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Publications

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Direct measurement of methane hydrate composition along the hydrate equilibrium boundary

The composition of methane hydrate, namely nw for CH4·nwH2O, was directly measured along the hydrate equilibrium boundary under conditions of excess methane gas. Pressure and temperature conditions ranged from 1.9 to 9.7 MPa and 263 to 285 K. Within experimental error, there is no change in hydrate composition with increasing pressure along the equilibrium boundary, but nw may show a slight system
Authors
S. Circone, Stephen H. Kirby, Laura A. Stern

High-resolution seismic-reflection image of the Chesapeake Bay impact structure, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia

A 1-kilometer-long (0.62-mile-long) seismic reflection and refraction profile collected at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., provides a detailed image of part of the annular trough of the buried, 35-million-year-old Chesapeake Bay impact structure. This profile passes within 5 meters (m; 16.4 feet (ft)) of a 635.1-m-deep (2,083.8-ft-dee
Authors
Rufus D. Catchings, David S. Powars, Gregory Gohn, Mark R. Goldman

InSAR studies of Alaska volcanoes

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is a remote sensing technique capable of measuring ground surface deformation with sub-centimeter precision and spatial resolution in tens-of­meters over a large region. This paper describes basics of InSAR and highlights our studies of Alaskan volcanoes with InSAR images acquired from European ERS-l and ERS-2, Canadian Radarsat-l, and Japanese JERS
Authors
Zhong Lu, Chuck Wicks, Daniel Dzurisin, John A. Power

Wagon loads of sand blows in White County, Illinois

Several anecdotal accounts provide compelling evidence that liquefaction occurred at several sites in Illinois during the 1811-1812 New Madrid sequence, as much as 250 km north of the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ). At one Wabash Valley location, sand blows are still evident near Big Prairie, Illinois, a location described in a particularly detailed and precise historic account. This account inclu
Authors
Susan E. Hough, Roger Bilham, Karl Mueller, William Stephenson, Robert Williams, Jack Odum

Thermal regulation of methane hydrate dissociation: Implications for gas production models

Thermal self-regulation of methane hydrate dissociation at pressure, temperature conditions along phase boundaries, illustrated by experiment in this report, is a significant effect with potential relevance to gas production from gas hydrate. In surroundings maintained at temperatures above the ice melting point, the temperature in the vicinity of dissociating methane hydrate will decrease because
Authors
S. Circone, Stephen H. Kirby, Laura A. Stern

Remotely triggered earthquakes following moderate mainshocks (or, why California is not falling into the ocean)

On several occasions in recent memory California has experienced apparent clusters of earthquake activity that are too far apart to be considered related according to a classic taxonomy that includes foreshocks, mainshocks, and aftershocks. During a week-long period in July 1986, California experienced the M 6.0 North Palm Springs earthquake, the M 5.5 Oceanside earthquake, and a swarm of smaller
Authors
Susan E. Hough

Preliminary report on the 28 September 2004, M 6.0 Parkfield, California earthquake

The Mw 6.0 Parkfield earthquake struck central California at 17:15:14 UTC on 28 September 2004. The epicenter was located 11 km southeast of the rural town of Parkfield, adjacent to Gold Hill and on the San Andreas Fault (Figure 1). The California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) reported that the hypocenter was located at 35.819°N, 120.364°W at a depth of 8.8 km. From the distribution of aftersh
Authors
John Langbein, Roger D. Borcherdt, Douglas Dreger, J. Fletcher, Jeanne L Hardebeck, Margaret Hellweg, C. Ji, Malcolm J. S. Johnston, Jessica R. Murray, Robert Nadeau, Michael J. Rymer, Jerome A. Treiman

Log of Trench 04A across the Hayward Fault at Tyson's Lagoon (Tule Pond), Fremont, Alameda County, California

This publication makes available a detailed trench log (sheets 1 and 2) of a 110-m trench we excavated in 2004 across a tectonic sag pond in the Hayward fault zone. Also included are revised stratigraphic unit descriptions from this fifth field season of subsurface investigation of the Hayward fault at Tyson's Lagoon (Tule Pond). Preliminary findings based on fieldwork done in 2000 have been publi
Authors
James J. Lienkaemper, Patrick L. Williams, Robert R. Sickler, Thomas E. Fumal

Bulk sediment Qp and Qs in the Mississippi embayment, central United States

We have estimated P-wave and S-wave anelastic attenuation coefficients for the thick, unconsolidated sediments of the Mississippi embayment, central United States, using the spectral distance decay of explosion P and Rayleigh waves. The sediment-trapped P wave, Psed, is observed to ranges of 80 km at 10 Hz, and 1-Hz Rayleigh waves are observed out to 130 km from a 5000-lb borehole explosion in the
Authors
C.A. Langston, P. Bodin, C. Powell, M. Withers, S. Horton, Walter D. Mooney

An updated global earthquake catalogue for stable continental regions: Reassessing the correlation with ancient rifts

We present an updated global earthquake catalogue for stable continental regions (SCRs; i.e. intraplate earthquakes) that is available on the Internet. Our database contains information on location, magnitude, seismic moment and focal mechanisms for over 1300 M (moment magnitude) ≥ 4.5 historic and instrumentally recorded crustal events. Using this updated earthquake database in combination with a
Authors
S.M. Schulte, Walter D. Mooney

Geodetic and seismic constraints on some seismogenic zone processes in Costa Rica

New seismic and geodetic data from Costa Rica provide insight into seismogenic zone processes in Central America, where the Cocos and Caribbean plates converge. Seismic data are from combined land and ocean bottom deployments in the Nicoya peninsula in northern Costa Rica and near the Osa peninsula in southern Costa Rica. In Nicoya, inversion of GPS data suggests two locked patches centered at 14
Authors
E. Norabuena, Timothy Dixon, Susan Schwartz, Heather DeShon, Andrew Newman, Marino Protti, Victor Gonzalez, LeRoy Dorman, Ernst Flueh, Paul Lundgren, Fred Pollitz, Dan Sampson