Peter M Powers, PhD
I am a research and development geophysicist specializing in probabilisitic seismic hazard analysis.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 14
nshm-fault-sections nshm-fault-sections
A repository of all geologic fault section data included in USGS National Seismic Hazard Models
Shakemap earthquake scenario: Building Seismic Safety Council 2014 Event Set (BSSC2014) Shakemap earthquake scenario: Building Seismic Safety Council 2014 Event Set (BSSC2014)
This is a catalog of earthquake scenarios, represented as ShakeMaps. A ShakeMap is a USGS product that facilitates communication of earthquake effects by portraying a map of the severity of shaking. Maps of shaking severity are provided in terms of macroseismic intensity, peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, and spectral accelerations (at 0.3, 1.0 and 3 sec oscillator periods)...
Filter Total Items: 41
Ground motion and seismic hazard in the central and eastern United States Ground motion and seismic hazard in the central and eastern United States
This report describes work carried out under the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Interagency Agreement to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) “Research to Support NRC’s Seismic Hazard Analyses” for Task 3, “Seismic Hazard and Ground Motion Models.” The focus of this work has been on evaluation of the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA)-East groundmotion models (GMMs) with available...
Authors
Morgan P. Moschetti, Eric M. Thompson, Oliver S. Boyd, Davis T. Engler, Bruce Worden, Gabriel Christian Ferragut, Sanaz Rezaeian, Peter M. Powers
Magnitude conversion and earthquake recurrence rate models for the central and eastern United States Magnitude conversion and earthquake recurrence rate models for the central and eastern United States
Development of Seismic Source Characterization (SSC) models, which is an essential part of Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analyses (PSHA), can help forecast the temporal and spatial distribution of future damaging earthquakes (𝑀w≥ 5) in seismically active regions. Because it is impossible to associate all earthquakes with known faults, seismic source models for PSHA often include sources...
Authors
Rasool Anooshehpoor, Thomas Weaver, Jon Ake, Cliff Munson, Morgan P. Moschetti, David R. Shelly, Peter M. Powers
Western U.S. deformation models for the 2023 update to the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model Western U.S. deformation models for the 2023 update to the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model
This report describes geodetic and geologic information used to constrain deformation models of the 2023 update to the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM), a set of deformation models to interpret these data, and their implications for earthquake rates in the western United States. Recent updates provide a much larger data set of Global Positioning System crustal velocities than used in...
Authors
Frederick Pollitz, Eileen L. Evans, Edward H. Field, Alexandra Elise Hatem, Elizabeth H. Hearn, Kaj M Johnson, Jessica R. Murray, Peter M. Powers, Zheng-Kang Shen, Crystal Wespestad, Yuehua Zeng
Simplifying complex fault data for systems-level analysis: Earthquake geology inputs for U.S. NSHM 2023 Simplifying complex fault data for systems-level analysis: Earthquake geology inputs for U.S. NSHM 2023
As part of the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) update planned for 2023, two databases were prepared to more completely represent Quaternary-active faulting across the western United States: the NSHM23 fault sections database (FSD) and earthquake geology database (EQGeoDB). In prior iterations of NSHM, fault sections were included only if a field-measurement-derived slip rate...
Authors
Alexandra Elise Hatem, Camille Marie Collett, Richard W. Briggs, Ryan D. Gold, Stephen J. Angster, Edward H. Field, Peter M. Powers
2021 U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model for the State of Hawaii 2021 U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model for the State of Hawaii
The 2021 U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) for the State of Hawaii updates the two-decades-old former model by incorporating new data and modeling techniques to improve the underlying ground shaking forecasts of tectonic-fault, tectonic-flexure, volcanic, and caldera collapse earthquakes. Two earthquake ground shaking hazard models (public policy and research) are produced that...
Authors
Mark D. Petersen, Allison M. Shumway, Peter M. Powers, Morgan P. Moschetti, Andrea L. Llenos, Andrew J. Michael, Charles Mueller, Arthur D. Frankel, Sanaz Rezaeian, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Daniel E. McNamara, P. Okubo, Yuehua Zeng, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Sean Kamran Ahdi, Jason M. Altekruse, Brian Shiro
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Ground motion models in the western US The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Ground motion models in the western US
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) is the scientific foundation of seismic design regulations in the United States and is regularly updated to consider the best available science and data. The 2018 update of the conterminous U.S. NSHM includes significant changes to the underlying ground motion models (GMMs), most of which are necessary to enable the...
