges for the development and application of numerical models of debris flows. In this chapter we provide a conceptual overview of physically based, depth-averaged models designed to simulate debris-flow motion across three-dimensional terrain. When judiciously formulated and applied, these models can provide useful information about...
Authors
Richard M. Iverson, David L. George
Forecasting the inundation of postfire debris flows
In the semi-arid regions of the western United States, postfire debris flows are typically runoff generated. The U.S. Geological Survey has been studying the mechanisms of postfire debris-flow initiation for multiple decades to generate operational models for forecasting the timing, location, and magnitude of postfire debris flows. Here we discuss challenges and progress for extending...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, Ryan P Jones, David L. George, Francis K. Rengers, Jason W. Kean
Simulating debris flow and levee formation in the 2D shallow flow model D-Claw: Channelized and unconfined flow
Debris flow runout poses a hazard to life and infrastructure. The expansion of human population into mountainous areas and onto alluvial fans increases the need to predict and mitigate debris flow runout hazards. Debris flows on unconfined alluvial fans can exhibit spontaneous self-channelization through levee formation that reduces lateral spreading and extends runout distances compared...
Authors
Ryan P. Jones, Francis K. Rengers, Katherine R. Barnhart, David L. George, Dennis M. Staley, Jason W. Kean
Insights on multistage rock avalanche behavior from runout modeling constrained by seismic inversions
Inversion of low-frequency regional seismic records to solve for a time series of bulk forces exerted on the earth by a landslide (a force-time function) is increasingly being used to infer volumes and dynamics of large, highly energetic landslides, such as rock avalanches and flowslides, and to provide calibration information on event dynamics and volumes for numerical landslide runout...
Authors
Andrew Mitchell, Kate E. Allstadt, David L. George, Jordan Aaron, Scott McDougall, Jeffrey R. Moore, Brian Menounous
Modeling the dynamics of lahars that originate as landslides on the west side of Mount Rainier, Washington
Large lahars pose substantial threats to people and property downstream from Mount Rainier volcano in Washington State. Geologic evidence indicates that these threats exist even during the absence of volcanic activity and that the threats are highest in the densely populated Puyallup and Nisqually River valleys on the west side of the volcano. However, the precise character of these...
Authors
David L. George, Richard M. Iverson, Charles M. Cannon
Multi-model comparison of computed debris flow runout for the 9 January 2018 Montecito, California post-wildfire event
Hazard assessment for post-wildfire debris flows, which are common in the steep terrain of the western United States, has focused on the susceptibility of upstream basins to generate debris flows. However, reducing public exposure to this hazard also requires an assessment of hazards in downstream areas that might be inundated during debris flow runout. Debris flow runout models are...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, Ryan P. Jones, David L. George, Brian W. McArdell, Francis K. Rengers, Dennis M. Staley, Jason W. Kean
Preliminary assessment of the wave generating potential from landslides at Barry Arm, Prince William Sound, Alaska
We simulated the concurrent rapid motion of landslides on an unstable slope at Barry Arm, Alaska. Movement of landslides into the adjacent fjord displaced fjord water and generated a tsunami, which propagated out of Barry Arm. Rather than assuming an initial sea surface height, velocity, and location for the tsunami, we generated the tsunami directly using a model capable of simulating...
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, Ryan P. Jones, David L. George, Jeffrey A. Coe, Dennis M. Staley
When hazard avoidance is not an option: Lessons learned from monitoring the postdisaster Oso landslide, USA
On 22 March 2014, a massive, catastrophic landslide occurred near Oso, Washington, USA, sweeping more than 1 km across the adjacent valley flats and killing 43 people. For the following 5 weeks, hundreds of workers engaged in an exhaustive search, rescue, and recovery effort directly in the landslide runout path. These workers could not avoid the risks posed by additional large-scale...
Authors
Mark E. Reid, Jonathan W. Godt, Richard G LaHusen, Stephen L Slaughter, Thomas C. Badger, Brian D. Collins, William Schulz, Rex L. Baum, Jeffrey A. Coe, Edwin L Harp, Kevin M. Schmidt, Richard M. Iverson, Joel B. Smith, Ralph A. Haugerud, David L. George
Non-USGS Publications**
D. L. George, 2008: Augmented Riemann solvers for the shallow water equations over variable topography with steady states and inundation. J. Comput. Phys., 227(6): 3089--3113.
R. J. LeVeque and D. L. George, 2008: High-resolution finite volume methods for the shallow water equations with topography and dry-states. In P. L. Liu, C. Synolakis, and H. Yeh, editors, Advanced Numerical Models for Simulating Tsunami Waves and Runup, vol. 10 of Advances in Coastal and Ocean Engineering, pp. 43--73. World Scientific.
D. L. George and R. J. LeVeque, 2008: High-resolution methods and adaptive refinement for tsunami propagation and inundation. In S. Benzoni-Gavage and D. Serre, editors, Hyperbolic Problems: Theory, Numerics, Applications, pp. 541--549, Springer.
D. L. George and R. J. LeVeque, 2006: Finite volume methods and adaptive refinement for global tsunami propagation and inundation. Science of Tsunami Hazards, Vol. 24. No. 5, 319--328.
**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.
D-Claw - A library for the simulation of granular-fluid flows, v1.0.0
D-Claw is a software library for the simulation of dense granular flows over spatially variable topography. D-Claw builds on clawpack, is written in Fortran, and has a python wrapper. The code is hosted on code.usgs.gov and mirrored on github. D-Claw is supported on Linux/Unix only.
digger - Utility tools for landslide runout modeling
Digger is a python package that provides a number of pre- and post-processing tools for landslide runout modeling. Many aspects of digger have been tailored for use with the D-Claw model. It may also be useful for initializing and postprocessing the results of other runout models. D-Claw requires input files and generates output files in very specific formats. Simulation output generates...
digger: A python package for D-Claw model inputs
Digger is a python package that provides a number of pre- and post-processing tools for working with the D-Claw model.