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Earthquake Science Center

The Earthquake Science Center has been the flagship research center of the USGS in the western United States for more than 50 years. It is the largest USGS research center in the West and houses extensive laboratories, scientific infrastructure, and research facilities.

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Earthquake Science Center Seminars

USGS logo and EQ Seminar Series

Seminars typically take place at 10:30 AM Wednesdays in the Rambo Auditorium (main USGS Conference Room). The USGS Campus is located at 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA.

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Earthquake Science Center Campus Video

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This short, 7-minute video gives an overview of the USGS Earthquake Science Center in Menlo Park, California. It briefly introduces you to the San Francisco Bay Area, shows the campus and facilities, and includes interviews with scientists.

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Handbooks to Help You Prepare for an Earthquake

Cartoon sketch of house on grassy hill

USGS handbooks that describe the threat posed by earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay region and explain how you can prepare for, survive, and recover from these inevitable events.

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News

Ozette Lake: A natural seismograph along the northern Cascadia Subduction Zone (Video)

Ozette Lake: A natural seismograph along the northern Cascadia Subduction Zone (Video)

Earthquake swarms in California: What’s the difference between magmatic and tectonic? 

Earthquake swarms in California: What’s the difference between magmatic and tectonic? 

Even small lakes can tell big earthquake stories in the Yellowstone region

Even small lakes can tell big earthquake stories in the Yellowstone region

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Publications

Compact seismicity bursts have different characteristics from regional seismicity Compact seismicity bursts have different characteristics from regional seismicity

Earthquakes tend to cluster, developing into sequences driven by stress perturbations and transient fault-zone processes. Depending on the driving process, earthquake sequences show differing behaviors. This variability challenges our ability to observe or distinguish these driving processes in high resolution. Here we systematically identify seismicity bursts throughout southern...
Authors
Nicolas DeSalvio, Wenyuan Fan, Andrew J. Barbour, Jeanne L. Hardebeck
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Earthquake Hazards Program, Earthquake Science Center

Constraining source and path effects of large magnitude earthquakes using ground motion simulations Constraining source and path effects of large magnitude earthquakes using ground motion simulations

The purpose of this study is to use ground‐motion simulations to investigate ways in which source and path effects for large‐magnitude earthquakes can be represented in nonergodic ground‐motion models (GMMs). To achieve this, we designed a ground‐motion study in the San Francisco Bay Area that includes earthquakes with a broad range of magnitudes distributed uniformly on a fault plane...
Authors
Xiaofeng Meng, Robert Graves, Christine A Goulet
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Earthquake Hazards Program, Earthquake Science Center

Final Report for SCEC Award #25347 - A dynamic rupture workshop to improve our understanding of fault friction Final Report for SCEC Award #25347 - A dynamic rupture workshop to improve our understanding of fault friction

No abstract available.
Authors
Ruth A. Harris, Michael Barall
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Earthquake Hazards Program, Earthquake Science Center
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