Authors
Peter M. Powers, Sanaz Rezaeian, Allison M. Shumway, Mark D. Petersen, Nico Luco, Oliver S. Boyd, Morgan P. Moschetti, Arthur D. Frankel, Eric M. Thompson
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Ground motion models in the central and eastern US The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Ground motion models in the central and eastern US
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) is the scientific foundation of seismic design regulations in the United States and is regularly updated to consider the best available science and data. The 2018 update of the conterminous US NSHM includes major changes to the underlying ground motion models (GMMs). Most of the changes are motivated by the...
Authors
Sanaz Rezaeian, Peter M. Powers, Allison M. Shumway, Mark D. Petersen, Nico Luco, Arthur D. Frankel, Morgan P. Moschetti, Eric M. Thompson, Daniel McNamara
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Where, why, and how much probabilistic ground motion maps changed The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Where, why, and how much probabilistic ground motion maps changed
The 2018 US Geological Survey National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) incorporates new data and updated science to improve the underlying earthquake and ground motion forecasts for the conterminous United States. The NSHM considers many new data and component input models: (1) new earthquakes between 2013 and 2017 and updated earthquake magnitudes for some earlier earthquakes; (2) two...
Authors
Mark D. Petersen, Allison M. Shumway, Peter M. Powers, Charles S Mueller, Morgan P. Moschetti, Arthur D. Frankel, Sanaz Rezaeian, Daniel McNamara, Nico Luco, Oliver S. Boyd, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Eric M. Thompson, Susan M. Hoover, Brandon S. Clayton, Edward H. Field, Yuehua Zeng
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Additional period and site class data The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Additional period and site class data
As part of the update of the 2018 National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) for the conterminous United States (CONUS), new ground motion and site effect models for the central and eastern United States were incorporated, as well as basin depths from local seismic velocity models in four western US (WUS) urban areas. These additions allow us, for the first time, to calculate probabilistic...
Authors
Allison M. Shumway, Mark D. Petersen, Peter M. Powers, Sanaz Rezaeian, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Brandon S. Clayton
Evaluation of ground‐motion models for U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard forecasts: Hawaii tectonic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions Evaluation of ground‐motion models for U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard forecasts: Hawaii tectonic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
The selection and weighting of ground‐motion models (GMMs) introduces a significant source of uncertainty in U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Modeling Project (NSHMP) forecasts. In this study, we evaluate 18 candidate GMMs using instrumental ground‐motion observations of horizontal peak ground acceleration (PGA) and 5%‐damped pseudospectral acceleration (0.02–10 s)...
Authors
Daniel E. McNamara, Emily Wolin, Peter M. Powers, Allison M. Shumway, Morgan P. Moschetti, John Rekoske, Eric M. Thompson, Charles Mueller, Mark D. Petersen
Evaluation of ground‐motion models for U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard models: 2018 Anchorage, Alaska, Mw 7.1 subduction zone earthquake sequence Evaluation of ground‐motion models for U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard models: 2018 Anchorage, Alaska, Mw 7.1 subduction zone earthquake sequence
Instrumental ground‐motion recordings from the 2018 Anchorage, Alaska (Mw 7.1), earthquake sequence provide an independent data set allowing us to evaluate the predictive power of ground‐motion models (GMMs) for intraslab earthquakes associated with the Alaska subduction zone. In this study, we evaluate 15 candidate GMMs using instrumental ground‐motion observations of peak ground...
Authors
Daniel E. McNamara, Emily Wolin, Peter M. Powers, Allison M. Shumway, Morgan P. Moschetti, John Rekoske, Eric M. Thompson, Charles Mueller, Mark D. Petersen
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Overview of model and implications The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Overview of model and implications
During 2017–2018, the National Seismic Hazard Model for the conterminous United States was updated as follows: (1) an updated seismicity catalog was incorporated, which includes new earthquakes that occurred from 2013 to 2017; (2) in the central and eastern United States (CEUS), new ground motion models were updated that incorporate updated median estimates, modified assessments of the...
Authors
Mark D. Petersen, Allison M. Shumway, Peter M. Powers, Charles Mueller, Morgan P. Moschetti, Arthur D. Frankel, Sanaz Rezaeian, Daniel E. McNamara, Nico Luco, Oliver S. Boyd, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Eric M. Thompson, Susan M. Hoover, Brandon S. Clayton, Edward H. Field, Yuehua Zeng
New USGS map shows where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur in US New USGS map shows where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur in US
USGS scientists and our partners recently revealed the latest National Seismic Hazard Model, showing that nearly 75% of the United States could experience a damaging earthquake, emphasizing seismic hazards span a significant part of the country.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 14
nshm-fault-sections nshm-fault-sections
A repository of all geologic fault section data included in USGS National Seismic Hazard Models
Shakemap earthquake scenario: Building Seismic Safety Council 2014 Event Set (BSSC2014) Shakemap earthquake scenario: Building Seismic Safety Council 2014 Event Set (BSSC2014)
This is a catalog of earthquake scenarios, represented as ShakeMaps. A ShakeMap is a USGS product that facilitates communication of earthquake effects by portraying a map of the severity of shaking. Maps of shaking severity are provided in terms of macroseismic intensity, peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity, and spectral accelerations (at 0.3, 1.0 and 3 sec oscillator periods)...
