Devin McPhillips, PhD
As an earthquake geologist, I investigate fault systems, fault activity, and ground shaking intensity. I am particularly interested in records of past earthquakes that are preserved in the landscape. My research methods include field observation, geochronology, and quantitative analysis. My goals are to quantify seismic hazard and reduce risk.
Professional Experience
Research Geologist: USGS-ESC, 2023-present
Geologist: USGS-ESC, 2016-2023
Research Associate: Syracuse University, 2013-2105
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow: University of Vermont, 2011-2013
Education and Certifications
PhD: Yale University, 2011
BA: Carleton College, 2003
Science and Products
Age-model codes and paleoearthquake ages for the Frazier Mountain, Pallett Creek, and Wrightwood paleoseismic sites along the Southern San Andreas Fault, California Age-model codes and paleoearthquake ages for the Frazier Mountain, Pallett Creek, and Wrightwood paleoseismic sites along the Southern San Andreas Fault, California
These datasets provide age-model codes and resultant paleoearthquake age distributions for three paleoseismic sites along the southern San Andreas Fault. The code format is compatible with the age-model program OxCal (Bronk Ramsey 2009) which calibrates radiocarbon dates to calendar years and uses stratigraphic relationships among radiocarbon samples and sedimentary units to compute
Precariously balanced rock data from northern New York and Vermont, USA Precariously balanced rock data from northern New York and Vermont, USA
This work describes observations of boulders and their pedestals at five sites in New York and Vermont, which are used to calculate scaling factors for the 2023 time-independent National Seismic Hazard Model site-specific hazard curves (Petersen, M.D., Shumway, A.M., Powers, P.M., Field, E.H., Moschetti, M.P., Jaiswal, K.S., Milner, K.R., Rezaeian, S., Frankel, A.D., Llenos, A.L. and...
Data Release for the 2023 U.S. 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model - Overview Data Release for the 2023 U.S. 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model - Overview
This data release contains data sets associated with the 2023 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model Update. The 2023 50-State National Seimsic Hazard Model (NSHM) Update includes an update to the NSHMs for the conterminous U.S (CONUS, last updated in 2018), Alaska (AK, last updated in 2007), and Hawaii (last updated in 2001). Data sets include inputs like seismicity catalogs used as...
Data release for fault activity in the San Gabriel Mountains, USA: insights from landscape morphometrics, erosion rates, and fault-slip rates (ver. 2.0, November 2023) Data release for fault activity in the San Gabriel Mountains, USA: insights from landscape morphometrics, erosion rates, and fault-slip rates (ver. 2.0, November 2023)
This report summarizes geomorphic data and analysis from the range front and interior of the San Gabriel Mountains, California, USA. For catchment-average erosion rates, we describe the methodology used to collect samples of detrital sediment, determine concentrations of cosmogenic beryllium-10 in purified quartz isolated from the samples, and use those nuclide concentrations to...
Radiocarbon dates from the 2020 Bobcat Fire and 2013 Grand Fire, Western Transverse Ranges, California Radiocarbon dates from the 2020 Bobcat Fire and 2013 Grand Fire, Western Transverse Ranges, California
This data release provides radiocarbon data for burned plant material collected from deposits following two wildfires in southern California. For the 2020 Bobcat Fire we collected deposits in five stream channels within the Pallett Creek drainage in 2021. For the 2013 Grand Fire near Frazier Mountain, we sampled from two shallow pits excavated into alluvium deposited in 2014. The types...
Sediment properties, charcoal counts, and radiocarbon dates from the Pallett Creek paleoseismic site, San Gabriel Mountains, California (ver. 2.0, February 2024) Sediment properties, charcoal counts, and radiocarbon dates from the Pallett Creek paleoseismic site, San Gabriel Mountains, California (ver. 2.0, February 2024)
This data release provides geochemical, sedimentological, and geochronological data from interbedded fluvial and marsh deposits and radiocarbon dates of the section spanning the last 1500 years from the Pallett Creek paleoseismic site, California. The samples were collected to support paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the site and refine several previous investigations of...
Filter Total Items: 24
A scientific vision and roadmap for earthquake rupture forecast developments, a USGS perspective A scientific vision and roadmap for earthquake rupture forecast developments, a USGS perspective
We articulate a scientific vision and roadmap for the development of improved Earthquake Rupture Forecast models, which are one of the two main modeling components used in modern seismic hazard and risk analysis. One primary future objective is to provide fully time-dependent models that include both elastic rebound and spatiotemporal clustering nationwide, which is particularly...
