Publications

Significant progress has been made over the past five decades in determining the geophysical framework of the continental United States. Highlights include detailed maps of gravity and aeromagnetic anomalies, heat flow, crustal thickness, seismicity, state of stress, and paleomagnetic pole positions. Important tectonic insights have come from earthquake studies, and from knowledge of lithospheric

The Pacific Coastal States form a complex geologic environment in which the crust and lithosphere have been continuously reworked. We divide the region tectonically into the southern transform regime of the San Andreas fault and the northern subduction regime, and summarize the geophysical framework with contour maps of crustal thickness, lithospheric and seismicity cross sections, and results fro

The seismologic methods most commonly used in studies of earthquakes and the structure of the continental lithosphere are reviewed in three main sections: earthquake source parameter determinations, the determination of earth structure using natural sources, and controlled-source seismology. The emphasis in each section is on a description of data, the principles behind the analysis techniques, an

No abstract available.

The frictional strength of ice seems to be well below that for all other rocks. Triaxial testing of cylinders of pure water ice containing a 45° inclined sawcut, at temperatures of 77 ≤ T ≤ 115 K and confining pressures 0.1 ≤ P ≤ 250 MPa, reveals the frictional laws τ = 0.20 σn + 8.3 MPa for P ≥ 10 MPa and τ = 0.55 σn + 1.0 MPa for P ≤ 5 MPa, where τ and σn are the shear and normal stresses on the

During 1980 and 1981, the U.S. Geological Survey collected seismic refraction data in the western Mojave Desert (fig. 1). The seismic refraction data extends from north of the Garlock Fault, south through the Mojave Desert, and across the San Andreas Fault into the San Gabriel Mountains. This report describes and documents the recorded data, which was collected over three field sessions. In total

Crustal velocity sections based on two seismic-refraction profiles are presented for the area west of Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada. The Crater Flat profile is interpreted in terms of six velocity layers ranging from 1.5 to 6.1 km/s. Interpretation of the Beatty profile reveals an escarpment near the northeast edge of Bare Mountain, where Paleozoic rocks are probably down-faulted 2600 m into

No abstract available.

No abstract available. 

A 180-km-long seismic refraction transect from the eastern High Cascades, across Newberry Volcano, to the eastern High Lava Plains is used to investigate the subvolcanic crustal and upper mantle velocity structure there. Near-surface volcanic flows and sedimentary debris (1.6-4.7 km/s), ranging from 3 to 5 km in thickness, overlie subvolcanic Basin and Range structures. East and west of Newberry V

Slip distribution at depth on a fault may be inferred from the deformation observed on the surface. In inverting the surface deformation data to obtain the slip distribution, the Earth is generally approximated by an elastic half‐space. Slip distributions inferred from a half‐space model may contain artifacts, including zones of reversed slip, due solely to effects of layering in the real Earth. T

More seismological studies of the continental crust and sub‐crustal lithosphere of the United States have been completed in the past four years than at any other similar period, and a continued growth in activity is likely to continue for years to come. Several trends account for this phenomenon. First, the interest in seismic reflection studies generated initially by COCORP results in this countr