Uri ten Brink
My research focuses on quantifying tectonic and morphological processes and their impacts on the assessments of tsunami, landslide, and earthquake hazards. I am also interested in bridging gaps between disciplines in Earth Sciences. I am the project chief of the USGS Marine Geohazards: Sources and probability project and in charge of the USGS ocean bottom seismometers.
Biography
EDUCATION
- 1981-1986 Ph.D. Geological Sciences Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
- 1977-1980 B.Sc. Geology and Physics, The Hebrew University, Israel
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
- 1991-present Research geophysicist, USGS, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
- 2015-2019 Editor in Chief, Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth
- 1999-present Adjunct Scientist, The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- 2013-2016 Professor and Chairman, Department of Marine Geosciences, University of Haifa
- 2016-present Affiliate Professor, University of Haifa
- 1991-1996 Consulting Associate Professor, Stanford University
- 1987-1991 Post-doctoral scholar, Stanford University
- 1986-1987 Post-doctoral scholar, Tel Aviv University
OTHER ACADEMIC SERVICES
- Chairman, U.S.-Israel Bi-National Science Foundation panel for Earth and Atmospheric sciences, 2015
- Member - Netherlands Science Foundation panel on Caribbean natural and social sciences, 2014
- Member, ITU-WMO-UNESCO/IOC Joint Task Force on Submarine Cables for Tsunami Warnings and Scientific Research, 2013
- Co-convenor, Workshop on landslide tsunami probability, 2011
- Member, NSF panel evaluating the management structure of the ocean bottom seismometer facilities, 2011
- Guest editor- Marine Geology "Assessment of tsunami hazards to the U.S. Atlantic coast", 2009
- Member, IODP evaluation panel for multi-leg ‘mission’ proposals, 2007
- Leader- Reports and Presentations about tsunami hazard in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts to Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NOAA NTHMP, FEMA, NOAA Weather service, National Research Council, 2006 - 2016
- Associate Editor - Terra Nova, 2007 - 2012
- USGS representative to the National Association of State Boards of Geology, 2004-2007
- Member, NSF-MARGINS Steering Committee, 2004-2007
- Associate Editor, Journal of Geophysical Research, 1996 - 1998
- Member, Ocean Drilling Program Tectonics Panel, 1992-1996
- Search committee member for an editor for the journal Tectonics, 1995
- Tectonophysics Section chairman and organizing committee member, Fall AGU meeting, 1994
- Tectonophysics Section member and organizing committee member, Fall AGU meeting, 1993
- Member, Advisory committee on the Antarctic Lithosphere to OPP, NSF, 1990 – 1994
MENTORING
Advisor for 3 Ph.D. students and 1 M.Sc. student at the University of Haifa. Partial advisor for eight Ph.D. students and an M.Sc. student from Stanford University, MIT, MIT/WHOI Joint Program, Columbia University, the University of Madrid, and the University of Haifa. Ph.D. Committee member for additional five students from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program and from Tel Aviv University. Supervisor/co-supervisor of eleven post-doctoral fellows funded by the joint WHOI/USGS, Helmsley Foundation, and USGS Mendenhall programs. Supervisor of one Fulbright Scholar and undergraduate projects
FIELD EXPERIENCE
- 41 cruises (26 as chief scientist)
- 3 over-ice land traverses, Antarctica (co-chief scientist)
- 4 Airborne magnetic, land gravity, and land seismic surveys (co-chief scientist)
HONORS, AWARDS, RECOGNITION, ELECTED MEMBERSHIPS
- 2016 – Fellow, American Geophysical Union
- 2010 – Senior Scientist (ST), Federal government
- 2007/8 – Distinguished Lecturer – Seismological Society of America/ IRIS
- 1996 - Fellow, Geological Society of America
- 1990 - Royal Society of New Zealand annual prize for Geophysics
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Quantifying tectonic processses
Quantifying morphological processes
Glaciated continental shelves
- Cooper, A.K., S. Eittreim, U.S. ten Brink, and I. Zayatz, Cenozoic Glacial sequences of the Antarctic Continental margin as recorders of Antarctic ice-sheet fluctuations, in The Antarctic Paleoenvironment: A perspective on global change, Antarctic Research Series, v. 60, Edited by J. Kennett, American Geophys. Union, pp. 75-89, 1993.