Authors
Edward Field, Alexandra Hatem, Bruce Shaw, Morgan Page, P. Mai, Kevin Ross Milner, Andrea Llenos, Andrew Michael, Frederick Pollitz, Jessica Jobe, Thomas Parsons, Olaf Zielke, David Shelly, Alice-Agnes Gabriel, Devin McPhillips, Richard Briggs, Elizabeth Cochran, Nico Luco, Mark Petersen, Peter Powers, Justin Rubinstein, Allison Shumway, Nicholas van der Elst, Yuehua Zeng, Christopher DuRoss, Jason Altekruse
Strong shaking from past Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes encoded in coastal landforms Strong shaking from past Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes encoded in coastal landforms
Strong earthquakes along subduction zones are often devastating events, but sparse records along some tectonic margins limit our understanding of seismic hazards. Constraining shaking intensities is critical, especially in subduction zones with infrequent but large-magnitude earthquakes like the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ), where the lack of recorded ground motions has led to...
Authors
Sean LaHusen, Alex Grant, Jonathan Perkins, Devin McPhillips
Precariously balanced rocks in northern New York and Vermont, U.S.A.: Ground-motion constraints and implications for fault sources Precariously balanced rocks in northern New York and Vermont, U.S.A.: Ground-motion constraints and implications for fault sources
Precariously balanced rocks (PBRs) and other fragile geologic features have the potential to constrain the maximum intensity of earthquake ground shaking over millennia. Such constraints may be particularly useful in the eastern United States (U.S.), where few earthquake‐source faults are reliably identified, and moderate earthquakes can be felt at great distances due to low seismic...
Authors
Devin McPhillips, Thomas Pratt
Inbuilt age, residence time, and inherited age from radiocarbon dates of modern fires and late Holocene deposits, Western Transverse Ranges, California Inbuilt age, residence time, and inherited age from radiocarbon dates of modern fires and late Holocene deposits, Western Transverse Ranges, California
Radiocarbon dates of sedimentary deposits include the elapsed time between formation of the organic material and deposition at the sample site, known as the inherited age. Long inherited ages reduce the accuracy of estimates of the timing of depositional events used to infer paleoclimate change, fire histories, and paleoearthquake timing. An inherited age distribution combines the...
Authors
Katherine M. Scharer, Devin McPhillips, Jenifer Leidelmeijer, Matthew Kirby
Fault activity in the San Gabriel Mountains, southern California, USA: Insights from landscape morphometrics, erosion rates, and fault-slip rates Fault activity in the San Gabriel Mountains, southern California, USA: Insights from landscape morphometrics, erosion rates, and fault-slip rates
Many studies use landscape form to determine spatial patterns of tectonic deformation, and these are particularly effective when paired with independent measures of rock uplift and erosion. Here, we use morphometric analyses and 10Be catchment-averaged erosion rates, together with reverse slip rates from the Sierra Madre−Cucamonga fault zone, to reveal patterns in uplift, erosion, and...
Authors
Andrew Meredith, Devin McPhillips
The 2023 US 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model: Overview and implications The 2023 US 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model: Overview and implications
The US National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) was updated in 2023 for all 50 states using new science on seismicity, fault ruptures, ground motions, and probabilistic techniques to produce a standard of practice for public policy and other engineering applications (defined for return periods greater than ∼475 or less than ∼10,000 years). Changes in 2023 time-independent seismic hazard...
