Katherine (Kate) Scharer
Dr. Scharer holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon and a B.S. in Geological Sciences from the University of Washington.
Prior to coming to the USGS, she was a professor at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Dr. Scharer studies the timing and size of pre-historic earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault and other active faults in southern California, Alaska, and the Dominican Republic. She also investigates the deformation produced by tectonic motion through a combination of field mapping, lidar analysis, and Quaternary geochronologic methods.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 43
Kinematics of fault slip associated with the July 4-6 2019 Ridgecrest, Californai earthquakes sequence
The 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence produced observable crustal deformation over much of central and southern California, as well as surface rupture over several tens of kilometers. To obtain a detailed picture of the fault slip involved in the 4 July M 6.4 foreshock and 6 July M 7.1 mainshock, we combine strong‐motion seismic waveforms with crustal deformation observations to obt
Authors
Fred Pollitz, Jessica R. Murray, Jerry L. Svarc, Charles Wicks, Evelyn Roeloffs, Sarah E. Minson, Katherine Scharer, Katherine J. Kendrick, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Johanna Nevitt, Benjamin A. Brooks, David Mencin
A maximum rupture model for the southern San Andreas and San Jacinto Faults California, derived from paleoseismic earthquake ages: Observations and limitations
Paleoseismic rupture histories provide spatiotemporal models of earthquake moment release needed to test numerical models and lengthen the instrumental catalog. We develop a model of the fewest and thus largest magnitude earthquakes permitted by paleoseismic data for the last 1,500 years on the southern San Andreas and San Jacinto Faults, California, USA. The largest geometric complexity appears t
Authors
Katherine Scharer, Doug Yule
EERI earthquake reconnaissance report: 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence
The Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence began the morning of 4 July 2019 with an M6.4 earthquake at 10:33 a.m., closely following several small foreshocks. The epicenter of this event was roughly 11 miles (18 km) east-northeast of Ridgecrest (Figure 1) within the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS-CL). Seismic and geologic data established that the M6.4 earthquake occurred primarily along a ste
Authors
EERI Learning from Earthquakes Program, Katherine Scharer
Surface displacement distributions for the July 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake ruptures
Surface rupture in the 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence occurred along two orthogonal cross faults and includes dominantly left‐lateral and northeast‐striking rupture in the Mw 6.4 foreshock and dominantly right‐lateral and northwest‐striking rupture in the Mw 7.1 mainshock. We present >650 field‐based, surface‐displacement observations for these ruptures and synthesize our results
Authors
Christopher DuRoss, Ryan D. Gold, Timothy E. Dawson, Katherine Scharer, Katherine J. Kendrick, Sinan Akciz, Stephen J. Angster, Jeffery Bachhuber, Steven Bacon, Scott E. K. Bennett, Luke Blair, Benjamin A. Brooks, Thomas Bullard, W. Paul Burgess, Colin Chupik, Michael DeFrisco, Jaime Delano, James D. Dolan, Erik Frost, Nick Graehl, Elizabeth Haddon, Alexandra Elise Hatem, Janis Hernandez, Christopher S. Hitchcock, Kennth Hudnut, Jessica Thompson Jobe, Richard D Koehler, Ozgur Kozaci, Tyler C. Ladinsky, Christopher Madugo, Devin McPhillips, Christopher Milliner, Alexander Morelan, Brian Olson, Jason Patton, Belle E. Philibosian, Alexandra J. Pickering, Ian Pierce, Daniel J. Ponti, Gordon G. Seitz, Eleanor Spangler, Brian J. Swanson, Kate Thomas, Jerome Treiman, Francesca Valencia, Alana Williams, Robert Zinke
Late Quaternary slip rates on the Sierra Madre fault zone and paleoseismic evidence on the size and frequency of past ruptures
The Sierra Madre fault zone is a south-vergent, active reverse fault that accommodates shortening between basins on the northern margin of the Los Angeles region and the San Gabriel Mountains. The preservation of late Quaternary alluvial fill and fan surfaces in the hanging wall of the fault provides evidence of long-term uplift. Surface rupture from the 1971 Mw 6.6 San Fernando earthquake and evi
Authors
Reed J. Burgette, Katherine Scharer, Scott Lindvall
