Publications
Filter Total Items: 2585
Three-month performance evaluation of the Nanometrics, Inc., Libra Satellite Seismograph System in the northern California Seismic Network
In 1999 the Northern California Seismic Network (NCSN) purchased a Libra satellite seismograph system from Nanometrics, Inc to assess whether this technology was a cost-effective and robust replacement for their analog microwave system. The system was purchased subject to it meeting the requirements, criteria and tests described in Appendix A. In early 2000, Nanometrics began delivery of various c
Authors
David H. Oppenheimer
Towards policy relevant environmental modeling: contextual validity and pragmatic models
"What makes for a good model?" In various forms, this question is a question that, undoubtedly, many people, businesses, and institutions ponder with regards to their particular domain of modeling. One particular domain that is wrestling with this question is the multidisciplinary field of environmental modeling. Examples of environmental models range from models of contaminated ground water flow
Authors
Scott B. Miles
Quantifying precambrian crustal extraction: The root is the answer
We use two different methods to estimate the total amount of continental crust that was extracted by the end of the Archean and the Proterozoic. The first method uses the sum of the seismic thickness of the crust, the eroded thickness of the crust, and the trapped melt within the lithospheric root to estimate the total crustal volume. This summation method yields an average equivalent thickness of
Authors
D. Abbott, D. Sparks, C. Herzberg, Walter D. Mooney, A. Nikishin, Y.-S. Zhang
A crustal model of the ultrahigh-pressure Dabie Shan orogenic belt, China, derived from deep seismic refraction profiling
We present a new crustal cross section through the east-west trending ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) Dabie Shan orogenic belt, east central China, based on a 400-km-long seismic refraction profile. Data from our profile reveal that the cratonal blocks north and south of the orogen are composed of 35-km-thick crust consisting of three layers (upper, middle, and lower crust) with average seismic velocitie
Authors
Chun-Yong Wang, Rong-Sheng Zeng, Walter D. Mooney, B. R. Hacker
Timing of paleoearthquakes on the northern Hayward Fault: Preliminary evidence in El Cerrito, California
The Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities estimated that the northern Hayward fault had the highest probability (0.28) of producing a M7 Bay Area earthquake in 30 years (WGCEP, 1990). This probability was based, in part, on the assumption that the last large earthquake occurred on this segment in 1836. However, a recent study of historical documents concludes that the 1836 earthquak
Authors
J. J. Lienkaemper, D. P. Schwartz, K. I. Kelson, W. R. Lettis, Gary D. Simpson, J. R. Southon, J. A. Wanket, P. L. Williams
Wide-angle seismic recordings from the 1998 Seismic Hazards Investigation of Puget Sound (SHIPS), western Washington and British Columbia
This report describes the acquisition and processing of deep-crustal wide-angle seismic reflection and refraction data obtained in the vicinity of Puget Lowland, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Georgia Strait, western Washington and southwestern British Columbia, in March 1998 during the Seismic Hazards Investigation of Puget Sound (SHIPS). As part of a larger initiative to better understand later
Authors
Thomas M. Brocher, Tom Parsons, Ken C. Creager, Robert S. Crosson, Neill P. Symons, George D. Spence, Barry C. Zelt, Philip T.C. Hammer, Roy D. Hyndman, David C. Mosher, Anne M. Tréhu, Kate C. Miller, Uri S. ten Brink, Michael A. Fisher, Thomas L. Pratt, Marcos G. Alvarez, Bruce C. Beaudoin, Keith E. Louden, Craig S. Weaver
Turbidite pathways in Cascadia Basin and Tufts abyssal plain, Part A, Astoria Channel, Blanco Valley, and Gorda Basin
This open-file report was prepared in support of the USGS Earthquake Hazards of Cascadia Project. The primary objective of this phase of the project is to determine recurrence intervals of turbidites in Cascadia basin-floor channel systems and evaluate implications of this event record for the paleoseismic history of the Cascadia subduction zone. The purpose of this study is to determine whether t
Authors
Stephen C. Wolf, Michael R. Hamer
Data report for seismic refraction surveys conducted from 1980 to 1982 in the Livermore Valley and the Santa Cruz Mountains, California
We provide documentation for two seismic refraction profiles acquired by the U.S. Geological Survey in the San Francisco Bay area between 1980 and 1982 in Livermore Valley and the Santa Cruz Mountains. We also include the waveforms and travel times from five aftershocks of the April 1980 Livermore earthquake that were recorded on temporary seismic stations and that have not been published. Althoug
Authors
Angela J. Williams, Thomas M. Brocher, Walter D. Mooney, Annette Boken
HYPOELLIPSE; a computer program for determining local earthquake hypocentral parameters, magnitude, and first-motion pattern
This report provides Fortran source code and program manuals for HYPOELLIPSE, a computer program for determining hypocenters and magnitudes of near regional earthquakes and the ellipsoids that enclose the 68-percent confidence volumes of the computed hypocenters. HYPOELLIPSE was developed to meet the needs of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists studying crustal and sub-crustal earthquakes rec
Authors
John C. Lahr
New strategy needed in earthquake, volcano monitoring
Recent advances in space geodesy provide unprecedented opportunities for measuring and understanding processes related to earthquake occurrence and volcanic eruptions in the United States and elsewhere. The Global Positioning System (GPS) uses Earth-orbiting satellites to obtain relative movements of ground points accurate to a few millimeters, either through periodically repeated surveys or by co
Authors
Wayne R. Thatcher
Late Cenozoic stratigraphy and tephrochronology of the western Black Mountains piedmont, Death Valley, California: Implications for the tectonic development of Death Valley
Geologic mapping combined with the tephrochronology of spatially isolated sedimentary sections along the western Black Mountains piedmont adjacent the Death Valley fault zone (DVFZ) improves the late Cenozoic stratigraphy from relative age to correlated age. Pliocene tephra layers identified in Funeral Formation conglomerates at Artist Drive and Copper Canyon include a “Nomlaki-like” tephra bed (c
Authors
Jeffrey R. Knott, Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki, C.E. Meyer, John Tinsley, S. G. Wells, Elmira Wan
Yucca Mountain as a Radioactive-Waste Repository
Yucca Mountain straddles the west boundary
of the Nevada Test Site in an arid, remote, and
thinly populated region of southwestern Nevada.
It is the potential site of a monitored geologic repository
for the Nation’s commercial and military
spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste
derived from reprocessing of uranium and plutonium,
surplus plutonium, and other nuclear-weapons
materials. (Co
Authors
Thomas C. Hanks, Isaac J. Winograd, R. Ernest Anderson, Thomas E. Reilly, Edwin P. Weeks