Authors
Mark Petersen, Allison Shumway, Peter Powers, Edward Field, Morgan Moschetti, Kishor Jaiswal, Kevin Milner, Sanaz Rezaeian, Arthur Frankel, Andrea Llenos, Andrew Michael, Jason Altekruse, Sean Ahdi, Kyle Withers, Charles Mueller, Yuehua Zeng, Robert Chase, Leah Salditch, Nico Luco, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Julie Herrick, Demi Girot, Brad Aagaard, Adrian Bender, Michael Blanpied, Richard Briggs, Oliver Boyd, Brandon Clayton, Christopher DuRoss, Eileen L. Evans, Peter J. Haeussler, Alexandra Hatem, Kirstie Haynie, Elizabeth Hearn, Kaj Johnson, Zachary Kortum, N. Kwong, Andrew Makdisi, Henry Mason, Daniel McNamara, Devin McPhillips, P. Okubo, Morgan Page, Frederick Pollitz, Justin Rubinstein, Bruce Shaw, Zheng-Kang Shen, Brian Shiro, James Smith, William Stephenson, Eric Thompson, Jessica Jobe, Erin Wirth, Robert C. Witter
Science and Products
Age-model codes and paleoearthquake ages for the Frazier Mountain, Pallett Creek, and Wrightwood paleoseismic sites along the Southern San Andreas Fault, California Age-model codes and paleoearthquake ages for the Frazier Mountain, Pallett Creek, and Wrightwood paleoseismic sites along the Southern San Andreas Fault, California
These datasets provide age-model codes and resultant paleoearthquake age distributions for three paleoseismic sites along the southern San Andreas Fault. The code format is compatible with the age-model program OxCal (Bronk Ramsey 2009) which calibrates radiocarbon dates to calendar years and uses stratigraphic relationships among radiocarbon samples and sedimentary units to compute
Precariously balanced rock data from northern New York and Vermont, USA Precariously balanced rock data from northern New York and Vermont, USA
This work describes observations of boulders and their pedestals at five sites in New York and Vermont, which are used to calculate scaling factors for the 2023 time-independent National Seismic Hazard Model site-specific hazard curves (Petersen, M.D., Shumway, A.M., Powers, P.M., Field, E.H., Moschetti, M.P., Jaiswal, K.S., Milner, K.R., Rezaeian, S., Frankel, A.D., Llenos, A.L. and...
Data Release for the 2023 U.S. 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model - Overview Data Release for the 2023 U.S. 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model - Overview
This data release contains data sets associated with the 2023 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model Update. The 2023 50-State National Seimsic Hazard Model (NSHM) Update includes an update to the NSHMs for the conterminous U.S (CONUS, last updated in 2018), Alaska (AK, last updated in 2007), and Hawaii (last updated in 2001). Data sets include inputs like seismicity catalogs used as...
Data release for fault activity in the San Gabriel Mountains, USA: insights from landscape morphometrics, erosion rates, and fault-slip rates (ver. 2.0, November 2023) Data release for fault activity in the San Gabriel Mountains, USA: insights from landscape morphometrics, erosion rates, and fault-slip rates (ver. 2.0, November 2023)
This report summarizes geomorphic data and analysis from the range front and interior of the San Gabriel Mountains, California, USA. For catchment-average erosion rates, we describe the methodology used to collect samples of detrital sediment, determine concentrations of cosmogenic beryllium-10 in purified quartz isolated from the samples, and use those nuclide concentrations to...
Radiocarbon dates from the 2020 Bobcat Fire and 2013 Grand Fire, Western Transverse Ranges, California Radiocarbon dates from the 2020 Bobcat Fire and 2013 Grand Fire, Western Transverse Ranges, California
This data release provides radiocarbon data for burned plant material collected from deposits following two wildfires in southern California. For the 2020 Bobcat Fire we collected deposits in five stream channels within the Pallett Creek drainage in 2021. For the 2013 Grand Fire near Frazier Mountain, we sampled from two shallow pits excavated into alluvium deposited in 2014. The types...
Sediment properties, charcoal counts, and radiocarbon dates from the Pallett Creek paleoseismic site, San Gabriel Mountains, California (ver. 2.0, February 2024) Sediment properties, charcoal counts, and radiocarbon dates from the Pallett Creek paleoseismic site, San Gabriel Mountains, California (ver. 2.0, February 2024)
This data release provides geochemical, sedimentological, and geochronological data from interbedded fluvial and marsh deposits and radiocarbon dates of the section spanning the last 1500 years from the Pallett Creek paleoseismic site, California. The samples were collected to support paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the site and refine several previous investigations of...
Filter Total Items: 24
A scientific vision and roadmap for earthquake rupture forecast developments, a USGS perspective A scientific vision and roadmap for earthquake rupture forecast developments, a USGS perspective
We articulate a scientific vision and roadmap for the development of improved Earthquake Rupture Forecast models, which are one of the two main modeling components used in modern seismic hazard and risk analysis. One primary future objective is to provide fully time-dependent models that include both elastic rebound and spatiotemporal clustering nationwide, which is particularly...