Airborne lidar and electro-optical imagery along surface ruptures of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence, Southern California
Surface rupture from the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence, initially associated with the M 6.4 foreshock, occurred on July 4 on a ~17 km long, northeast-southwest oriented, left-lateral zone of faulting. Following the M 7.1 mainshock on July 5 (local time), extensive northwest-southeast-oriented, right-lateral faulting was then also mapped along a ~50 km long zone of faults, including sub-paral
Authors
Kenneth W. Hudnut, Benjamin A. Brooks, Katherine M. Scharer, Janis L. Hernandez, Timothy E. Dawson, Michael E. Oskin, J. Ramon Arrowsmith, Christine A. Goulet, Kelly Blake, Matthew A. Boggie, Stephan Bork, Craig L. Glennie, J.C. Fernandez-Diaz, Abhinav Singhania, Darren Hauser, Sven Sorhus
Late Quaternary slip rate of the Central Sierra Madre fault, southern California: Implications for slip partitioning and earthquake hazard
The Sierra Madre fault system accommodates contraction within a large restraining bend area of the San Andreas fault along the northern margin of the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. Reverse slip along this fault system during earthquakes controls growth of the San Gabriel Mountains and poses a significant seismic hazard to the region. Here, we measure the late Quaternary slip
Authors
Reed J. Burgette, Austin Hanson, Katherine Scharer, Tammy M. Rittenour, Devin McPhillips
Preliminary report on engineering and geological effects of the July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence
The Ridgecrest Earthquake sequence included a foreshock event on July 4 2019 (M6.4) and a M7.1 mainshock event on July 5 2019. These events occurred in the Eastern California Shear Zone, near Indian Wells Valley, south of China Lake and west of Searles Valley. GEER has partnered with several organizations to collect perishable data and document the important impacts of these events, including the
Authors
Scott J Brandenberg, Pengfei Wang, Chukwuebuka C Nweke, Kenneth Hudson, Silvia Mazzoni, Yousef Bozorgnia, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Craig A. Davis, Sean K Ahdi, Farzin Zareian, Jawad Fayaz, Richard D Koehler, Colin Chupik, Ian Pierce, Alana Williams, Sinan Akciz, Martin B Hudson, Tadahiro Kishida, Benjamin A. Brooks, Ryan D. Gold, Daniel J. Ponti, Katherine Scharer, Devin McPhillips, Christopher DuRoss, Todd Ericksen, Janis Hernandez, Jay Patton, Brian Olson, Timothy E. Dawson, Jerome Treiman, Kelly Blake, Jeffrey Buchhuber, Chris L M Madugo, Joseph Sun, Andrea Donnellan, Greg Lyzenga, Erik Conway
The current unlikely earthquake hiatus at California’s transform boundary paleoseismic sites
Paleoseismic and historical earthquake records used to quantify earthquake recurrence rates can also be used to test the likelihood of seismically quiescent periods. At principal paleoseismic sites in California on the San Andreas, San Jacinto, Elsinore, and Hayward faults, no ground‐rupturing earthquake has occurred in the last 100 yr, yet this interval is about three times the average interearth
Authors
Glenn Biasi, Katherine Scharer
The San Andreas Fault System--Complexities along a major transform fault system and relation to earthquake hazards
The San Andreas Fault System is a 1300-km-long transform boundary that accommodates motion between the North American and Pacific Plates. New technologies and data reveal rich details about the present configuration of faults, distribution of strain and associated seismic hazard on this complex network of faults. This contribution provides a brief summary of the geologic history of the San Andre
Authors
Katherine Scharer, Ashley Streig
Quantifying uncertainty in cumulative surface slip along the Cucamonga Fault, a crustal thrust fault in southern California
Studies of historic earthquake ground surface ruptures show that displacements along strike are spatially variable. As a result, latest Quaternary slip rates developed from a spatially restricted set of cumulative displacement measurements may not accurately represent fault velocity. Here we examine the uncertainties associated with slip on the Cucamonga Fault, which is part of a network of faults
Authors
Devin McPhillips, Katherine Scharer
Characterizing the Los Angeles Aqueduct crossing of the San Andreas Fault for improved earthquake resilience
The five-mile-long Elizabeth Tunnel, which crosses the San Andreas fault (SAF) zone near Lake Hughes, California, is part of the Los Angeles Aqueduct (LAA) that delivers water from Owens Valley to the City of Los Angeles. Geologic characterization of the Elizabeth Tunnel alignment is focused on developing a better understanding of fault displacement hazards at the SAF crossing to support design of
