Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

John J Miller

Scientist Emeritus with the Central Energy Resources Science Center

Science and Products

Filter Total Items: 25

Subducting oceanic basement roughness impacts on upper plate tectonic structure and a backstop splay fault zone activated in the southern Kodiak aftershock region of the Mw 9.2, 1964 megathrust rupture, Alaska

In 1964, the Alaska margin ruptured in a giant Mw 9.2 megathrust earthquake, the 2nd largest during worldwide instrumental recording. The coseismic slip and aftershock region offshore Kodiak Island was surveyed in 1977 – 1981 to understand the region’s tectonics. We re-processed multichannel seismic (MCS) field data using current standard Kirchhoff depth migration and/or MCS traveltime tomography.
Authors
Anne Krabbenhoeft, Roland E. von Huene, John J. Miller, Dirk Klaeschen
By
Energy Resources Program, Central Energy Resources Science Center

The Alaska convergent margin backstop splay fault zone, a potential large tsunami generator between the frontal prism and continental framework

The giant tsunami that swept the Pacific from Alaska to Antarctica in 1946 was generated along one of three Alaska Trench instrumentally recorded aftershock areas following great and giant earthquakes. Aftershock areas were investigated during the past decade with multibeam bathymetry, ocean bottom seismograph wide‐angle seismic, reprocessed legacy, and new seismic reflection images. Summarized an
Authors
Roland von Huene, John J. Miller, Anne Krabbenhoeft
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Earthquake Hazards Program, Earthquake Science Center

The Shumagin seismic gap structure and associated tsunami hazards, Alaska convergent margin

The potential for a major earthquake in the Shumagin seismic gap, and the tsunami it could generate, was reported in 1971. However, while potentially tsunamigenic splay faults in the adjacent Unimak and Semidi earthquake segments are known, such features along the Shumagin segment were undocumented until recently. To investigate margin structure and search for splay faults, we reprocessed six lega
Authors
Roland E. von Huene, John J. Miller, Anne Krabbenhoeft
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Earthquake Hazards Program, Earthquake Science Center, Subduction Zone Science

Strike-slip 23 January 2018 MW 7.9 Gulf of Alaska rare intraplate earthquake: Complex rupture of a fracture zone system

Large intraplate earthquakes in oceanic lithosphere are rare and usually related to regions of diffuse deformation within the oceanic plate. The 23 January 2018 MW 7.9 strike-slip Gulf of Alaska earthquake ruptured an oceanic fracture zone system offshore Kodiak Island. Bathymetric compilations show a muted topographic expression of the fracture zone due to the thick sediment that covers oceanic b
Authors
Anne Krabbenhoeft, Roland von Huene, John J. Miller, Dietrich Lange, Felipe Vera
By
Energy Resources Program, Central Energy Resources Science Center

A possible source mechanism of the 1946 Unimak Alaska far-field tsunami, uplift of the mid-slope terrace above a splay fault zone

In 1946, megathrust seismicity along the Unimak segment of the Alaska subduction zone generated the largest ever recorded Alaska/Aleutian tsunami. The tsunami severely damaged Pacific islands and coastal areas from Alaska to Antarctica. It is the charter member of “tsunami” earthquakes that produce outsized far-field tsunamis for the recorded magnitude. Its source mechanisms were unconstrained by
Authors
Roland E. von Huene, John J. Miller, Dirk Klaeschen, Peter Dartnell
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Earthquake Hazards Program, Earthquake Science Center, Subduction Zone Science

A possible transoceanic tsunami directed toward the U.S. west coast from the Semidi segment, Alaska convergent margin

The Semidi segment of the Alaska convergent margin appears capable of generating a giant tsunami like the one produced along the nearby Unimak segment in 1946. Reprocessed legacy seismic reflection data and a compilation of multibeam bathymetric surveys reveal structures that could generate such a tsunami. A 200 km long ridge or escarpment with crests >1 km high is the surface expression of an act
Authors
Roland E. von Huene, John J. Miller, Peter Dartnell
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Subduction Zone Science

Processing of multichannel seismic reflection data acquired in 2013 for seismic investigations of gas hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico

As part of a cooperative effort among the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, two grids of two-dimensional multichannel seismic reflection data were acquired in the Gulf of Mexico over lease blocks Green Canyon 955 and Walker Ridge 313 between April 18 and May 3, 2013. The purpose of the data acqui
Authors
John J. Miller, Warren F. Agena, Seth S. Haines, Patrick E. Hart
By
Energy Resources Program, Central Energy Resources Science Center