Filter Total Items: 41
Ground motion and seismic hazard in the central and eastern United States Ground motion and seismic hazard in the central and eastern United States
This report describes work carried out under the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Interagency Agreement to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) “Research to Support NRC’s Seismic Hazard Analyses” for Task 3, “Seismic Hazard and Ground Motion Models.” The focus of this work has been on evaluation of the Next Generation Attenuation (NGA)-East groundmotion models (GMMs) with available...
Authors
Morgan P. Moschetti, Eric M. Thompson, Oliver S. Boyd, Davis T. Engler, Bruce Worden, Gabriel Christian Ferragut, Sanaz Rezaeian, Peter M. Powers
Magnitude conversion and earthquake recurrence rate models for the central and eastern United States Magnitude conversion and earthquake recurrence rate models for the central and eastern United States
Development of Seismic Source Characterization (SSC) models, which is an essential part of Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analyses (PSHA), can help forecast the temporal and spatial distribution of future damaging earthquakes (𝑀w≥ 5) in seismically active regions. Because it is impossible to associate all earthquakes with known faults, seismic source models for PSHA often include sources...
Authors
Rasool Anooshehpoor, Thomas Weaver, Jon Ake, Cliff Munson, Morgan P. Moschetti, David R. Shelly, Peter M. Powers
Western U.S. deformation models for the 2023 update to the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model Western U.S. deformation models for the 2023 update to the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model
This report describes geodetic and geologic information used to constrain deformation models of the 2023 update to the National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM), a set of deformation models to interpret these data, and their implications for earthquake rates in the western United States. Recent updates provide a much larger data set of Global Positioning System crustal velocities than used in...
Authors
Frederick Pollitz, Eileen L. Evans, Edward H. Field, Alexandra Elise Hatem, Elizabeth H. Hearn, Kaj M Johnson, Jessica R. Murray, Peter M. Powers, Zheng-Kang Shen, Crystal Wespestad, Yuehua Zeng
Simplifying complex fault data for systems-level analysis: Earthquake geology inputs for U.S. NSHM 2023 Simplifying complex fault data for systems-level analysis: Earthquake geology inputs for U.S. NSHM 2023
As part of the U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) update planned for 2023, two databases were prepared to more completely represent Quaternary-active faulting across the western United States: the NSHM23 fault sections database (FSD) and earthquake geology database (EQGeoDB). In prior iterations of NSHM, fault sections were included only if a field-measurement-derived slip rate...
Authors
Alexandra Elise Hatem, Camille Marie Collett, Richard W. Briggs, Ryan D. Gold, Stephen J. Angster, Edward H. Field, Peter M. Powers
2021 U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model for the State of Hawaii 2021 U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model for the State of Hawaii
The 2021 U.S. National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) for the State of Hawaii updates the two-decades-old former model by incorporating new data and modeling techniques to improve the underlying ground shaking forecasts of tectonic-fault, tectonic-flexure, volcanic, and caldera collapse earthquakes. Two earthquake ground shaking hazard models (public policy and research) are produced that...
Authors
Mark D. Petersen, Allison M. Shumway, Peter M. Powers, Morgan P. Moschetti, Andrea L. Llenos, Andrew J. Michael, Charles Mueller, Arthur D. Frankel, Sanaz Rezaeian, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Daniel E. McNamara, P. Okubo, Yuehua Zeng, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Sean Kamran Ahdi, Jason M. Altekruse, Brian Shiro
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Ground motion models in the western US The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Ground motion models in the western US
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) is the scientific foundation of seismic design regulations in the United States and is regularly updated to consider the best available science and data. The 2018 update of the conterminous U.S. NSHM includes significant changes to the underlying ground motion models (GMMs), most of which are necessary to enable the...