- ten Brink, U., Tectonic subsidence and the stratigraphy of the Antarctic continental margins and intracontinental basins, Terra Antarctica, v. 1, pp. 255-257, 1994.
- ten Brink, U., and C. Schneider, Glacial morphology and depositional sequences of the Antarctic continental shelf, Geology, v. 23, pp. 580-584, 1995.
- ten Brink, U., C. Schneider, and A.H. Johnson, Morphology and stratal geometry the Antarctic continental shelf: Insights from models, in Geology and seismic stratigraphy of the Antarctic margin, Antarctic Research Series, v. 68, Edited by A. Cooper, P. Barker, and J. Brancollini, American Geophysical Union, Washington, pp. 1-24, 1995.
Sediment compaction
- Meckel, T.A., ten Brink, U.S., and Williams, S.J., Estimating present compaction rates in coastal deltaic environments - numerical methods and stratigraphic influences, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L11403, doi:10.1029 /2006GL26300, 2006.
- Meckel, T.A., ten Brink, U.S., and Williams, S.J., Sediment compaction rates and subsidence in deltatic plains: numerical constraints and stratigraphic influences, Basin Research, 19, 19-31, 2007.
Atlantic margin morphology, canyon formation and landslide initiation
- Chaytor, J. D., ten Brink, U. S., Solow, A. R., and Andrews, B. D., Size distribution of submarine landslides along the U.S. Atlantic Margin, Marine Geology, v. 264, no. 1-2, p. 16-27, 2009.
- Locat, J., H.J. Lee, U. ten Brink, D. Twichell, E. Geist and M. Sansoucy, Geomorphology, Stability and Mobility of the Currituck Slide, Marine Geology, v. 264, no. 1-2, p. 28-40, 2009.
- Twichell, D.C., J.D. Chaytor, U.S. ten Brink, and B. Buczkowski, Morphology of late Quaternary Submarine Landslides along the U.S. Atlantic Continental Margin, Marine Geology, v. 264, no. 1-2, p. 4-15, 2009.
- Brothers, D.S., ten Brink, U.S., Andrews, B.D., Chaytor, J.D., and Twichell, D.C., Geomorphic process fingerprints in submarine canyons, Marine Geology, v. 337, p. 53-66, 2013.
- Brothers, D.D., ten Brink, U.S., Andrews, B.D., and Chaytor, J.D., Geomorphic characterization of the U.S. Atlantic continental margin, Marine Geology, v. 338, p. 46-63, 2013.
- Andrews, B.D., Chaytor, J.D., ten Brink, U.S., Brothers, D.S., and Gardner, J.V., 2013, Bathymetric terrain model of the Atlantic margin for marine geological investigations: USGS Open-File Report 2012–1266, 11 p., http:/pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1266/.
- Obelcz, J., Brothers, D., Chaytor, J., ten Brink, U., Ross, S.W., and Brooke, S., Geomorphic characterization of four shelf-sourced submarine canyons along the U.S.Mid-Atlantic continental margin, Deep-Sea Research II, v. 104, p. 106-119, 2014.
- Hill, J.C., D.S. Brothers, B.K. Craig, U.S. ten Brink, J.D. Chaytor, and C.H. Flores, The Role of antecedent geology in submarine slope failure: An examination of the Currituck Slide Complex, U.S. Atlantic Margin, Marine Geology, 2016.
Caribbean
- Chaytor, J.D., and ten Brink, U.S., Event sedimentation in low-latitude deep-water carbonate basins, Anegada passage, northeast Caribbean, Basin Research, p. 1-26, 2014.
- Andrews, B.D., U.S. ten Brink, W.W. Danforth, J.D. Chaytor,, J-L Granja-Bruna, P. Llanes Estrada, and A. Carbo-Gorosobel, Bathymetric terrain model of the Puerto Rico Trench and Northeast Caribbean for marine geological investigations, USGS Open-file report 2013-1125, 2014 http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1125/
Submarine slope failures
- ten Brink, U.S., R. Barkan, B.D. Andrews, and J.D. Chaytor, Size distributions and failure initiation of submarine and subaerial landslides, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 287, pp. 31-42, 2009.
- ten Brink, U. S., Andrews, B. D., & Miller, N. C., 2016. Seismicity and sedimentation rate effects on submarine slope stability. Geology, 44, 563-566.