Authors
Scott Lindvall, Scott Kerwin, Chris Heron, Craig A. Davis, Jeff Tyson, Jim Chestnut, Kevin Mass, Mike Farr, Katherine Scharer, Devin McPhillips
Science and Products
- Science
- Data
- Multimedia
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 43
Kinematics of fault slip associated with the July 4-6 2019 Ridgecrest, Californai earthquakes sequence
The 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence produced observable crustal deformation over much of central and southern California, as well as surface rupture over several tens of kilometers. To obtain a detailed picture of the fault slip involved in the 4 July M 6.4 foreshock and 6 July M 7.1 mainshock, we combine strong‐motion seismic waveforms with crustal deformation observations to obtAuthorsFred Pollitz, Jessica R. Murray, Jerry L. Svarc, Charles Wicks, Evelyn Roeloffs, Sarah E. Minson, Katherine Scharer, Katherine J. Kendrick, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Johanna Nevitt, Benjamin A. Brooks, David MencinA maximum rupture model for the southern San Andreas and San Jacinto Faults California, derived from paleoseismic earthquake ages: Observations and limitations
Paleoseismic rupture histories provide spatiotemporal models of earthquake moment release needed to test numerical models and lengthen the instrumental catalog. We develop a model of the fewest and thus largest magnitude earthquakes permitted by paleoseismic data for the last 1,500 years on the southern San Andreas and San Jacinto Faults, California, USA. The largest geometric complexity appears tAuthorsKatherine Scharer, Doug YuleEERI earthquake reconnaissance report: 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence
The Ridgecrest Earthquake Sequence began the morning of 4 July 2019 with an M6.4 earthquake at 10:33 a.m., closely following several small foreshocks. The epicenter of this event was roughly 11 miles (18 km) east-northeast of Ridgecrest (Figure 1) within the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake (NAWS-CL). Seismic and geologic data established that the M6.4 earthquake occurred primarily along a steAuthorsEERI Learning from Earthquakes Program, Katherine ScharerSurface displacement distributions for the July 2019 Ridgecrest, California earthquake ruptures
Surface rupture in the 2019 Ridgecrest, California, earthquake sequence occurred along two orthogonal cross faults and includes dominantly left‐lateral and northeast‐striking rupture in the Mw 6.4 foreshock and dominantly right‐lateral and northwest‐striking rupture in the Mw 7.1 mainshock. We present >650 field‐based, surface‐displacement observations for these ruptures and synthesize our resultsAuthorsChristopher DuRoss, Ryan D. Gold, Timothy E. Dawson, Katherine Scharer, Katherine J. Kendrick, Sinan Akciz, Stephen J. Angster, Jeffery Bachhuber, Steven Bacon, Scott E. K. Bennett, Luke Blair, Benjamin A. Brooks, Thomas Bullard, W. Paul Burgess, Colin Chupik, Michael DeFrisco, Jaime Delano, James D. Dolan, Erik Frost, Nick Graehl, Elizabeth Haddon, Alexandra Elise Hatem, Janis Hernandez, Christopher S. Hitchcock, Kennth Hudnut, Jessica Thompson Jobe, Richard D Koehler, Ozgur Kozaci, Tyler C. Ladinsky, Christopher Madugo, Devin McPhillips, Christopher Milliner, Alexander Morelan, Brian Olson, Jason Patton, Belle E. Philibosian, Alexandra J. Pickering, Ian Pierce, Daniel J. Ponti, Gordon G. Seitz, Eleanor Spangler, Brian J. Swanson, Kate Thomas, Jerome Treiman, Francesca Valencia, Alana Williams, Robert ZinkeLate Quaternary slip rates on the Sierra Madre fault zone and paleoseismic evidence on the size and frequency of past ruptures
The Sierra Madre fault zone is a south-vergent, active reverse fault that accommodates shortening between basins on the northern margin of the Los Angeles region and the San Gabriel Mountains. The preservation of late Quaternary alluvial fill and fan surfaces in the hanging wall of the fault provides evidence of long-term uplift. Surface rupture from the 1971 Mw 6.6 San Fernando earthquake and eviAuthorsReed J. Burgette, Katherine Scharer, Scott LindvallAirborne lidar and electro-optical imagery along surface ruptures of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence, Southern California
