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Analysis of induced seismicity in geothermal reservoirs – An overview

In this overview we report results of analysing induced seismicity in geothermal reservoirs in various tectonic settings within the framework of the European Geothermal Engineering Integrating Mitigation of Induced Seismicity in Reservoirs (GEISER) project. In the reconnaissance phase of a field, the subsurface fault mapping, in situ stress and the seismic network are of primary interest in order
Authors
Arno Zang, Volker Oye, Philippe Jousset, Nicholas Deichmann, Roland Gritto, Arthur F. McGarr, Ernest Majer, David Bruhn

Relationship between the Cascadia fore-arc mantle wedge, nonvolcanic tremor, and the downdip limit of seismogenic rupture

Great earthquakes anticipated on the Cascadia subduction fault can potentially rupture beyond the geodetically and thermally inferred locked zone to the depths of episodic tremor and slip (ETS) or to the even deeper fore-arc mantle corner (FMC). To evaluate these extreme rupture limits, we map the FMC from southern Vancouver Island to central Oregon by combining published seismic velocity structur
Authors
Patricia A. McCrory, Roy D. Hyndman, J. Luke Blair

Rethinking turbidite paleoseismology along the Cascadia subduction zone

A stratigraphic synthesis of dozens of deep-sea cores, most of them overlooked in recent decades, provides new insights into deep-sea turbidites as guides to earthquake and tsunami hazards along the Cascadia subduction zone, which extends 1100 km along the Pacific coast of North America. The synthesis shows greater variability in Holocene stratigraphy and facies off the Washington coast than was r
Authors
Brian F. Atwater, Bobb Carson, Gary B. Griggs, H. Paul Johnson, Marie Salmi

Strong ground motions generated by earthquakes on creeping faults

A tenet of earthquake science is that faults are locked in position until they abruptly slip during the sudden strain-relieving events that are earthquakes. Whereas it is expected that locked faults when they finally do slip will produce noticeable ground shaking, what is uncertain is how the ground shakes during earthquakes on creeping faults. Creeping faults are rare throughout much of the Earth
Authors
Ruth A. Harris, Norman A. Abrahamson

The UCERF3 grand inversion: Solving for the long‐term rate of ruptures in a fault system

We present implementation details, testing, and results from a new inversion‐based methodology, known colloquially as the “grand inversion,” developed for the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF3). We employ a parallel simulated annealing algorithm to solve for the long‐term rate of all ruptures that extend through the seismogenic thickness on major mapped faults in California wh
Authors
Morgan T. Page, Edward H. Field, Kevin Milner, Peter M. Powers

Post-earthquake relaxation using a spectral element method: 2.5-D case

The computation of quasi-static deformation for axisymmetric viscoelastic structures on a gravitating spherical earth is addressed using the spectral element method (SEM). A 2-D spectral element domain is defined with respect to spherical coordinates of radius and angular distance from a pole of symmetry, and 3-D viscoelastic structure is assumed to be azimuthally symmetric with respect to this po
Authors
Fred Pollitz

Technical implementation plan for the ShakeAlert production system: an Earthquake Early Warning system for the West Coast of the United States

Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) systems can provide as much as tens of seconds of warning to people and automated systems before strong shaking arrives. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and its partners are developing such an EEW system, called ShakeAlert, for the West Coast of the United States. This document describes the technical implementation of that system, which leverages existing
Authors
Douglas D. Given, Elizabeth S. Cochran, Thomas Heaton, Egill Hauksson, Richard Allen, Peggy Hellweg, John Vidale, Paul Bodin

Modeling the effects of source and path heterogeneity on ground motions of great earthquakes on the Cascadia Subduction Zone Using 3D simulations

We ran finite‐difference earthquake simulations for great subduction zone earthquakes in Cascadia to model the effects of source and path heterogeneity for the purpose of improving strong‐motion predictions. We developed a rupture model for large subduction zone earthquakes based on a k−2 slip spectrum and scale‐dependent rise times by representing the slip distribution as the sum of normal modes
Authors
Andrew Delorey, Arthur Frankel, Pengcheng Liu, William J. Stephenson

1964 Great Alaska Earthquake: a photographic tour of Anchorage, Alaska

On March 27, 1964, at 5:36 p.m., a magnitude 9.2 earthquake, the largest recorded earthquake in U.S. history, struck southcentral Alaska (fig. 1). The Great Alaska Earthquake (also known as the Good Friday Earthquake) occurred at a pivotal time in the history of earth science, and helped lead to the acceptance of plate tectonic theory (Cox, 1973; Brocher and others, 2014). All large subduction zon
Authors
Evan E. Thoms, Peter J. Haeussler, Rebecca Anderson, Robert G. McGimsey

Evolution of wear and friction along experimental faults

We investigate the evolution of wear and friction along experimental faults composed of solid rock blocks. This evolution is analyzed through shear experiments along five rock types, and the experiments were conducted in a rotary apparatus at slip velocities of 0.002–0.97 m/s, slip distances from a few millimeters to tens of meters, and normal stress of 0.25–6.9 MPa. The wear and friction measurem
Authors
Yeval Boneh, Jefferson C. Chang, David A. Lockner, Zeev Reches

Real-time inversions for finite fault slip models and rupture geometry based on high-rate GPS data

We present an inversion strategy capable of using real-time high-rate GPS data to simultaneously solve for a distributed slip model and fault geometry in real time as a rupture unfolds. We employ Bayesian inference to find the optimal fault geometry and the distribution of possible slip models for that geometry using a simple analytical solution. By adopting an analytical Bayesian approach, we can
Authors
Sarah E. Minson, Jessica R. Murray, John O. Langbein, Joan S. Gomberg