Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Katherine Guns

Katherine Guns is a Research Geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earthquake Science Center in Moffett Field, CA. She uses satellite-based geodetic measurements like InSAR and GPS to investigate active faults as well as the crustal deformation processes that occur after large earthquakes.

Katherine started out studying earthquakes and faults through geological field mapping and working in labs to characterize how faults slip over long timescales (over the last ~2,000-50,000 years). In graduate school, she switched gears and dove into tectonic geodesy, where you can use satellite measurements to determine how the surface of the Earth is moving and changing in the present day. Now, she uses Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and Global Positioning System (GPS) observations to explore earthquake and active fault deformation. One of her favorite topics is characterizing the processes that happen just after a large magnitude earthquake, and determining how those processes continue and evolve in time and space (and potentially cause additional hazard).

Professional Experience

  • 2023 – present | Research Geophysicist, U.S. Geological Survey

  • 2023 | Accepted Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow, U.S. Geological Survey

  • 2020 – 2023 | Postdoctoral Scholar, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps 

  • Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego

Education and Certifications

  • 2020 | Ph.D. in Geosciences, University of Arizona

  • Dissertation: “Exploring Long-term Earthquake Deformation in Southern California through Field-based Geologic and Space-based Geodetic methods”

  • 2015 | B.A., with Honors, in Geology, University of California, Berkeley

Science and Products

Exploring GPS observations of postseismic deformation following the 2012 MW7.8 Haida Gwaii and 2013 MW7.5 Craig, Alaska Earthquakes: Implications for viscoelastic Earth structure

The Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault (QC-FF) system off the coast of British Columbia and southeast Alaska is a highly active dextral strike-slip plate boundary that accommodates ∼50 mm/yr of relative motion between the Pacific and North America plates. Nine MW ≥ 6.7 earthquakes have occurred along the QC-FF system since 1910, including a MS(G-R)8.1 event in 1949. Two recent earthquakes, the Octo
Authors
Katherine A. Guns, Fred Pollitz, Thorne Lay, Han Yue
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Earthquake Hazards Program, Earthquake Science Center

Non-USGS Publications**

Guns, K.A., Bennett, R.A., Blisniuk, K., Walker, A., Hidy, A., & Heimsath, A. (2022). Steady Long-term Slip Rate on the Blue Cut Fault: Implications for Strain Transfer between the San Andreas Fault and Eastern California Shear Zone, Geophysical Research Letters, 49(20), https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100799
Ward, L. A., Guns, K. A., Smith-Konter, B. R., Xu, X., Bock, Y., & Sandwell, D. T. (2022). Vertical postseismic deformation of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 127, e2021JB023331. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB023331
Guns, K.A., Xu, X., Bock, Y., & Sandwell, D. (2022). GNSS-corrected InSAR Displacement Time Series Spanning the 2019 Ridgecrest, CA Earthquakes, Geophysical Journal International, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggac121
Guns, K.A., Bennett, R.A., Spinler, J.C., & McGill, S.F. (2021). New Geodetic Constraints on southern San Andreas Fault slip rates, San Gorgonio Pass, CA. Geosphere, v. 17, https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02239.1
Guns, K.A. & Bennett, R.A. (2020). Assessing long-term postseismic transients from GPS time series in southern California. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 125(4), https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JB018670

**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

Exploring GPS observations of postseismic deformation following the 2012 MW7.8 Haida Gwaii and 2013 MW7.5 Craig, Alaska Earthquakes: Implications for viscoelastic Earth structure

The Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault (QC-FF) system off the coast of British Columbia and southeast Alaska is a highly active dextral strike-slip plate boundary that accommodates ∼50 mm/yr of relative motion between the Pacific and North America plates. Nine MW ≥ 6.7 earthquakes have occurred along the QC-FF system since 1910, including a MS(G-R)8.1 event in 1949. Two recent earthquakes, the Octo
Authors
Katherine A. Guns, Fred Pollitz, Thorne Lay, Han Yue
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Earthquake Hazards Program, Earthquake Science Center

Non-USGS Publications**

Guns, K.A., Bennett, R.A., Blisniuk, K., Walker, A., Hidy, A., & Heimsath, A. (2022). Steady Long-term Slip Rate on the Blue Cut Fault: Implications for Strain Transfer between the San Andreas Fault and Eastern California Shear Zone, Geophysical Research Letters, 49(20), https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100799
Ward, L. A., Guns, K. A., Smith-Konter, B. R., Xu, X., Bock, Y., & Sandwell, D. T. (2022). Vertical postseismic deformation of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 127, e2021JB023331. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB023331
Guns, K.A., Xu, X., Bock, Y., & Sandwell, D. (2022). GNSS-corrected InSAR Displacement Time Series Spanning the 2019 Ridgecrest, CA Earthquakes, Geophysical Journal International, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggac121
Guns, K.A., Bennett, R.A., Spinler, J.C., & McGill, S.F. (2021). New Geodetic Constraints on southern San Andreas Fault slip rates, San Gorgonio Pass, CA. Geosphere, v. 17, https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02239.1
Guns, K.A. & Bennett, R.A. (2020). Assessing long-term postseismic transients from GPS time series in southern California. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 125(4), https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JB018670

**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.