Authors
Peter M. Powers, Sanaz Rezaeian, Allison M. Shumway, Mark D. Petersen, Nico Luco, Oliver S. Boyd, Morgan P. Moschetti, Arthur D. Frankel, Eric M. Thompson
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Ground motion models in the central and eastern US The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Ground motion models in the central and eastern US
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) is the scientific foundation of seismic design regulations in the United States and is regularly updated to consider the best available science and data. The 2018 update of the conterminous US NSHM includes major changes to the underlying ground motion models (GMMs). Most of the changes are motivated by the...
Authors
Sanaz Rezaeian, Peter M. Powers, Allison M. Shumway, Mark D. Petersen, Nico Luco, Arthur D. Frankel, Morgan P. Moschetti, Eric M. Thompson, Daniel McNamara
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Where, why, and how much probabilistic ground motion maps changed The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Where, why, and how much probabilistic ground motion maps changed
The 2018 US Geological Survey National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) incorporates new data and updated science to improve the underlying earthquake and ground motion forecasts for the conterminous United States. The NSHM considers many new data and component input models: (1) new earthquakes between 2013 and 2017 and updated earthquake magnitudes for some earlier earthquakes; (2) two...
Authors
Mark D. Petersen, Allison M. Shumway, Peter M. Powers, Charles S Mueller, Morgan P. Moschetti, Arthur D. Frankel, Sanaz Rezaeian, Daniel McNamara, Nico Luco, Oliver S. Boyd, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Eric M. Thompson, Susan M. Hoover, Brandon S. Clayton, Edward H. Field, Yuehua Zeng
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Additional period and site class data The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Additional period and site class data
As part of the update of the 2018 National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) for the conterminous United States (CONUS), new ground motion and site effect models for the central and eastern United States were incorporated, as well as basin depths from local seismic velocity models in four western US (WUS) urban areas. These additions allow us, for the first time, to calculate probabilistic...
Authors
Allison M. Shumway, Mark D. Petersen, Peter M. Powers, Sanaz Rezaeian, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Brandon S. Clayton
Evaluation of ground‐motion models for U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard forecasts: Hawaii tectonic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions Evaluation of ground‐motion models for U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard forecasts: Hawaii tectonic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
The selection and weighting of ground‐motion models (GMMs) introduces a significant source of uncertainty in U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Modeling Project (NSHMP) forecasts. In this study, we evaluate 18 candidate GMMs using instrumental ground‐motion observations of horizontal peak ground acceleration (PGA) and 5%‐damped pseudospectral acceleration (0.02–10 s)...
Authors
Daniel E. McNamara, Emily Wolin, Peter M. Powers, Allison M. Shumway, Morgan P. Moschetti, John Rekoske, Eric M. Thompson, Charles Mueller, Mark D. Petersen
Evaluation of ground‐motion models for U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard models: 2018 Anchorage, Alaska, Mw 7.1 subduction zone earthquake sequence Evaluation of ground‐motion models for U.S. Geological Survey seismic hazard models: 2018 Anchorage, Alaska, Mw 7.1 subduction zone earthquake sequence
Instrumental ground‐motion recordings from the 2018 Anchorage, Alaska (Mw 7.1), earthquake sequence provide an independent data set allowing us to evaluate the predictive power of ground‐motion models (GMMs) for intraslab earthquakes associated with the Alaska subduction zone. In this study, we evaluate 15 candidate GMMs using instrumental ground‐motion observations of peak ground...
Authors
Daniel E. McNamara, Emily Wolin, Peter M. Powers, Allison M. Shumway, Morgan P. Moschetti, John Rekoske, Eric M. Thompson, Charles Mueller, Mark D. Petersen
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Overview of model and implications The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Overview of model and implications
During 2017–2018, the National Seismic Hazard Model for the conterminous United States was updated as follows: (1) an updated seismicity catalog was incorporated, which includes new earthquakes that occurred from 2013 to 2017; (2) in the central and eastern United States (CEUS), new ground motion models were updated that incorporate updated median estimates, modified assessments of the...
Authors
Mark D. Petersen, Allison M. Shumway, Peter M. Powers, Charles Mueller, Morgan P. Moschetti, Arthur D. Frankel, Sanaz Rezaeian, Daniel E. McNamara, Nico Luco, Oliver S. Boyd, Kenneth S. Rukstales, Kishor S. Jaiswal, Eric M. Thompson, Susan M. Hoover, Brandon S. Clayton, Edward H. Field, Yuehua Zeng
New USGS map shows where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur in US New USGS map shows where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur in US
USGS scientists and our partners recently revealed the latest National Seismic Hazard Model, showing that nearly 75% of the United States could experience a damaging earthquake, emphasizing seismic hazards span a significant part of the country.