Publications
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Seismic monitoring during crises at the NEIC in support of the ANSS
Over the past two decades, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) has overcome many operational challenges. These range from minor disruptions, such as power outages, to significant operational changes, including system reconfiguration to handle unique earthquake sequences and the need to handle distributed work during a pandemic. Our ability to overcome cr
Authors
Paul S. Earle, Harley M. Benz, William L. Yeck, Gavin P. Hayes, Michelle Guy, John Patton, David Kragness, David B. Mason, Brian Shiro, Emily Wolin, John Bellini, Jana Pursley, Robert Lorne Sanders
Seismic and geodetic analysis of rupture characteristics of the 2020 Mw 6.5 Monte Cristo Range, Nevada, earthquake
The largest earthquake since 1954 to strike the state of Nevada, United States, ruptured on 15 May 2020 along the Monte Cristo range of west‐central Nevada. The Mw 6.5 event involved predominantly left‐lateral strike‐slip faulting with minor normal components on three aligned east–west‐trending faults that vary in strike by 23°. The kinematic rupture process is determined by joint inversion of Glo
Authors
Chengli Liu, Thorne Lay, Fred Pollitz, Jiao Xu, Xiong Xiong
NGA-East Ground-Motion Characterization model part I: Summary of products and model development
In this article, we present an overview of the research project NGA-East, Next Generation Attenuation for Central and Eastern North America (CENA), and summarize the key methodology and products. The project was tasked with developing a new ground motion characterization (GMC) model for CENA. The final NGA-East GMC model includes a set of 17 median ground motion models (GMMs) for peak ground accel
Authors
Christine A. Goulet, Yousef Bozorgnia, Nicolas Kuehn, Linda Al Atik, Robert Youngs, Robert Graves, Gail M. Atkinson
Selection of random vibration theory procedures for the NGA-East project and ground-motion modeling
Traditional ground-motion models (GMMs) are used to compute pseudo-spectral acceleration (PSA) from future earthquakes and are generally developed by regression of PSA using a physics-based functional form. PSA is a relatively simple metric that correlates well with the response of several engineering systems and is a metric commonly used in engineering evaluations; however, characteristics of the
Authors
Albert R. Kottke, Norman A. Abrahamson, David Boore, Yousef Bozorgina, Christine A. Goulet, Justin Hollenback, Tadahiro Kishida, Olga-Joan Ktenidou, Ellen Rathje, Walt Silva, Eric M. Thompson, Xiaoyue Wang
Brine-driven destruction of clay minerals in Gale crater, Mars
Mars’ sedimentary rock record preserves information on geological (and potential astrobiological) processes that occurred on the planet billions of years ago. The Curiosity rover is exploring the lower reaches of Mount Sharp, in Gale crater on Mars. A traverse from Vera Rubin ridge to Glen Torridon has allowed Curiosity to examine a lateral transect of rock strata laid down in a martian lake ~3.5
Authors
T. F. Bristow, John P. Grotzinger, E. Rampe, J. Cuadros, S. J. Chipera, G. Downs, Christopher M. Fedo, Jens Frydenvang, A. C. McAdam, R. V. Morris, C. N. Achilles, D. F. Blake, N. Castle, P. Craig, D. J. Des Marais, R. T. Downs, R. M. Hazen, D. W. Ming, S. M. Morrison, M. T. Thorpe, A. H. Treiman, V. Tu, D. T. Vaniman, A. S. Yen, R. Gellert, P. R. Mahaffy, Roger C. Wiens, A. B. Bryk, Kristen A. Bennett, V. K. Fox, R. E. Milliken, Abigail A. Fraeman, A. R. Vasavada
Preliminary assessment of the wave generating potential from landslides at Barry Arm, Prince William Sound, Alaska
We simulated the concurrent rapid motion of landslides on an unstable slope at Barry Arm, Alaska. Movement of landslides into the adjacent fjord displaced fjord water and generated a tsunami, which propagated out of Barry Arm. Rather than assuming an initial sea surface height, velocity, and location for the tsunami, we generated the tsunami directly using a model capable of simulating the dynamic
Authors
Katherine R. Barnhart, Ryan P. Jones, David L. George, Jeffrey A. Coe, Dennis M. Staley
Wastewater disposal has not significantly altered the regional stress state in southern Kansas
Wastewater disposal is primarily responsible for the increased seismicity rate since ~2013 in southern Kansas. Previous work that used shear wave splitting (SWS) in southern Kansas interpreted a ~90º temporal rotation in the fast polarization direction and attributed it to increased pore pressures resulting from fluid injection. However, this interpreted rotation coincided with a change in the sta
Authors
Robert Skoumal, Elizabeth S. Cochran
Twenty-first-century projections of shoreline change along inlet-interrupted coastlines
Sandy coastlines adjacent to tidal inlets are highly dynamic and widespread landforms, where large changes are expected due to climatic and anthropogenic influences. To adequately assess these important changes, both oceanic (e.g., sea-level rise) and terrestrial (e.g., fluvial sediment supply) processes that govern the local sediment budget must be considered. Here, we present novel projections o
Authors
Janaka Bamunawala, Roshanka Ranasinghe, Ali Dastgheib, Robert .J. Nichols, A. Brad Murray, Patrick L. Barnard, T. A. J. G. Sirisena, Trang Minh Duong, Suzanne J. M. H. Hulscher, Ad van der Spek
Coastal Tree-Ring Records for Paleoclimate and Paleoenvironmental Applications in North America
For more than a century, tree-ring research has identified relationships between climatic and ecological conditions and tree growth to describe past environments and constrain future ecosystem vulnerabilities. Tree-ring records are frequently used as environmental proxies that extend knowledge of past climate and ecology on millennial scales. Many of the most pressing global change questions facin
Authors
Clay Tucker, Jessie K. Pearl
Evaluating spectral ratio methods for characterizing fundamental resonance peaks on flat sediments: An example from the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Eastern United States
Damaging ground motions from the 2011 Mw 5.8 Virginia earthquake were likely increased due to site amplification from the unconsolidated sediments of the Atlantic Coastal Plain (ACP), highlighting the need to understand site response on these widespread strata along the coastal regions of the eastern United States. The horizontal‐to‐vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) method, using either earthquake si
Authors
Lisa Sue Schleicher, Thomas L. Pratt
Active Mars: A dynamic world
Mars exhibits diverse surface changes at all latitudes and all seasons. Active processes include impact cratering, aeolian sand and dust transport, a variety of slope processes, changes in polar ices, and diverse effects of seasonal CO2 frost. The extent of surface change has been surprising and indicates that the present climate is capable of reshaping the surface. Activity has important implicat
Authors
Colin M. Dundas, Patricio Becerra, Shane Byrne, Matthew Chojnacki, Ingrid J. Daubar, Serina Diniega, Candice J. Hansen, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, Margaret E. Landis, Alfred S. McEwen, Ganna Portyankina, Adomas Valantinas
Earthquake source mechanisms and stress field variations associated with wastewater-induced seismicity in southern Kansas, USA
The strong increase of seismicity rates in the contiguous USA over the last 10 years is linked to the injection of huge amounts of wastewater from oil and gas production in unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. We calculated 549 moment tensors of induced earthquakes (MW ≤ 4.9) in southern Kansas to study their source mechanisms and their relation to injection activity. Seventeen percent of the ev
Authors
Amandine Amemotou, Patricia Martinez-Garzon, Grzegorz Kwiatek, Justin Rubinstein, Marco Bohnhoff