The destructive 1946 Unimak near-field tsunami: New evidence for a submarine slide source from reprocessed marine geophysical data

The Mw 8.6 earthquake in 1946 off the Pacific shore of Unimak Island at the end of the Alaska Peninsula generated a far-field tsunami that crossed the Pacific to Antarctica. Its tsunami magnitude, 9.3, is comparable to the 9.1 magnitude of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. On Unimak Island's Pacific shore, a runup of 42 m destroyed the lighthouse at Scotch Cap. Elsewhere, localized tsunamis with such high
Authors
Roland E. von Huene, Stephen Kirby, John J. Miller, Peter Dartnell
By
Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

The 1946 Unimak Tsunami Earthquake Area: revised tectonic structure in reprocessed seismic images and a suspect near field tsunami source

In 1946 at Unimak Pass, Alaska, a tsunami destroyed the lighthouse at Scotch Cap, Unimak Island, took 159 lives on the Hawaiian Islands, damaged island coastal facilities across the south Pacific, and destroyed a hut in Antarctica. The tsunami magnitude of 9.3 is comparable to the magnitude 9.1 tsunami that devastated the Tohoku coast of Japan in 2011. Both causative earthquake epicenters occurred
Authors
John J. Miller, Roland E. von Huene, Holly F. Ryan

Modeling the mesozoic-cenozoic structural evolution of east texas

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently assessed the undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources within Jurassic and Cretaceous strata of the onshore coastal plain and State waters of the U.S. Gulf Coast. Regional 2D seismic lines for key parts of the Gulf Coast basin were interpreted in order to examine the evolution of structural traps and the burial history of petroleum source
Authors
Ofori N. Pearson, Elisabeth L. Rowan, John J. Miller
By
Energy Resources Program, Central Energy Resources Science Center

Subducting plate geology in three great earthquake ruptures of the western Alaska margin, Kodiak to Unimak

Three destructive earthquakes along the Alaska subduction zone sourced transoceanic tsunamis during the past 70 years. Since it is reasoned that past rupture areas might again source tsunamis in the future, we studied potential asperities and barriers in the subduction zone by examining Quaternary Gulf of Alaska plate history, geophysical data, and morphology. We relate the aftershock areas to sub
Authors
Roland E. von Huene, John J. Miller, Wilhelm Weinrebe
By
Energy Resources Program, Central Energy Resources Science Center

Permafrost-associated natural gas hydrate occurrences on the Alaska North Slope

In the 1960s Russian scientists made what was then a bold assertion that gas hydrates should occur in abundance in nature. Since this early start, the scientific foundation has been built for the realization that gas hydrates are a global phenomenon, occurring in permafrost regions of the arctic and in deep water portions of most continental margins worldwide. In 1995, the U.S. Geological Survey m
Authors
Timothy S. Collett, Myung W. Lee, Warren F. Agena, John J. Miller, Kristen A. Lewis, M.V. Zyrianova, R. Boswell, T.L. Inks
GLSC Headquarters
The Great Lakes Science Center Headquarters
The Great Lakes Science Center Headquarters
GLSC Headquarters

The Great Lakes Science Center Headquarters

The Great Lakes Science Center Headquarters

Main Entrance to the Great Lakes Science Center's Headquarters building in Ann Arbor, MI.

By
Great Lakes Science Center
GLSC Headquarters

The Great Lakes Science Center Headquarters

The Great Lakes Science Center Headquarters

Main Entrance to the Great Lakes Science Center's Headquarters building in Ann Arbor, MI.

By
Great Lakes Science Center
GLSC Director and other personnel in front of GLSC headquarters
GLSC Director and other personnel in front of GLSC headquarters
GLSC Director and other personnel in front of GLSC headquarters
GLSC Director and other personnel in front of GLSC headquarters

GLSC Director and other personnel in front of GLSC headquarters

GLSC Director and other personnel in front of GLSC headquarters

Personnel in front of Ann Arbor headquarters. From left: Michael Schmid, Ryan Williams, and Deirdre Jordan (all SUNY Maritime College Shipping internship cadets), Director Russ Strach, and Branch Cheif Kurt Newman.

By
Great Lakes Science Center
GLSC Director and other personnel in front of GLSC headquarters

GLSC Director and other personnel in front of GLSC headquarters

GLSC Director and other personnel in front of GLSC headquarters

Personnel in front of Ann Arbor headquarters. From left: Michael Schmid, Ryan Williams, and Deirdre Jordan (all SUNY Maritime College Shipping internship cadets), Director Russ Strach, and Branch Cheif Kurt Newman.

By
Great Lakes Science Center

Science and Products