Processing and modeling seismic reflection and refraction data
- Beaudoin, B.C., U.S. ten Brink, and T.A. Stern, Characteristics and processing of seismic data collected on thick, floating ice: Results from the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, Geophysics, v. 57, pp. 1359-1372, 1992.
- Zhang, J., U.S. ten Brink, and M.N. Toksoz, Non-linear refraction and reflection travel time tomography: Application to the crustal structure of the California Borderland, J. Geophys. Res., v. 103, pp. 29,743-29,757, 1998.
- Loss, J., U. ten Brink, and I. Pecher, RayGui - A graphical 2-D ray-tracing interface for UNIX, EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 79, no. 28, p. 334, 1998.
- Loss, J., I. Pecher, and U. ten Brink, RayGUI - a graphical 2-D ray-tracing package for UNIX, USGS Open-File Report 98-203, 1998.
- Song, J., and ten Brink, U.S., Graphical user interface (RayGUI 2.0) for interactive seismic ray tracing, EOS, v. 86, no. 9, p. 90, 2005.
- Song, J. and U. ten Brink, RayGUI 2.0-A Graphical User Interface for Interactive Forward and Inversion Ray-Tracing, USGS Open-File Report 2004-1426, 2004.
Electronic Media
Podcast Title: Science in the Middle East New York Academy of Sciences - Science and the City. June 20, 2008 Format: MP3, 11.8 MByte Running Time: 00:25:08
Webinars Lecture Title: Size Distribution of Submarine Landslides and Its Implication to Tsunami Hazards Offshore Geohazard University Running Time: 00:12:00 http://www.offshoregeohazards.org/ogu/webinars/Size_Distribution_Submarine_Landslides_Implication/player.html
Lecture Title: Assessing Tsunami Hazards to U.S. East Coast Using Relationships Between Submarine Landslides and Earthquakes Offshore Geohazard University Running Time: 00:21:30 http://www.offshoregeohazards.org/ogu/webinars/Assessing_Tsunami_Hazard_US/player.html
Lecture Title: Deformation of the Pacific-North-American plate boundary at queen Charlotte Fault: The possible role of rheology USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Seminars, October 2017.Running Time: 00:45:00 https://earthquake.usgs.gov/contactus/menlo/seminars/1100
Educational Film
Title: The Puerto Rico Trench: Exploring the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean 14-minute educational film about sea floor mapping and tsunami and earthquake hazards, 2004, by Joram ten Brink For a DVD copy of the movie, please contact: Dr. Uri ten Brink , U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole Science Center 384 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543 1-508-457-2396; utenbrink@usgs.gov
Science and Products
Tectonic Processes
Geophysical research utilizes analytical and numerical tools to quantify tectonic processes. Basic geophysical research lays the ground for understanding of Earth processes, which affect natural hazards and resource estimation.
Significant Earthquakes on a major fault system in Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Lesser Antilles, 1500–2010: Implications for Seismic Hazard
Earthquakes have been documented in the northeastern Caribbean since the arrival of Columbus to the Americas; written accounts of these felt earthquakes exist in various parts of the world. To better understand the earthquake cycle in the Caribbean, the records of earthquakes in earlier catalogs and historical documents from various archives, which are now available online, were critically...
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies- Models
The Puerto Rico trench exhibits great water depth, extremely low gravity anomaly, and a tilted carbonate platform between (reconstructed) elevations of +1300 m and -4000 m. we suggest that these features are manifestations of large vertical movements of a segment of the Puerto Rico Trench, its forearc, and the island of Puerto Rico that took place 3.3 m.y. ago over a time period as short as 14...
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies-Tsunami Potential
Newly-acquired multibeam bathymetry of the entire Puerto Rico trench reveals numerous retrograde slope failures at various scales at the edge of the carbonate platform north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The slumped material comprises carbonate blocks, which are cohesive and the edge of the carbonate platform is steeper than most continental slopes, resulting in a higher potential...
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies- Stress Changes and Earthquake Hazard
Strike-slip faults in the forearc region of a subduction zone often present significant seismic hazard because of their proximity to population centers. We explore the interaction between thrust events on the subduction interface and strike-slip faults within the forearc region using 3-D models of static Coulomb stress change.
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies- Seafloor Map
To help understand the origin of the unusual bathymetry, gravity, and vertical tectonics of the plate boundary and to provide constraints for hazard assessment, the morphology of the entire 770-km-long trench from the Dominican Republic in the west to Anguilla in the east was mapped with multibeam echosounder during three cruises in 2002 and 2003. Parts of the Puerto Rico Trench were...