Surface rupture from the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence, initially associated with the M 6.4 foreshock, occurred on July 4 on a ~17 km long, northeast-southwest oriented, left-lateral zone of faulting. Following the M 7.1 mainshock on July 5 (local time), extensive northwest-southeast-oriented, right-lateral faulting was then also mapped along a ~50 km long zone of faults, including sub-paralAuthorsKenneth W. Hudnut, Benjamin A. Brooks, Katherine M. Scharer, Janis L. Hernandez, Timothy E. Dawson, Michael E. Oskin, J. Ramon Arrowsmith, Christine A. Goulet, Kelly Blake, Matthew A. Boggie, Stephan Bork, Craig L. Glennie, J.C. Fernandez-Diaz, Abhinav Singhania, Darren Hauser, Sven SorhusLate Quaternary slip rate of the Central Sierra Madre fault, southern California: Implications for slip partitioning and earthquake hazard
The Sierra Madre fault system accommodates contraction within a large restraining bend area of the San Andreas fault along the northern margin of the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. Reverse slip along this fault system during earthquakes controls growth of the San Gabriel Mountains and poses a significant seismic hazard to the region. Here, we measure the late Quaternary slipAuthorsReed J. Burgette, Austin Hanson, Katherine Scharer, Tammy M. Rittenour, Devin McPhillipsPreliminary report on engineering and geological effects of the July 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence
The Ridgecrest Earthquake sequence included a foreshock event on July 4 2019 (M6.4) and a M7.1 mainshock event on July 5 2019. These events occurred in the Eastern California Shear Zone, near Indian Wells Valley, south of China Lake and west of Searles Valley. GEER has partnered with several organizations to collect perishable data and document the important impacts of these events, including theAuthorsScott J Brandenberg, Pengfei Wang, Chukwuebuka C Nweke, Kenneth Hudson, Silvia Mazzoni, Yousef Bozorgnia, Kenneth W. Hudnut, Craig A. Davis, Sean K Ahdi, Farzin Zareian, Jawad Fayaz, Richard D Koehler, Colin Chupik, Ian Pierce, Alana Williams, Sinan Akciz, Martin B Hudson, Tadahiro Kishida, Benjamin A. Brooks, Ryan D. Gold, Daniel J. Ponti, Katherine Scharer, Devin McPhillips, Christopher DuRoss, Todd Ericksen, Janis Hernandez, Jay Patton, Brian Olson, Timothy E. Dawson, Jerome Treiman, Kelly Blake, Jeffrey Buchhuber, Chris L M Madugo, Joseph Sun, Andrea Donnellan, Greg Lyzenga, Erik ConwayThe current unlikely earthquake hiatus at California’s transform boundary paleoseismic sites
Paleoseismic and historical earthquake records used to quantify earthquake recurrence rates can also be used to test the likelihood of seismically quiescent periods. At principal paleoseismic sites in California on the San Andreas, San Jacinto, Elsinore, and Hayward faults, no ground‐rupturing earthquake has occurred in the last 100 yr, yet this interval is about three times the average interearthAuthorsGlenn Biasi, Katherine ScharerThe San Andreas Fault System--Complexities along a major transform fault system and relation to earthquake hazards
The San Andreas Fault System is a 1300-km-long transform boundary that accommodates motion between the North American and Pacific Plates. New technologies and data reveal rich details about the present configuration of faults, distribution of strain and associated seismic hazard on this complex network of faults. This contribution provides a brief summary of the geologic history of the San AndreAuthorsKatherine Scharer, Ashley StreigQuantifying uncertainty in cumulative surface slip along the Cucamonga Fault, a crustal thrust fault in southern California
Studies of historic earthquake ground surface ruptures show that displacements along strike are spatially variable. As a result, latest Quaternary slip rates developed from a spatially restricted set of cumulative displacement measurements may not accurately represent fault velocity. Here we examine the uncertainties associated with slip on the Cucamonga Fault, which is part of a network of faultsAuthorsDevin McPhillips, Katherine ScharerCharacterizing the Los Angeles Aqueduct crossing of the San Andreas Fault for improved earthquake resilience
The five-mile-long Elizabeth Tunnel, which crosses the San Andreas fault (SAF) zone near Lake Hughes, California, is part of the Los Angeles Aqueduct (LAA) that delivers water from Owens Valley to the City of Los Angeles. Geologic characterization of the Elizabeth Tunnel alignment is focused on developing a better understanding of fault displacement hazards at the SAF crossing to support design ofAuthorsScott Lindvall, Scott Kerwin, Chris Heron, Craig A. Davis, Jeff Tyson, Jim Chestnut, Kevin Mass, Mike Farr, Katherine Scharer, Devin McPhillips - Software