USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediment or coral over time. They process and analyze these core samples at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Sediment Core Lab.
Jason Padgett
I'm a coastal field geologist and it is my goal to help improve understanding of megathrust earthquakes and coastal hazards. I analyze geologic evidence of past earthquakes, tsunamis, storm surge, and coastal landscape evolution. My research interests revolve around relative sea-level changes over varying timescales from minutes to millennia.
My field-based interdisciplinary research bridges the gap between short-term instrumental records and long-term geologic reconstructions of coastal landscape evolution. To extend seismic and coastal hazard records over centennial and millennial timescales, I employ a combination of paleoseismology, micropaleontology, stratigraphy, geomorphology, geospatial analysis, geophysical modeling, and sea-level research techniques. Inferences of coseismic land-level change, tsunami, and storm surge inundation heights are supported through sedimentological, geochemical, and microfossil (e.g., foraminifera) laboratory analyses. I specialize in foraminifera analysis, which is particularly valuable to reconstruct past relative sea-level elevations and identifying anomalous sand beds deposited by storms and tsunamis. I construct numerical age models to develop robust chronologies based on radiocarbon, 137Cs, heavy metal concentrations, and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating techniques. Much of my research is based along the Cascadia coastal margin, e.g., northern Humboldt Bay and Washington; however, I am also a part of active research projects in Rhode Island and Alaska.
At Pacific Coastal Marine Science Center, I manage the core labs and I’m the curator of the core repository. In the core labs, we conduct sediment core analysis, which could involve RXCT density imagery, MSCL analysis, core splitting, and subsampling. At the core repository, we maintain a vast of collection of >17,000 sediment cores which have been collected over the past ~50 years from all over the world.
Professional Experience
2021: Lecturer and Research Associate, Department of Geology, Humboldt State University
2021: Lecturer, Department of Geosciences, University of Rhode Island
2019-2020: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Geography, Durham University
Education and Certifications
2019: Ph.D. Biological and Environmental Sciences, Geosciences, University of Rhode Island
2013: M.S. Environmental Systems Geology, Humboldt State University
2010: B.S. Oceanography & Geology minor, Humboldt State University
Science and Products
Coastal and Marine Geohazards of the U.S. West Coast and Alaska
Sediment core data from Henrys Lake, Idaho
Seismic sub-bottom, sediment core and radiocarbon data collected in Ozette Lake, Washington from 2019-2021
Tsunami deposit data and sediment transport models from the Salmon River estuary, central Oregon
Compiled onshore and offshore paleoseismic data along the Cascadia Subduction zone
USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediment or coral over time. They process and analyze these core samples at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Sediment Core Lab.
USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediment or coral over time. They process and analyze these core samples at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Sediment Core Lab.
USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediment or coral over time. They process and analyze these core samples at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Sediment Core Lab.
Shallow lake, strong shake: Record of seismically triggered lacustrine sedimentation from the 1959 M7.3 Hebgen Lake earthquake within Henrys Lake, Idaho
Post-glacial stratigraphy and late Holocene record of great Cascadia earthquakes in Ozette Lake, Washington, USA
Testing megathrust rupture models using tsunami deposits
High-resolution geophysical and geochronological analysis of a relict shoreface deposit offshore central California: Implications for slip rate along the Hosgri fault
Reproducibility and variability of earthquake subsidence estimates from saltmarshes of a Cascadia estuary
A maximum rupture model for the central and southern Cascadia subduction zone—reassessing ages for coastal evidence of megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis
Non-USGS Publications**
**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
Coastal and Marine Geohazards of the U.S. West Coast and Alaska
Sediment core data from Henrys Lake, Idaho
Seismic sub-bottom, sediment core and radiocarbon data collected in Ozette Lake, Washington from 2019-2021
Tsunami deposit data and sediment transport models from the Salmon River estuary, central Oregon
Compiled onshore and offshore paleoseismic data along the Cascadia Subduction zone
USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediment or coral over time. They process and analyze these core samples at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Sediment Core Lab.
USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediment or coral over time. They process and analyze these core samples at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Sediment Core Lab.
USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediment or coral over time. They process and analyze these core samples at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Sediment Core Lab.
USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediment or coral over time. They process and analyze these core samples at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Sediment Core Lab.
Shallow lake, strong shake: Record of seismically triggered lacustrine sedimentation from the 1959 M7.3 Hebgen Lake earthquake within Henrys Lake, Idaho
Post-glacial stratigraphy and late Holocene record of great Cascadia earthquakes in Ozette Lake, Washington, USA
Testing megathrust rupture models using tsunami deposits
High-resolution geophysical and geochronological analysis of a relict shoreface deposit offshore central California: Implications for slip rate along the Hosgri fault
Reproducibility and variability of earthquake subsidence estimates from saltmarshes of a Cascadia estuary
A maximum rupture model for the central and southern Cascadia subduction zone—reassessing ages for coastal evidence of megathrust earthquakes and tsunamis
Non-USGS Publications**
**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.