Caribbean Tsunami and Earthquake Hazards Studies
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are located at an active plate boundary between the North American plate and the northeast corner of the Caribbean plate. Plate movements have caused large magnitude earthquakes and devastating tsunamis. The USGS has an ongoing program to identify and map the faults in this region using various geophysical and geological methods in order to estimate the...
Peace and Science in the Middle East
This project is complete and the website is archived and no longer updated.
The ancient cultures of the Middle East and the modern political conflicts there are shaped by a surprisingly diverse and youthful landscape. The landscape of the region is dominated by a narrow elongate...
Coastal TopographyAnegada, British Virgin Islands, 2014
A digital elevation model (DEM) mosaic was produced for Anegada, British Virgin Islands, from remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements collected by Watershed Sciences, Inc. (WSI)/Quantum Spatial using an Optech Orion M300 (1064-nm wavelength) lidar sensor on January 21, 2014.
Semi-automated bathymetric spectral decomposition delineates the impact of mass wasting on the morphological evolution of the continental slope, offshore Israel
Understanding continental slope morphological evolution is essential for predicting depositional systems and reservoirs in the adjacent basin. However, present-day slope seafloor-morphology is complicated by shaping processes, which are not readily separable through pure bathymetric analysis. This study aims to explore the utility of bathymetric...
Godol Omri; Tibor, Gideon; ten Brink, Uri S.; Hall, John K.; Groves‐Gidney, Gavrielle ; Bar-Am, Gideon; Hubscher, Christian; Makovsky, Yizhaq Offshore landslide hazard curves from mapped landslide size distributions
We present a method to calculate landslide hazard curves along offshore margins based on size distributions of submarine landslides. The method analyzes ten different continental margins, that were mapped by high-resolution multibeam sonar with landslide scar areas measured by a consistent GIS procedure. Statistical tests of several different...
Geist, Eric L.; ten Brink, Uri S. Slope failure and mass transport processes along the Queen Charlotte Fault, southeastern Alaska
The Queen Charlotte Fault defines the Pacific–North America transform plate boundary in western Canada and southeastern Alaska for c. 900 km. The entire length of the fault is submerged along a continental margin dominated by Quaternary glacial processes, yet the geomorphology along the margin has never been systematically examined due to the...
Brothers, Daniel; Andrews, Brian D.; Walton, Maureen A. L.; H. Gary Greene; J. Vaughn Barrie; Miller, Nathaniel C.; ten Brink, Uri S.; East, Amy E.; Haeussler, Peter J.; Kluesner, Jared W.; Conrad, James E. Deformation of the Pacific/North America plate boundary at Queen Charlotte Fault: The possible role of rheology
The Pacific/North America (PA/NA) plate boundary between Vancouver Island and Alaska is similar to the PA/NA boundary in California in its kinematic history and the rate and azimuth of current relative motion, yet their deformation styles are distinct. The California plate boundary shows a broad zone of parallel strike slip and thrust faults and...
ten Brink, Uri S.; Miller, Nathaniel C.; Andrews, Brian D.; Brothers, Daniel; Haeussler, Peter J. Geologic evidence for catastrophic marine inundation in 1200–1480 C.E. near the Puerto Rico Trench at Anegada, British Virgin Islands
Extraordinary marine inundation scattered clasts southward on the island of Anegada, 120 km south of the Puerto Rico Trench, sometime between 1200 and 1480 calibrated years (cal yr) CE. Many of these clasts were likely derived from a fringing reef and from the sandy flat that separates the reef from the island’s north shore. The scattered clasts...
Atwater, Brian F.; ten Brink, Uri S.; Cescon, Anna Lisa; Feuillet, Nathalie; Fuentes, Zamara; Halley, Robert B.; Nuñez, Carlos; Reinhardt, Eduard G.; Roger, Jean; Sawai, Yuki; Spiske, Michaela; Tuttle, Martitia P.; Wei, Yong; Weil-Accardo, Jennifer Geologic controls on submarine slope failure along the central U.S. Atlantic margin: Insights from the Currituck Slide Complex
Multiple styles of failure, ranging from densely spaced, mass transport driven canyons to the large, slab-type slope failure of the Currituck Slide, characterize adjacent sections of the central U.S. Atlantic margin that appear to be defined by variations in geologic framework. Here we use regionally extensive, deep penetration multichannel...