Authors
Edward Field, Alexandra Hatem, Bruce Shaw, Morgan Page, P. Mai, Kevin Ross Milner, Andrea Llenos, Andrew Michael, Frederick Pollitz, Jessica Jobe, Thomas Parsons, Olaf Zielke, David Shelly, Alice-Agnes Gabriel, Devin McPhillips, Richard Briggs, Elizabeth Cochran, Nico Luco, Mark Petersen, Peter Powers, Justin Rubinstein, Allison Shumway, Nicholas van der Elst, Yuehua Zeng, Christopher DuRoss, Jason Altekruse
Strong shaking from past Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes encoded in coastal landforms Strong shaking from past Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes encoded in coastal landforms
Strong earthquakes along subduction zones are often devastating events, but sparse records along some tectonic margins limit our understanding of seismic hazards. Constraining shaking intensities is critical, especially in subduction zones with infrequent but large-magnitude earthquakes like the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ), where the lack of recorded ground motions has led to...
Authors
Sean LaHusen, Alex Grant, Jonathan Perkins, Devin McPhillips
Precariously balanced rocks in northern New York and Vermont, U.S.A.: Ground-motion constraints and implications for fault sources Precariously balanced rocks in northern New York and Vermont, U.S.A.: Ground-motion constraints and implications for fault sources
Precariously balanced rocks (PBRs) and other fragile geologic features have the potential to constrain the maximum intensity of earthquake ground shaking over millennia. Such constraints may be particularly useful in the eastern United States (U.S.), where few earthquake‐source faults are reliably identified, and moderate earthquakes can be felt at great distances due to low seismic...
Authors
Devin McPhillips, Thomas Pratt
Inbuilt age, residence time, and inherited age from radiocarbon dates of modern fires and late Holocene deposits, Western Transverse Ranges, California Inbuilt age, residence time, and inherited age from radiocarbon dates of modern fires and late Holocene deposits, Western Transverse Ranges, California
Radiocarbon dates of sedimentary deposits include the elapsed time between formation of the organic material and deposition at the sample site, known as the inherited age. Long inherited ages reduce the accuracy of estimates of the timing of depositional events used to infer paleoclimate change, fire histories, and paleoearthquake timing. An inherited age distribution combines the...
Authors
Katherine M. Scharer, Devin McPhillips, Jenifer Leidelmeijer, Matthew Kirby
Fault activity in the San Gabriel Mountains, southern California, USA: Insights from landscape morphometrics, erosion rates, and fault-slip rates Fault activity in the San Gabriel Mountains, southern California, USA: Insights from landscape morphometrics, erosion rates, and fault-slip rates
Many studies use landscape form to determine spatial patterns of tectonic deformation, and these are particularly effective when paired with independent measures of rock uplift and erosion. Here, we use morphometric analyses and 10Be catchment-averaged erosion rates, together with reverse slip rates from the Sierra Madre−Cucamonga fault zone, to reveal patterns in uplift, erosion, and...
Authors
Andrew Meredith, Devin McPhillips
The 2023 US 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model: Overview and implications The 2023 US 50-State National Seismic Hazard Model: Overview and implications
The US National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) was updated in 2023 for all 50 states using new science on seismicity, fault ruptures, ground motions, and probabilistic techniques to produce a standard of practice for public policy and other engineering applications (defined for return periods greater than ∼475 or less than ∼10,000 years). Changes in 2023 time-independent seismic hazard...
Authors
Mark Petersen, Allison Shumway, Peter Powers, Edward Field, Morgan Moschetti, Kishor Jaiswal, Kevin Milner, Sanaz Rezaeian, Arthur Frankel, Andrea Llenos, Andrew Michael, Jason Altekruse, Sean Ahdi, Kyle Withers, Charles Mueller, Yuehua Zeng, Robert Chase, Leah Salditch, Nico Luco, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Julie Herrick, Demi Girot, Brad Aagaard, Adrian Bender, Michael Blanpied, Richard Briggs, Oliver Boyd, Brandon Clayton, Christopher DuRoss, Eileen L. Evans, Peter J. Haeussler, Alexandra Hatem, Kirstie Haynie, Elizabeth Hearn, Kaj Johnson, Zachary Kortum, N. Kwong, Andrew Makdisi, Henry Mason, Daniel McNamara, Devin McPhillips, P. Okubo, Morgan Page, Frederick Pollitz, Justin Rubinstein, Bruce Shaw, Zheng-Kang Shen, Brian Shiro, James Smith, William Stephenson, Eric Thompson, Jessica Jobe, Erin Wirth, Robert C. Witter