Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Publications

Filter Total Items: 7410

The use of wavenumber normalization in computing spatially averaged coherencies (KRSPAC) of microtremor data from asymmetric arrays

The SPAC method of processing microtremor noise observations for estimation of Vs profiles has a limitation that the array has circular or triangular symmetry in order to allow spatial (azimuthal) averaging of inter-station coherencies over a constant station separation. Common processing methods allow for station separations to vary by typically ±10% in the azimuthal averaging before...
Authors
M.W. Asten, William J. Stephenson, Stephen H. Hartzell

How to build and teach with QuakeCaster: an earthquake demonstration and exploration tool

QuakeCaster is an interactive, hands-on teaching model that simulates earthquakes and their interactions along a plate-boundary fault. QuakeCaster contains the minimum number of physical processes needed to demonstrate most observable earthquake features. A winch to steadily reel in a line simulates the steady plate tectonic motions far from the plate boundaries. A granite slider in...
Authors
Kelsey Linton, Ross S. Stein

Asteroid photometry

Asteroid photometry has three major applications: providing clues about asteroid surface physical properties and compositions, facilitating photometric corrections, and helping design and plan ground-based and spacecraft observations. The most significant advances in asteroid photometry in the past decade were driven by spacecraft observations that collected spatially resolved imaging...
Authors
Jian-Yang Li, Paul Helfenstein, Bonnie J. Buratti, Driss Takir, Beth Ellen Clark

Crowdsourced earthquake early warning

Earthquake early warning (EEW) can reduce harm to people and infrastructure from earthquakes and tsunamis, but it has not been implemented in most high earthquake-risk regions because of prohibitive cost. Common consumer devices such as smartphones contain low-cost versions of the sensors used in EEW. Although less accurate than scientific-grade instruments, these sensors are globally...
Authors
Sarah E. Minson, Benjamin A. Brooks, Craig L. Glennie, Jessica R. Murray, John O. Langbein, Susan E. Owen, Thomas H. Heaton, Robert A. Iannucci, Darren L. Hauser

Paleoseismic evidence for late Holocene tectonic deformation along the Saddle mountain fault zone, Southeastern Olympic Peninsula, Washington

Trench and wetland coring studies show that northeast‐striking strands of the Saddle Mountain fault zone ruptured the ground about 1000 years ago, generating prominent scarps. Three conspicuous subparallel fault scarps can be traced for 15 km on Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) imagery, traversing the foothills of the southeast Olympic Mountains: the Saddle Mountain east fault, the...
Authors
Elizabeth Barnett, Brian Sherrod, Jonathan F. Hughes, Harvey M. Kelsey, Jessica L. Czajkowski, Timothy J. Walsh, Trevor A. Contreras, Elizabeth R. Schermer, Robert J. Carson

Collapse risk of buildings in the Pacific Northwest region due to subduction earthquakes

Subduction earthquakes similar to the 2011 Japan and 2010 Chile events will occur in the future in the Cascadia subduction zone in the Pacific Northwest. In this paper, nonlinear dynamic analyses are carried out on 24 buildings designed according to outdated and modern building codes for the cities of Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The results indicate that the median...
Authors
Meera Raghunandan, Abbie B. Liel, Nico Luco

Modifications to risk-targeted seismic design maps for subduction and near-fault hazards

ASCE 7-10 introduced new seismic design maps that define risk-targeted ground motions such that buildings designed according to these maps will have 1% chance of collapse in 50 years. These maps were developed by iterative risk calculation, wherein a generic building collapse fragility curve is convolved with the U.S. Geological Survey hazard curve until target risk criteria are met...
Authors
Abbie B. Liel, Nico Luco, Meera Raghunandan, C. Champion

High‐resolution trench photomosaics from image‐based modeling: Workflow and error analysis

Photomosaics are commonly used to construct maps of paleoseismic trench exposures, but the conventional process of manually using image‐editing software is time consuming and produces undesirable artifacts and distortions. Herein, we document and evaluate the application of image‐based modeling (IBM) for creating photomosaics and 3D models of paleoseismic trench exposures, illustrated...
Authors
Nadine G. Reitman, Scott E.K. Bennett, Ryan D. Gold, Richard W. Briggs, Christopher DuRoss

Context of ancient aqueous environments on Mars from in situ geologic mapping at Endeavour Crater

Using the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, we have compiled one of the first field geologic maps on Mars while traversing the Noachian terrain along the rim of the 22 km diameter Endeavour Crater (Latitude −2°16′33″, Longitude −5°10′51″). In situ mapping of the petrographic, elemental, structural, and stratigraphic characteristics of outcrops and rocks distinguishes four mappable...
Authors
L.S. Crumpler, R. E. Arvidson, J. Bell, B.C. Clark, B. A. Cohen, W. H. Farrand, Ralf Gellert, M. Golombek, J. A. Grant, E. Guinness, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, J. R. Johnson, B. Jolliff, D. W. Ming, D. W. Mittlefehldt, T. Parker, J. W. Rice, S. W. Squyres, R. Sullivan, A. S. Yen

Validation of the SCEC broadband platform V14.3 simulation methods using pseudo spectral acceleration data

This paper summarizes the evaluation of ground motion simulation methods implemented on the SCEC Broadband Platform (BBP), version 14.3 (as of March 2014). A seven-member panel, the authorship of this article, was formed to evaluate those methods for the prediction of pseudo-­‐spectral accelerations (PSAs) of ground motion. The panel’s mandate was to evaluate the methods using tools...
Authors
Douglas S. Dreger, Gregory C. Beroza, Steven M. Day, Christine A. Goulet, Thomas H Jordan, Paul A. Spudich, Jonathan P. Stewart

Introduction: Hazard mapping

Twenty papers were accepted into the session on landslide hazard mapping for oral presentation. The papers presented susceptibility and hazard analysis based on approaches ranging from field-based assessments to statistically based models to assessments that combined hydromechanical and probabilistic components. Many of the studies have taken advantage of increasing availability of...
Authors
Rex L. Baum, Toyohiko Miyagi, Saro Lee, Oleksandr M Trofymchuk

Micro-seismicity and seismic moment release within the Coso Geothermal Field, California

We relocate 16 years of seismicity in the Coso Geothermal Field (CGF) using differential travel times and simultaneously invert for seismic velocities to improve our knowledge of the subsurface geologic and hydrologic structure. We expand on our previous results by doubling the number of relocated events from April 1996 through May 2012 using a new field-wide 3-D velocity model...
Authors
J. Ole Kaven, Stephen H. Hickman, Nicholas C. Davatzes
Was this page helpful?