Robert W Graves

Shakemovie animation showing seismic waves emanating from the magnitude 8.8 Kamchatka Peninsula earthquake.

Computer simulation of shaking during the April 14, 2025 M5.2 Julian, CA earthquake. As the waves propagate away from the epicenter they interact with different geologic materials, which can slow down and amplify the shaking.

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, measuring magnitude 6.9, was the strongest to hit the San Francisco Bay Area since the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Although it provided extensive data on ground shaking, the available observations don’t fully capture all the quake's important features. 

This ShakeMovie depicts a computer-generated simulation of the July 4, 2019 M6.4 Ridgecrest, CA earthquake, and is based on a mathematical model of the earthquake faulting process and 3D wave propagation.

This ShakeMovie depicts a computer-generated simulation of the July 5, 2019 M7.1 Ridgecrest, CA earthquake, and is based on a mathematical model of the earthquake faulting process and 3D wave propagation.

This ShakeMovie depicts a computer-generated simulation of the July 5, 2019 M7.1 Ridgecrest, CA earthquake, and is based on a mathematical model of the earthquake faulting process and 3D wave propagation.

At the time of its occurrence, the 1994 Northridge earthquake produced one of the most comprehensive datasets of earthquake ground motion recordings to date. In spite of this, the spatial locations of instrumental observations do not provide sufficient resolution to fully visualize many of the important ground shaking features that occurred during this earthquake.