Hill, Jenna C.; Brothers, Daniel S.; Craig, Bradley K.; ten Brink, Uri S.; Chaytor, Jason D.; Flores, Claudia Observations of seismicity and ground motion in the northeast U.S. Atlantic margin from ocean bottom seismometer data
Earthquake data from two short-period ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) networks deployed for over a year on the continental slope off New York and southern New England were used to evaluate seismicity and ground motions along the continental margin. Our OBS networks located only one earthquake of Mc∼1.5 near the shelf edge during six months of...
Flores, Claudia; ten Brink, Uri S.; McGuire, Jeffrey J.; Collins, John A. Overview of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission collaborative research program to assess tsunami hazard for nuclear power plants on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts
In response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC) initiated a long-term research program to improve understanding of tsunami hazard levels for nuclear facilities in the United States. For this effort, the US NRC organized a collaborative research program with the United States Geological...
Kammerer, A.M.; ten Brink, Uri S.; Titov, V.V. Coastal topography - Anegada, British Virgin Islands, 2014
These datasets provide lidar-derived topography for Anegada and a portion of the submerged environs. Elevation measurements were acquired on January 21, 2014 by an Optech Orion M300, and on March 19-20, 2014 by the second-generation Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL-B).The authors acknowledge Emily Klipp, Chris Pali, Virgil...
Fredericks, Xan; ten Brink, Uri S.; Atwater, Brian F.; Kranenburg, Christine J.; Nagle, David B. Pockmark asymmetry and seafloor currents in the Santos Basin offshore Brazil
Pockmarks form by gas/fluid expulsion into the ocean and are preserved under conditions of negligible sedimentation. Ideally, they are circular at the seafloor and symmetrical in profile. Elliptical pockmarks are more enigmatic. They are associated with seafloor currents while asymmetry is connected to sedimentation patterns. This study examines...
Schattner, U.; Lazar, M.; Souza, L. A. P.; ten Brink, Uri S.; Mahiques, M. M. Geology and hydrocarbon potential of the Dead Sea Rift Basins of Israel and Jordan
Following its middle Miocene inception, numerous basins of varying lengths and depths developed along the Dead Sea fault zone, a large continental transform plate boundary. The modern day left-lateral fault zone has an accumulated left-lateral offset of 105 to 110 km (65 to 68 mi). The deepest basin along the fault zone, the Lake Lisan or Dead Sea...
Coleman, James; ten Brink, Uri S. Assessment of canyon wall failure process from multibeam bathymetry and Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) observations, U.S. Atlantic continental margin: Chapter 10 in Submarine mass movements and their consequences: 7th international symposium part II
Over the last few years, canyons along the northern U.S. Atlantic continental margin have been the focus of intensive research examining canyon evolution, submarine geohazards, benthic ecology and deep-sea coral habitat. New high-resolution multibeam bathymetry and Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) dives in the major shelf-breaching and minor slope...
Lamarche, Geoffroy; Mountjoy, Joshu; Bull, Suzanne; Hubble, Tom; Krastel, Sebastian; Lane, Emily; Micallef, Aaron; Moscardelli, Lorena; Mueller, Christof; Pecher, Ingo; Woelz, Susanne; Chaytor, Jason D.; Demopoulos, Amanda W.J.; ten Brink, Uri S.; Baxter, Christopher D. P.; Quattrini, Andrea M.; Brothers, Daniel S.Pre-USGS Publications
USGS Scientists Find Seafloor Faults Near Puerto Rico Quakes’ Epicenters
Most residents of southern Puerto Rico were startled by the sequence of earthquakes that began Dec. 28, 2019 and included a magnitude 6.4 quake on Jan. 7, 2020. Aftershocks are expected to continue for years, including some relatively strong ones, like a May 2 magnitude 5.4 temblor.
Imaging Israel’s Dead Sea Fault to Understand How Continents Stretch and Rift
Imaging a fault to learn more about tectonic plate motion and improve understanding of hazards
Most-Cited Award for Marine Geology Special Issue: “Tsunami Hazard along the U.S. Atlantic Coast”
This USGS-led special issue was published in 2009 and was among the journal’s three most-cited special issues in 2016 and 2017.
USGS Scientists Elected as AGU Fellows
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) will honor newly elected fellows at the upcoming 2016 Fall Meeting in San Francisco.